dear god... what did I just read?
The narration made this all the more creepy. Wow, I don't know what I expected going into this, but it certainly wasn't what I got.
This was a lot more brutal than I preferred and I had to force myself to keep listening. If this wasn't an audiobook I don't know if I could have kept going.

PROS:
The storyline was compelling and the world-building was easy to follow. If you're looking to get creeped out and intrigued, this book is for you. The characters were excellent and I wanted them to win! *even the demons*

CONS: The music portions of this audiobook were pretty tough to listen to, especially when I prefer to listen at 2x speed. I had to slow it down for those portions which made everything drag.
The gore aspect of it was not my cup of tea and was almost gross for the sake of being gross. The narrator would switch sometimes midway through the chapter. There were a few times I had to jump back to understand what was going on.

Honestly, can't tell if I liked this or hated it. All I know is that I'm glad it's over.

3⭐️ (since I have no clue how to feel)

Thank you, NetGalley for the advanced reader's copy of Evil In Me by Brom!

This song has been playing in my head all week.

In usual Brom fashion, this book is equal parts dark and endearing. Evil in Me is not a light read by any means. It focuses on possession, mental health, murder and punk rock in the 1980s.

Ruby is in trouble. She's always in trouble actually. But this time it's because of the ancient ring she placed on her finger. Now she's possessed by a demon and her soul will be taken by Lord Sheelbeth. In order to save her soul, she needs to create enough magic to get the ring off.


I'm still not really sure what Richard's involvement in the story really adds to the plot. I liked his dialogues, although unhinged they were also interesting. But unless I missed some information, he doesn't seem essential.
I loved the descriptions of the demons. They are twisted and sick in the best ways.
I also loved the imagery of the demon Vutto dressed as a drummer in the band.

This was my second Brom story and I loved it! If you love demons, music, horror and stories like Schrader's Chord, look no further. Vuto was my favorite character and I will hear no criticism of my sweet baby angel.

Thank you to NetGalley, Tor and Brom for the advanced audio of this story! I loved the narration.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This book comes out 9/17/24, and I feel like it’s such a great book for fall/halloween vibes. There’s horror, there’s murder, there’s demonic possession, there’s the punk rock scene in the 1980s, and Brom bringing all of these aspects together was wild.

Ruby is working towards fleeing her hometown as soon as she is approved to be done with her community service hours that the judge sentenced her to complete. When she gets possessed by the ring, everything changes, and now she must flee in order to find help to escape this possession and possible future death. Everyone that’s brought into her path to either help or harm is vital to the progression of the story. I was so stressed to know how she would succeed or fail.

The narrators killed this production. It was awesome, and I loved listening to the story and was trying to continue to guess how it would all end.

CW: blood, murder, body horror, violence, injury/injury detail, death, domestic abuse, sexual harassment, religious bigotry

I am not generally a horror reader, but Ive only heard exceptional things about Brom's work, so I wanted to give this a try. This book delivers.

Evil in Me is dark, violent, and fascinating as we follow a ring that is way more than just a ring. If you're not generally a horror reader, but want to give it a try- check this out!

I was lucky enough to receive an audio ARC, and I thought the narration was really well done! There was such a huge cast of characters, so not every voice was a hit, but overall it was great.

Well, this was a perfectly creepy story!

EVIL IN ME takes us back to the 1980s, with its burgeoning punk rock scene and the whole culture vibe of Satan taking over the youth through music.

I was on edge, grimacing, a little freaked out, but also laughing all through this book. It pokes fun at itself and the genre, while maintaining intensity and a weird kind of plausibility. I mean, what if? I also might have gotten teary-eyed at the end. Crazy!

I listened to the audiobook, which I highly recommend. I cannot stress enough how incredible the quality is of both the narration and production. Shahjehan Khan and Stephanie Németh-Parker bring the characters to life. The book title is actually a song written by Brom and AJ Grey of The Maxines, performed by The Maxines, and incorporated into the story. So d*mn good!

𝐀𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰
4 ☆
-
I am new to Brom, and holy cow, he is a totally different, uniquely talented author. And honestly, I am here for it! I went into this book BLIND and was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed this book.
The audiobook production was amazing! The narrators did a phenomenal job. I could listen to both of them with no problems. The audiobook is now a favorite of mine.
𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬:
•Rock and Roll
•Multi POV
𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 Sept.17
-
Thank you, Netgalley, and MacmillanAudio for the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc! The book was great. Loved the whole 80s/90s world of punk rock. A great possession story that kept you intrigued from page 1.

