This is a visually stunning book from the endpapers to the chapter headers to the full illustrations, and I’m so fortunate to hold something like this in my hands!

Picture this: Daisy Jones and the Six got tangled up with Hellraiser and had a baby. This baby would look an awful lot like Brom’s latest book, Evil in Me, only with a little more punk and a lot less sensuality. We follow twenty-something Ruby Tucker as she tries to get her life “together” following a run-in with the law. She’s dedicated herself to community service and helping others to escape the hellscape that is her home thanks to her somewhat absent mother, a pervy step-brother, and an asshole-ish stepdad. It’s during this time helping others that Ruby stumbles across a ring, an artifact that signals the beginning of a siren song for the Devil that just won’t let up. Sucked into this world of damnation and salvation, Ruby is thrust into a landscape of ancient magic, demons, and spells. Her one shot at an exorcism comes in the form of a song, one she needs thousands to sing with her soul quite literally on the line.

The intersection of rock’n’roll in its various forms with horror is something that’s been rather enjoyable as seen in Scott Leeds’ Schrader’s Chord to Grady Hendrix’s We Sold Our Souls to Keith Rosson’s Fever House duology. There’s something about the loud, unabashed cacophony of rock that speaks to horror, some kind of exorcism made possible through a group of people loving the same thing all at once. Brom leans heavily on this idea to craft Evil in Me, showcasing the limitless magic of communal veneration through song. It’s quite literally the way that Ruby sees a way out of this unwanted possession and something that makes a lot of sense in the world Brom creates.

This is also where the first half of Evil in Me really shines, in the details of the magic and lore that explain this possession. Of course, this tracks for Brom given his stunning illustrations; it is here that were are introduced (both through written word and picture) to the cast of demons and creatures that make this novel function. Brom’s use of Jewish mythology and faith to forge a background for these characters felt fresh, a unique foundation to Ruby’s story that sets the tempo for the rest of this wild, fun, and somewhat chaotic setlist.

For the most part, Evil in Me is functional mayhem that is undoubtedly entertaining. These characters, *ahem* Vutto, establish a solid emotional connection to keep us invested through the loud racket of intensity and the softer tones of psychological reckoning. My only qualm is with this book’s ending which felt a little rushed as if it was getting played off stage. Despite what felt to be a slightly anti-climatic conclusion for Ruby and Co., Evil in Me is still a romping good time complete with captivating visuals and a bangin’ soundtrack. It’s a kind of catchy tune that’s sure to hang around in your head for a while, a punk song with uniform measure before descending into a devilish frenzy.

Long live Vutto!
I loved the parallels to LotR, Ruby’s growth as a character, Vutto and Tina, and it goes without saying that Richard’s chapters were amazing to watch unfold (like a train wreck). My only complaint is not seeing more of the end; what happened to everyone afterwards?

I’ve attached both my review and IG post!
Thank you for the ARC!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for the advanced digital and audio access to this book that published today!

Possession, demons, rock n’ roll, and… band drama? This book has everything going for it. Ruby Tucker is stuck in her small-town life when an ancient ring hijacks her soul, turning her into a demon’s puppet. Now, she has to get her band back together and get the world singing to save herself.

I really loved how it started — totally chaotic and creepy — but it lost some steam for me midway through. Vutto the sassy demon stole the show and was my favorite character. The audiobook was well done, especially with the full-on produced track by The Maxines as The Night Mares.

I think I would have rated it higher if I had a physical copy to pair the story with the illustrations and would have added a lot to the experience. I still have Slewfoot and Krampus on my TBR and I can’t wait to read those!

Evil in Me follows Ruby, a young woman on probation in 1985, who is possessed through an evil ring that's looking to help its master escape from the bowels of hell.

First of all, the cover for this book is FIRE. It's absolutely what drew me to slamming my finger onto the request button. Oh, and that it's written by Brom (ok, if I'm being honest I requested first BECAUSE it's Brom, AND the cover is wicked).

I’ve quickly become a fan of his. His strong willed main characters, the ever-lurking sense of dread and uneasiness, the horror (OH THE HORROR) he inflicts on both the reader and his characters. It's monstrous in the best way possible.

Evil in Me feels like a step back. Brom-lite, if you will. While his other books have an undeniable air of masterpieces from another time, this one felt like a horror movie from the 80’s. I was expecting existential dread and got a manic girl road trip! Ride on.

I think my only issue is that some of the characters/plotlines either ended too abruptly or felt a bit disjointed from the overall plot. They all merged together and I do understand why they were included, but I ended up thinking, “was it really necessary”? Or “gee, that could have been handled differently”. Personal preference!

There is one character that absolutely broke my heart when it was introduced to Ruby, and I hold it very dear to my heart (insert angel halo and egg emoji here).

Overall a very enjoyable and bingeable read! I can't wait to pick up a physical copy in the hopes that it includes illustrations as well.

Evil in Me is SO. MUCH. FUN. This one has demons, possession, punk rock, religious horror, folklore, serial killers, multiple POVs. Ruby is a fantastic main character with flaws and an amazing arc throughout this novel. There are evils both monstrous and human in Evil in Me and I’d argue the human monsters are way scarier as usual.

