Ruby Tucker has problems. She just can’t seem to get her temper under control. But she’s been doing better lately, her probation is almost up, and she’s going to finally leave her rinky-dink town and head to Atlanta to start a band with her best friend, Tina. Then she finds an old ring and everything changes. Now she’s got an evil hitchhiker trying to get her to do awful things. The only thing that might save her is a magic rock ‘n’ roll-based spell. If she can find enough energy to power the spell, it just might work. Time to find out if music really can save your mortal soul in Evil in Me by Brom.
[Note: While I am reviewing this novel independently and honestly, it should be noted that it has been provided to me by Tor for the purpose of this review. Warning: My review of Evil in Me contains some spoilers!]
A cursed ring and the power of rock’n’ roll in Evil in Me
Ruby’s life has been far from easy. She’s never gotten along well with her mother and her father committed suicide when she was a little girl. She’s always felt out of place in her small southern town. Then she met Tina in high school and Tina introduced her to punk rock. Finally, Ruby felt like she belonged. Even if the rest of the town thought she was weird and shunned her, music spoke to her. It saved her.
She and Tina made plans to go to Atlanta and start a band. But Tina was older than Ruby, and she left without her. Ruby was once again alone in her little town, and she got into some trouble. Luckily, she ended up with just probation and that’s almost over, she’ll be able to leave for Atlanta, find Tina, start the band, and finally have the life she’s always wanted.
One of Ruby’s jobs is being a companion to Mr. Rosenfeld, or Josh as he insists Ruby call him. Josh is getting too old to be left alone, but his daughter is in the Air Force and has to leave for missions. So Ruby helps watch over him. Currently, he’s trying to sort through some of his old stuff. His brother had been a Rabbi and when he passed, Mr. Rosenfeld took possession of ancient artifacts that his brother had been guarding. Many of them are magical or possessed according to Mr. Rosenfeld but no one believes him, he’s just an old man with some weird old stuff. But Ruby adores him, so when he says that he needs to sort through everything and get some of it to a friend, she is happy to help him.
While sorting through Josh’s stuff, he becomes worried that he can’t find a certain ring. Ruby keeps sorting through boxes as he becomes more frantic, until she opens one, and inside is the ring. Before Josh can stop her, she touches it and something happens. Ruby hears the most beautiful music she’s ever heard before, all she wants is for it to go on, but Josh recites a spell and it ends. Ruby goes home in a daze.
Later that night, Ruby awakens from a dream, and she knows what she has to do, she goes to Josh’s house and finds the ring. This time she doesn’t just touch it, she puts it on. Then things get scary. Instead of the beautiful song, she gets an evil voice in her head telling her to do terrible things. Like killing her friend Mr. Rosenfeld.
Ruby resists and Josh is able to help seal the evil. But it’s a short-term fix. In order to truly save Ruby and destroy the ring they’re going to need more than the simple spells that Mr. Rosenfeld knows. They’re going to need a strong spell and a lot of energy to power it. Turns out that music can be magic, and people’s souls can power those spells. So Ruby crafts a song to work as a spell. Now she just needs to get enough people singing along to make it work. She joins up with her old friend Tina and some new companions she meets along the way to try and get her song out there, and fast. Will it be enough to save Ruby, or is she already damned? Can rock ‘n’ roll truly save your soul?
A really fun story with an intriguing premise from Brom and Tor Books
I absolutely love music. If I’m not reading, I almost always have the radio on. And there are many times when music has saved me. I one hundred percent believe that music is magical and that the more people are singing the more powerful it can become. So I absolutely love how Brom uses music in Evil in Me. Right from the beginning, Ruby shares how music saved her as a kid. She was lost and alone and found connection to others through music. That right there is a kind of magic, and foreshadowed how music would be used later in the story.
Anyone who has listened to music knows that when certain songs come on, you can just feel the energy from them. When you sing with your friends, that energy is even stronger. And if you’ve ever been to a concert and sung along with thousands of other people, you know that the energy created is overwhelming.
Brom turns this energy into magic in Evil in Me, and honestly, it’s such a simple but powerful construct that it surprises me that it’s not used more often in fantasy tales. It’s a premise that everyone can relate to, which makes it even better. It’s not some difficult to understand concept based on ancient mystical rituals that may or not make sense. It’s music, something that everyone knows, understands, and has experience with. That connection makes Evil in Me accessible and relatable to pretty much everyone.
Evil in Me by Brom is an easy read that lead to deep thoughts
Even though Evil in Me got me thinking about the power and magic behind music and human connections, it was not a hard book to read. Brom uses a very simple writing style, and Ruby is an almost crude character. She’s somewhat immature and low-class, and it comes across in her language and cadence for both her internal and external dialogue.
But that doesn’t make her a bad character. You get connected to Ruby and want her to win. She has problems, but you understand what she’s been through and feel bad for her. What her personality does do is make reading fast and easy because she uses simple words and easy thoughts that don’t take much mental bandwidth to process.
Despite Ruby’s simplicity, her situation does raise some really big questions. I started singing “American Pie” by Don McLean and wondering if music can “save your mortal soul?” just thinking about music and the power it holds. My conclusion is that yes, music can save your soul, it is a powerful force that can change the world. And obviously, Brom thinks that same thing.
Evil in Me might be simply written but it would be a great book club conversation starter. Whether you listen to punk like Ruby, country like her neighbors, classic rock or jazz, Evil in Me asks you to think about the power that music holds, and how that power can be used. Will you use it for good, or for evil?
Rating: 8/10
Evil in Me by Brom is now available just in time for Halloween! Are you planning to check this book out? What did you think of the “Evil in Me” song by the Maxines embedded from Spotify above? Let us know on social media @mycosmiccircus!
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