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Cadaverous

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Cadaverous

By: Jay Bower
Narrated by: Joe Hempel
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He asked a demon for fame. It said yes.

What follows are the private blog posts of Gaige Penrod, frontman and lead guitarist of a band called Cadaverous, recovered after the massacre at The Pageant and never meant to see daylight.

Gaige saw something at a concert during a solar eclipse. A shadow that moved on its own, reaching into a crowd of thousands like it was hunting for someone. Nobody else saw it. He never stopped thinking about it.

So when his garage band got one last shot at making it big, Gaige did something stupid: he offered a deal to whatever he'd seen on that stage. Blood, for fame.

It said yes.

Cadaverous went from the small town of Brownsville, Illinois to sold-out shows almost overnight, riding a single called "The Incantation" that crowds couldn't get enough of. What the crowds didn't know was what that song was actually calling up or what it cost Gaige to keep it fed.

An occult researcher tracked these posts down and made them public. He vouches for none of it, but couldn't just look away either. Believe what you want. The body count's real either way.

Fame always costs something. Gaige just found out the hard way that some debts get collected in blood.

©2023 Jay Bower (P)2026 Jay Bower Horror Scary
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Listener received this title free

I love the book I’m not really into demonic but I really enjoyed this gore fest

Piedmont

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Listener received this title free

4.5 stars! How far would you go to get everything you ever wanted...

Gaige wants to be the best guitarist that has ever lived. He wants fame and notoriety. The only problem is he lives in a small town, and his talent could be described as mediocre at best. What is a boy to do? Make a deal with a demon, obviously...

I listened to the audiobook, and the narration is perfect. It really brought Gaige to life as he struggles with his choices and loses his sense of morality.

I liked the pacing as it ramped up the tension and the starkness of Gaige's situation. The writing has a nostalgic feel and includes loads of references to metal bands/songs. It had me wanting to make up a Cadverous playlist... now that would be a beautiful thing!

I loved the way the book had me questioning my own moral perspective. I mean, is it really so bad if the guy being hurt is a jerk?! I'm asking for a friend...

This was a really fun cautionary tale of pride, greed, and ambition. I will definitely be checking out more books by this author

Cautionary tale...

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Listener received this title free

I'm not sure why the story didn't worked for me as good as I wished. It started out great with much potential, but I felt the characters who seemed to be well developed in the begining evolved into shallow shells. This could be argued to be part of the in-store development, but I don't feel that's reason enough.
Unfortunately it felt a bit more like YA for my liking which I wasn't prepared for, but I think what bothered me more was it waved between coming of age-ish and the sold your sold to the devil, never really fully explore either potential.

Nonetheless I wasn't bored and I don't feel I've wasted my time, but I'm left with wanting to shake some emotional reactions into the characters which would have made the story satisfying for me.

This can very well me a more ME-problem than a general problem, and I won't hesitate to say give it a go, especially if you are a metalhead like me 🤘

Heavy metal - live hard, die with the devil

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