This is the punk rock equivalent of a possession novel. It’s lean, it’s fast, and it’s f**kin’ awesome. You will cheer, you will laugh, you will cry, but most of all, your fist will be in the air.

Thank you to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Happy pub day to Evil in Me! 🎸🖤

This book got 4.5 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 from me and I cannot wait to grab a physical copy to see all of Brom’s artwork within!

We follow Ruby, an aspiring musician, after she has a falling out with her bandmate and loses her job teaching music to children. She finds a ring while helping her neighbor organize his religious artifacts, and events quickly take a turn. The ring is possessed by a demon! Ruby must face her past and literal demons to save her soul, and makes some friends along the way.

Read this if you like:
Cursed objects
Religion horror
Overcoming past traumas

Thank you so much @netgalley and @tornightfire for an advanced copy!

4.75 Stars ⭐

Happy Pub Day to Evil in Me and thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC for review purposes.

Evil in Me is a horror novel about outcasts, friendship, and punk rock. The main character Ruby is one week away from getting off probation when she is drawn by the siren song of a ring. When she puts it on, she gets possessed and must figure out how to exorcise her demons with the help of her friends and punk rock.

This book was such a fun time to read, especially if you're listening to the songs written for the book by the Maxines during the climax. Brom has such a vivid way of describing both scenery and action that makes it so easy to picture exactly what is going on. The characters were all unique and relatable that you become invested in seeing how they handle the situations thrown at them. The small point deduction in my rating is due to the pacing being a little slow to start, but once the halfway point hits, the plot picks up and I was hooked til the end. And the absolutely STUNNING cover art is just the cherry on top of an awesome book.

I love Brom and this is just like him in his writing style that teeters on the gothic. Any fan will surely love this.

Evil in Me by Brom was a nice fast-paced, bingeable read that took me by surprise.
An intriguing horror and dark fantasy story that I couldn’t stop once I started.
This was an absorbing read filled with interesting and complex characters.
A great cast of characters that just jump off the pages.
The plot, the characters and the setting all combine to give you a wonderful story!

When I read the summary for this book, I wasn't honestly sure what I thought. It didn't seem like it would be something that I would enjoy, truthfully.

But then, I thought--hey, it's Brom. When has Brom ever led you astray?

This book was a journey. I found myself hooked from the first page and read all of it in one sitting, unable to pull my attention away. The storyline was unique, fun and interesting and the characters--most of them, anyway, cough--were delightful and I enjoyed getting to read about them and see their progression through the story. (Beel was my favourite. Beel was best.)

This is the sort of book that leaves me struggling for what exactly to say other than to recommend that you read this book. It will stick around with me for a long time and I think it will stick around with you, too. It's just that good and, c'mon--it's Brom. Brom has never led us astray and definitely did not this time with this weird, amazing little tale.

Posted on Goodreads:
4.25/5⭐️

Alright. Generally I don’t care for characters like Ruby. You know, hot mess and always making bad decisions. However, Brom really made me care for her.

Ruby is constantly making bed decisions, like going off her meds and trusting the wrong people, like her ex. She’s surrounded by crummy people. Her mom is garbage and selfish and the woman at the YMCA is just trash. However, she has Pam who believes in her and gives her the chance to make some little cash by helping look after Pam’s dad.

Now, Pam’s dad has a plethora of relics and one in particular has caught her eye and in return it has its eye on her. Once she puts it on, Ruby’s day gets worse and now she’s in a journey with Pam’s dad Josh to get the ring off.

Brom is so good at description and his imagination is just top tier. I can’t wait to see the final product.

Thank you netgalley, tor and Brom for the opportunity to read this book.

ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley.

I would classify this novel as horror and dark fantasy. It includes some violence and gore, demonic possession, serial killers, and dark lords. I loved it! I feel it was tame and could even be considered a young adult book.

The story is set in the 80’s and follows a young woman named Ruby who wants to escape to Atlanta away from her hometown and broken family to reunite with an old friend and start their band backup. Only problem is, she has to wait for her probation to end. People around her believe she has mental health issues and needs to be medicated, but Ruby does not agree and stops taking her meds.

Simultaneously, she is taking care of her elderly neighbor, Josh, who holds a secret... he has an ancient tool that is very powerful. Ruby comes across this artifact and realizes trouble will soon follow..

I could feel the underlying evil and dread through the whole story, along with Brom’s dark humor. There are many layers to this story including multiple POVs, sympathy for villains, self-empowerment, mental illness, justice, friendship and love. Brom has a great way of making the reader care for the characters, even the villains. This was my favorite thing about Evil In Me; I felt real emotions for the “bad guys” and the “good eggs”.

I think it was super cool that a real band made the song in the book and recorded it so you can go listen to it. What fun!

This was my first Brom book, and I really enjoyed it! I have been waiting to read his other novel, Slewfoot, and now that I’ve read Evil In Me, I am even more excited to do so. It appears there is a small connection to Brom’s novel Lost Gods, so I will be picking that up too!

