Polyphemus

In this no-holds-barred horror novel, Ashford (When the Cicadas Stop Singing) delivers carnage and mayhem worthy of the most brutal metal album. Metal band Polyphemus are about to get their big break supporting a high-profile act on tour, until singer Stephen Oaks’s heroin addiction lands him in rehab and the rest of the band in the doghouse with their label. Under pressure to deliver an album that will redeem them, the band decides Oaks is too volatile to be trusted even after he gets clean, and searches for a new singer. But Oaks won’t let go of his dream, and his new rehab friend Anton has an offer that’s too good to pass up. It sounds like self-help-style manifesting—right up until the blood ritual. Oaks’s turn to the Satanic may cost him his humanity as a demonic presence comes to share his body—but it will also make Polyphemus the biggest band in the world. Ashford conjures a mean and grubby world laden with sex, drugs, rock and roll—and absolute buckets of gore. This will appeal to readers who like their horror on the splatterpunk side. (July)