Rockabilly Hell

Rating:
Summary: Is Rock and Roll the Devil's music?
Review: Rockabilly Hell is the first of two books centered around rural bars. The Devil taunts our hero with rockabilly music and takes the souls of whoever wanders into these taverns. One might believe that Johnstone could have written this book to side with the view of some in the 50's and 60's that rock and roll is a corrupting force, always in combination with alcohol and hell raising. But that is what makes this book so entertaining! Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Hilariously bad!
Review: This book was so bad, I loved it. Of course, I also play in a white trash psycho-rockabilly band that performs murder ballads, so it had a special appeal to me.

Rating:
Summary: A failure on all counts
Review: William W. Johnstone bases his plot on two myths, the ancient myth of ghosts and the modern myth of snuff movies. For some reason he places the ghosts in old honky tonks that appear from the other side for the ghosts to have a place to hang out and listen to rockabilly music. I say "for some reason", because what at first seemed to be the idea behind the whole story ends up as little less than a chance for the author to name a few songs and artists every once in a while. Similarly, the evil snuff movie ring give the author an excuse to describe outrageous sex scenes with a complete lack of finesse, while hardly contributing to the plot except for fumbling around, killing and getting killed.

The author is unable to give any life, character or purpose to the ghosts, the phantom honky tonks, the bad guys, the good guys, the southern setting; everything he touches end up as mere clichés that could be substituted for anything or anyone else without adding or taking away from the book. And when he tries to add some political/social commentary to this sorry ordeal, it just gets pathetic. Item: A female journalist demonstrates her political guts and rugged individualism by not insisting on calling her cameraman a "cameraperson". Puhleeze. This kind of reversed political correctness is every bit as silly as the original. Likewise, the homogeneity of superficial political comments made by the "good guys" make them all seem like excuses for the author to pout rather than real people of flesh and blood.

So if you like rockabilly, this is not the book for you. If you like horror, this is not the book for you. If you like crime, this is not the book for you. In short, this is probably not the book for you.

- Tom Ekeberg