This was my first book by Brom. It features well fleshed out characters, mental health representation, 80s style Horror vibes, and some well-timed comedic relief.

The horror was well done, including the demonic possession. I liked how everything tied together at the end. The punk rock and roll vibes were a nice bonus. Definitely recommended this for lovers of the horror genre.

Tysm for the ARC.

I went into this book blind and with no expectations.

It was decent. The characters are well developed, the scenes are set well, the descriptions are good visuals.

The fun cheesyness of an 80s horror novel is underlaid by grief and suppression, the misconceptions of mental health and illness, and the prominence of the 80s 'devil will get you' with DnD and metal. And somehow Richard wormed his way into the book, his somewhat side story feeling irrelevant but ties in eventually.

If you love Brom, you will love this book.

Thank you to Tor Publishing and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Brom always creates the most fleshed out characters and vivid surroundings; you feel like you know the people in the book, or perhaps walked in their shoes at one point in life (particularly for punk fans like myself). I was emotionally invested in Ruby's outcome, and loved the comedic breaks throughout. Easily digestible despite the gore and violence, I can't wait to get my physical copy!

The first chapter of Brom’s Evil in Me goes hard and then takes its’ foot off the pedal for some laughs. Brom’s immersive paintings and brilliant endpapers as well as The Maxines song “Evil In Me” make this horror novel a multi-media affair. A ring’s curse, demons, possession, punk rock, serial killers are all blended into this psychedelic trip. ARC was provided by Tor Nightfire via NetGalley. ALC was provided by Macmillan Audio. I received an advance review copy and advance listening copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you Brom and NetGalley for the ARC. Man oh man. Brom had done it again. This book was great. A legit adventure from start to finish. It was scary. It was funny. It was all around an enjoyable read. I loved that I didn’t really know where the characters were going to end up. Like I couldn’t guess what was going to happen to the characters. I was on my toes the entire time. Brom really has a great way of storytelling. One of the really cool things Brom did was have an actual band record the songs from the band in his book. As a music lover, I thought that was so cool to be able to listen to the music from this world that Brom made.

Well, hot patootie, bless my soul, I really love that rock n’ roll.

Look, I can’t help if that line from Meatloaf’s RHPS song kept looping inside my head while I was reading this book, because as Ruby (the protagonist) says more than once: punk rock saved her soul. It put me in a rhyming mood. It put me in the mood for music. It reminded me of when I was growing up in the 1980s and early 90s and some days it felt like music was the only thing holding you together. Especially if you’re like Ruby (and me) and grew up mentally ill.

I expected to love this book, but I ended up only liking it for one read. It’s a good book, but I felt a bit uncomfortable with the way Ruby’s mental illness was handled by the author and I could feel how that affected my enjoyment of the novel as a whole. I am not saying Brom did anything wrong in her portrayal of Ruby as a mentally ill character and I’m not saying her approach to mental illness was wrong. This book takes place in the 1980s and the way mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder were discussed, researched, and diagnosed back then is worlds different than now. So I can’t speak as to Brom’s intentions when writing this novel and I’m not going to outright condemn an author when I don’t see definite evidence of malicious intent in the text.

I also ended up feeling like there were too many different POVs and the book was getting too cluttered in the second half of the book. It started to feel messy and not as tense and dreadful as the first half.

Brom is a great writer when it comes to language, but I’ve seen plots similar to this done better. I’d gladly read another Brom book, but this one was a pass.

I was provided a copy of this title by the publisher and the author via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. All reviews rated three stars or under do not appear on my social media. Thank you.

File Under: Body Horror/Dark Fantasy/Disability Rep/Historical Fantasy/Occult Fiction/Psychological Fiction/Serial Killer/Supernatural Horror

I was definitely blown away by this book! Slewfoot and Krampus are still on my TBR. But I'm so glad I started with Evil in Me, especially when I got an ARC of it.

This book combines so many of my favorite things:

🖤 Horror
🖤 Gore
🖤 Possession (think exorcist)
🖤 Punk rock bands

If you're a fan of Brom's others works and/or just love a good demon possession book, definitely check this book out!

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬.

This was a fun read with demons, possession, serial killers, and rock n' roll. Although I enjoyed pretty much the whole trip, there was a distinct sense of cheese throughout. Some of this may be due to Evil in Me being pitched as an adult novel, while reading more like YA. (Note: I love YA, but I also like to know I'm reading a YA book when I pick it up) Another possibility is just the innate struggle of writing rock n' roll horror. There's the temptation to showcase the ultimate song, and no matter how deep an author digs to find the perfect descriptors and lyrics, there's still a sense of "that's it?". The titular song plays a hefty role in this story and dips its toes deeply into that cheese pool.
All that said, Ruby is a terrific character to follow, one of the antagonists, Richard, is supremely twisted, and the journey is consistently entertaining. Fans of Brom's artwork will want to invest in the gorgeous hardcover version, and readers who enjoy books like Grady Hendrix's We Sold Our Souls or Zachary Ashford's Polyphemus may find a lot to like in Evil in Me.