I would like to thank the publisher for giving me an audio-arc in exchange for an honest review through NetGalley.

This gave me 80s punk rock/satanic panic vibes and I was all here for it. We have Ruby Tucker who isn't a bad girl, but she had found herself in the wrong place at the wrong time and now she's doing her best to be good. It doesn't help that everyone keeps treating her terribly because of her one mistake, and the fact that she likes punk rock isn't helping her. So, when she finds a ring that holds the soul of a demon inside and accidentally puts it on, she finds herself possessed.

Filled with spot-on 80s culture, Jewish mysticism, demons, punk rock music, ghosts, and insane magic, Evil in Me has quickly become a favorite book for me by Brom, and I was already obsessed with his other books. I absolutely hated certain characters, loved others, and was wholly invested in Ruby's story.

There were so many things I enjoyed about this book, but one thing I have got to get across is: LISTEN TO THE AUDIOBOOK IF YOU GET THE CHANCE. Not only are the narrators absolutely fantastic, but you'll get to hear an original song that was written for this book by Brom and AJ Grey of the Maxines called "Evil in Me" performed by the Maxines. It really gives this book just something a little extra, and it's absolutely fantastic.

At first, I didn't think this was a book for me. But upon listening to a few more chapters, I changed my mind. I became invested in the characters of the book. The description calls this a horror book. I'm not sure I agree with that. To me, this was more of a strange thriller. I didn't think I'd ever sympathize with a demonish character, but here we are. I enjoyed the relationship between Ruby and Beal. I also enjoyed seeing religion portrayed in a different way than what is typically done. I would give this book a 3.5 out of 5 stars. It wasn't my favorite story ever, but I enjoyed myself while listening to the audiobook. Also, the song that's featured in the audiobook is quite catchy. I'm gonna have that stuck in my head for days.

If given the option of reading this via digital, physical, or audio - I highly recommend the audio format. Music and singing play a large part in this story; the audio production is extremely well done. 3 stars for the story, 5 stars for the audio production.

The setting and characters were well portrayed, and the reader is immediately dropped into the plot. The pacing is consistently medium throughout, from beginning to end, with minimal slow and fast portions. Something about the plot being so consistently paced reduced the impact of pivotal plot points. They opened a door straight to hell and were flooded with demons - this had the same intensity as when researching spells and discussing options.

I found myself increasingly irritated with Ruby and preferred the side characters (looking at you Beel). I hate to say it, but I found Ruby's POV much more agreeable AFTER the mental health magic (IYKYK)... That whole event felt like a very convenient method of forcing character growth, which left me feeling frustrated with that narrative choice.

All that being said, I think the aspect that pulled me out of the story the most was that it seemed to feel.... young adult? Gore, drugs, rock and roll, swearing, and yet the tone felt a bit YA to me, which feels like an odd thing to say.

Overall, I would still recommend this book to anyone who has enjoyed Brom's writing previously or is looking for an approachable horror that still packs a punch on vibes (80s punk rock with a dash of Southern summer and heavy on the demon possession).

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced listener copy of this audiobook. All opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

i'm assuming i'm going to be the unpopular opinion as always.

this is a story about a girl on probation who puts on a ring that she finds while helping her eccentric, dying neighbor go through artifacts in his house. this ring instantly imbues her with the urge to kill.

here's the thing - ruby's life is replete with a cast of characters that antagonize her for no reason. i could buy the woman running the center where she was doing probation work being holier-than-thou because ruby wasn't a christian. i could even buy (even though i hate this trope) a snotty, jealous girlfriend of her ex-friend and bandmate.

it's inexplicable to me why her mom stole money from her to give to her stepdad, who regularly and aggressively threatens ruby over treatment of his underage son. even though the underage son is trying to blackmail her with sexual assault.

i dnfed this about 38%. the underaged son in question wanted a "picture of her snatch" or else he was going to "scream bloody murder" and get ruby attacked/hurt.

i'm tired of men writing sexual violence as horror.

dnf.

I am a Brom fan and this did not disappoint. Ruby has a demon inside her and only the magic of rock can get it out. Reminiscent of Grady Hendrix’s We Sold Our Souls in the best way.

Omg! This is the type of book amazing cult horror movies are made from. I’d watch it in a heartbeat! It’s weird and creepy and just the right amount of violent. I loved the music performed and made just for the audiobook. The narrator was amazing.

I love Brom, I hate Brom, and as usual I am torn but leaning towards loved it. lol His whole thing is fairy tales for the downtrodden; he's a modern Grimm's brother, but the original, bloody brothers. Reading along with the audiobook helped a lot due to the frequent musical interludes, so that may also be making me favor it more (the title song is an ear worm).

