February 2, 2012

Review: Hellhound on my trail, by D.J. Butler

Author: D.J. Butler
Title: Hellhound on my Trail 
Series: Rock Band Fights Evil (#1)   
ISBN: 9781466132
Publisher: Smashwords (December 30th 2011)
Disclaimer: Copy received for review purposes.

Buy your copy: Kindle

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
“Heaven doesn't want them. Do they stand a chance in Hell?

Bass player Mike Archuleta is down on his luck in a major way. The shattered survivor of a misspent youth, he is haunted by the ghost of his dead brother, and is now driven to planning his suicide. Halfway through the show that's supposed to be his last, a hellhound bursts into the club and attacks the band. The band members pull out karate moves, guns, and even a sword... and then things start to get strange.

Can Mike survive the show? What can he do about his brother's ghost? And what kind of band is this, anyway?   

Hellhound on My Trail is the first installment of Rock Band Fights Evil, a pulp fiction serial by D.J. Butler “ GoodReads’ blurb

Super short review, since this is a super short story. As a matter of fact, it’s part of a serial!

This is my second encounter with Pulp Fiction. To this point, I’m still not terribly sure that I can give a proper definition of the genre, but I find that I like it.

Hellhound on my trail had a couple of things going for me – one of them was the non-stop action. From the opening scene on, it was fast and super easy to read. Granted, there were moments when I got a bit lost, specially at first. Sometimes we jumped from the thoughts of our lead character into the action and back, and this made me blink on occasion. In general, though, if you just sit back and don’t worry too much, it was highly enjoyable.

I think this book is on par with titles such a Hollowland, by Amanda Hocking. Not overly deep, even a bit illogical at times, but ultimately fun. Since I do believe fun and easy entertainment is the main point for the genre, and indeed for many books, then I’d say this is a very nice way to pass the time.

The other thing I liked was the whole rock band concept. I’m into music, a lot – as in, if I’m not working I’m likely to be playing – so I loved to get the feeling of gig playing from the book. It wasn’t exactly successful, but it still felt energetic and brimming with tension in all the good ways. Made me want to jump on a stage!

The one thing that bothered me, beside the somewhat rocky changes I mentioned, is the cursing in Spanish sprinkled here and there. I don’t know about the States, but I’m Spanish and the words jumped out as weird to me – except for one expression, no one here would have spoken like that. Then again, as I said, I’m European Spanish so... Might be alright!

The lead character, Mike, is a bit screwed up – in case you couldn’t tell from the blurb – and he’s not exactly the worst off in the band. Still, if that doesn’t bother you and you like the style, then go ahead and check this series out. It has great potential!

2 comments:

  1. I'm not much familiar with Pulp Fiction, and is it really supposed to be fun and easy entertainment? Are all Pulp Fiction short and easy read? Hmm.. I'm really curious... I like how you describe the book even though I'm not a fan of this kind of story. 3/5 stars, not bad... at least you had fun reading it =) I'm going to see what a Pulp Fiction is... (heading out to Wikipedia.... lol)

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    1. Hey April!! To be completely honest, I'm not too sure about what the genre entails. But from what I've seen, Pulp makes reference to the way it was published more than to the content, so... If you do find something, let me know! :)

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