Book Review: Cadaverous by Jay Bower
Title: Cadaverous
Author: Jay Bower
Release date: April 25, 2023
When this one was announced, I was stoked. I’m a huge fan of heavy metal, demons and that age-old-classic tale of selling one’s soul to become famous. It’s a tale that seems to really play out more in the music world than other areas – it’s not often you see a story where a law student sells his soul to become the world’s greatest public defender – but it also works so well because every single person in the world understands that to become a huge and famous musician you need skill, determination and luck. And all at the exact same time.
I’ve not read any Bower prior to this, though I do have a number of his books on my Kindle, but with this one, I knew I needed to bump it way up the TBR line and get to it as soon as I could.
What I liked: We’re initially introduced to the story as an examination of events that occurred, based on the blog postings of our main character. From there, each chapter represents a blog post, where Gaige Penrod, lead singer of Cadaverous (THE WORLD’S MOST DANGEROUS BAND!), recalls the rise and brutal fall of their band.
Bower does a great job of setting the scene, one that’s typical and relatable. Small town USA. A group of misfit high school friends jam together at Gaige’s. When a huge metal show comes, they all go, seeing their heroes perform live. But when Ozzy Osbourne takes the stage, Gaige sees something nobody else does and from there, the story takes off. Making a deal with the entity he saw, with the aid of his new girlfriend, Lisa, Gaige instantly transforms into the best guitar player and is able to see the music in his head without having to learn it.
But in order for the band to rise, blood must be shed, and it’s at their first few concerts where they create a name for themselves, as audience members brutally die and nobody knows how or why its happening.
We get a really great mix of teenage angst, of Gaige struggling with how far he’d go to leave the town behind, leave his deadbeat, abusive father in the rearview mirror and get rid of his bullies once and for all. As the story rolls along, Bower makes sure to up the extreme levels of carnage and works really well to mimic or feel like you’re reading a song. You get to that moment, that crescendo when you know the breakdown is about to hit and when it does, the reader is pummeled with an action packed finale.
What I didn’t like: I understand the aspect of the blog posts, but it reads more like chapters of a book than an attempt at epistolary storytelling, which worked really well for me, but if you go in thinking this is more straightforward epistolary you’ll be mistaken.
The afterword felt off. Throughout there was no comments or observations by the researcher, so when they returned at the end, I only then remembered that it had started like that.
Lastly, I personally didn’t enjoy that another band member was randomly involved in the demonic aspect. It didn’t detract from the story, but it did make a few prior events feel odd, considering they knew about the demon beforehand.
Why you should buy this: If you like heavy metal, blood, demons and brutality, this one will be right up your alley. If you’re looking for a very solid “Behind the Music” type horror novel, this one fits that bill perfectly. The pacing was spot on and the characters were a blast and of course, the demonic entity was fantastic.
Really dug this one.
4/5