What I loved: While it feels a bit YA at times, there is a good amount of gore, a lot of it over the top kind of silly. Act II Ruby (though it felt forced), Tina, Vutto, basically Act II in general. I can't write much more without spoilers.

What I didn't love: Basically all of Act I. While I think Grady Hendrix leans more Goosebumps than Brom in general, this felt very Goosebumps with the young protagonist and cartoony bad guys - and the bad guys were just ridiculous. I'm torn on whether that's a bad thing though because I'm sure that's the point since the whole thing is a fairytale gone wrong (set within Judeo-Christian mythology lol). Also Act I Ruby can be a lot to tolerate at times. Everything with Richard was unnecessary; he didn't need to be in the book, period.

But like Brom always does, his endings satisfy. They're also left kind of open-ended so you're not entirely sure the fairy tale ending is truly the fairy tale ending. I think he aims for like a more philosophical gruesome Grimm brother's ending. Anyway, I've enjoyed the endings to all the novels of his I've read, including this one.

While getting through the first half was difficult, the second half was well worth the effort and a lot of fun. And more music!

I'm a huge fan of Brom so I knew I would enjoy this book before I even read it. What I didn't anticipate was how much I was going to love the audiobook. I was following along with the eARC while listening to this and the audiobook added so much to the story, specifically the musical portions of it. Hearing the song and how it was supposed to sound was interesting and immersed me even more in the story.

As for the actual contents of the story, I thought it was captivating but I still wanted a bit more from it. I wish it focused more on the hellish portions of the story or other hellish artifacts, but besides that, I thought this was great and I highly recommend reading it!

Big thank you to Macmillan Audio, Tor Nightfire, and Netgalley for this ALC!

So this was my first Brom book, so this might just be a case of me being in a little bit of shock. The very beginning of the book Is Jarring and I had to reread passages again to make sure that I was fully getting the concept of what was happening. Once the story moves to Ruby it does get a lot easier to follow and understand. There are a few things in the begining of Ruby's story that are dark but over all as a character I did end up liking her towards the end. Dick on the other hand I hated, and I know I was supposed to but I found some of his parts in the story to feel dis-conjoined with the rest of the story and he annoyed me. There were a slew of side characters that I did enjoy, I liked Tina, the demon, and towards the end I kinda even liked the goddess. I also really enjoyed the setting and 80s culture that was written well. Over all this was an intense, binge-able horror novel and I will be picking up another one of Broms books.

The audio for this was really well done. I loved the narrators and the added music and voice effects. It really did justice to bringing the story to life.

I listened to the audiobook version of this and the production quality was astounding! So an extra star for the audiobook being a banger but the story itself is like, a 3 😬

I thought the premise rocked (heh) but the execution was pretty meh. I felt like I spent most of the story really waiting for something to happen but even when things did happen it was a little…dare I say boring? Maybe my expectations were off, I’m someone who can ruin my experience if I come into something with certain expectations so I try not to but after reading Slewfoot, ngl my expectations were pretty high.

It didn’t speak to me, obviously, but I think Brom is a good writer and I would still encourage anyone on the fence to check this out. Especially the audiobook, I about jumped out of my skin when Ruby started speaking in double voice 😨

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher to the AudioARC in exchange for an honest review.

The story opens on an insane scene of demonic possession, Jewish mysticism, and graphic violence that definitely sets the premise for this one.. And then, just as quickly, it moves to the daily life of young Ruby, who just wants to move to Atlanta to play punk rock with her best friend, but has to get off probation first. She has one week left. Things quickly go from bad to worse as Ruby is possessed by a demonic ring, chased by a serial killer, and bounty hunted by her mom's Jesus-loving boyfriend. Ruby must get the band back together and get enough people to believe in her music to set herself free from evil. Nothing says punk-rock like a demon as your drummer ;) The best part of the audio is you can actually hear the song, "Evil in Me" written by Brom and AJ Grey of The Maxines, performed by The Maxines.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this audio e-arc.*

Brom never misses! This was a really fun story that fused together a lot of interesting elements that worked so well together. I loved the relationships between our main character and the demons. The play on satanic panic was great and he always does such a brilliant job of making bad or morally grey characters likeable. I love Brom and I truly think he can do no wrong - I'll read anything he writes!

I also loved the music addition - it really brought the song to life and played so well into the themes of the book. I'd highly recommend the audiobook for all readers to get the same immersive experience.