My Five Word TL:DR Review: Punk Rock, Horror and Blood

I enjoyed My Ex, it was very easy to read and I particularly liked the story telling format which comes across like a series of interviews for a documentary where the band members are recalling incidents from the past.

As the story begins we meet Lily and Drake.  Lily has had a strict upbringing but longs to break free so when she meets a handsome and charismatic young man called Drake she follows him willingly with thoughts of fame and recognition.  The two of them are about to set up a band – The Shivers – and make music history together.  Along the way, they gather other band members and with Drake’s vision and Lily’s beauty they seem to hold everyone in their sway.  As the band begins to find their feet and secure some gigs all hell seems to break loose, Drake’s playing seems to drive people into a frenzy, an almost hypnotised trance state where all their inhibitions fall away.

Now, there’s much more to the story than that, there’s a little bit of religion (not preachy but necessary given that the antichrist is making an appearance), a lot of rock and roll, the apocalypse looms on the horizon, and the rest of the band have no idea what they’re unleashing – until their eyes are opened in the most dramatic fashion.

What I really liked about this.

Obviously the writing is great and I love the format.  DiLouie makes an excellent job of keeping everyone’s voice different and really bringing the band to life.  It’s easy to get on board with the characters, I found myself liking them and in particular Lily.  Even Drake, who, let’s be honest, you know is about to destroy the world, he doesn’t come across as evil – more, he has a vision and is following his destiny – and he really wants Lily to be at his side (although she’s not quite as happy with the whole ‘end of the world’ scenario).

This is such a unique story that it really hooked me and wound me in quite effortlessly. I thought at first that I might struggle a bit with all the ‘rock and roll’ elements but I really didn’t, everything fed into the story so well and all the threads came together in a very satisfactory way and more than that everything felt very tongue in cheek – even when the odds are ratcheted up and the body parts begin to fly it all feels so wildly campy.

And, I love the fact that the whole book is building up to a grand finale – a rock and roll competition known as Armageddon – where Drake is literally going to send the crowd into a frenzy.

This is such an unusual story, I felt a little unsure going in and I will say that the early chapters took a little getting used to as quite a few people are introduced in short order, but, this book won me over no problem.  Very entertaining.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks, the above is my own opinion.

My rating 4 of 5 stars