Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You by Scotto Moore

Quote of the Book

“But if you do decide to care about music – and in Sierra’s case, if you decide to care so much that you have to play music – then your whole life is changed. You’re always on the hunt for the next best song.”

Blurb

Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You is a story of music, obsession, violence, and madness by Scotto Moore

I was home alone on a Saturday night when I experienced the most beautiful piece of music I had ever heard in my life.

Beautiful Remorse is the hot new band on the scene, releasing one track a day for ten days straight. Each track has a mysterious name and a strangely powerful effect on the band’s fans.

A curious music blogger decides to investigate the phenomenon up close by following Beautiful Remorse on tour across Texas and Kansas, realizing along the way that the band’s lead singer, is hiding an incredible, impossible secret.

Personal notes

A few months ago I came across the cover and knew I wanted to read it. A book which main plot revolves around music and is not a contemporary YA/romance? Sign me up! Besides I happened to have some unexpected free time on my hands and this was a short book so I plunged in.

Song of the Book

Picking a song for a book about music, let me tell you, is a pain in the ass. I absolutely had no idea how I’m going to go with this, but then started browsing my mp3 player. I knew for a fact that I had to pick something with a female singer – which is a challenge since I hardly have anything from female singers. Then I remembered this song, Queen of Catastrophe and found Stars in Stereo. Then checked out some lyrics and ended up being torn between Queen of Catasrophe and The Broken. But in the end I choose The Broken, because it fits a bit better for the book.

Review

It’s been a while since I’ve finished Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You but I still don’t really know what to think about it. The first word that comes to mind is, weird.

At the beginning I was hooked. The story is about a popular music blogger who discovers a new band called Beautiful Remorse and shares their music with the world. Unexpectedly, it seems like everyone who hears it, gets somehow addicted to it no matter what are their preferences in music. The band releases one song a day, and as they get more popular, the blogger decides to seek out the band, asking for an interview from their lead singer, Airee Mcpherson. This meeting, however sets unexpected events into motion, and the blogger finds himself on the road with the band, witnessing things no one would believe. He is unable to leave, fearing someone would take his place and he is not ready to let the music go. Not even when lives are at stake.

At one hand I like the fact that the main character is a blogger, though we only get a small glimpse into his personal life. He has a bunch of other blogger friends he keeps in touch with online, talking about music and sharing the news. I could relate to him, wanting to be the first to post a new song, a new band, to show it to the world. It’s a bit similar to the book blogging world, we all want to be first to post a review of a popular upcoming book, and we also have online communities. Imagine you are a book blogger and you get a chance to not only meet, but make an interview with one of the upcoming popular authors. Would you take it? Of course you would, just as this music blogger couldn’t miss his chance. Things are going well, until strange things start happening – Beautiful Remorse’s music generates a strange energy which affects everyone who hears it, allowing Airee to mentally manipulate them. After a while his goal becomes to learn what exactly is going on, while Airee is on her way to destroy the world.

I liked the writing itself, the prose and the way music was described, but felt like this book would have benefited from being about a 100 pages longer, so we could ease into this blogger’s life, get to know him a bit more. Or any other characters, really. I found Airee intriguing if a bit – okay, a lot – crazy, and wanted to learn more about the background of those revelations we get in the last 20% or so of the book. Somewhere about the middle from an intriguing mystery book we are suddenly thrown into a sci-fi-like story with alien monsters without as much as a warning. And it wasn’t even the last of the surprises awaiting me.

Overall, Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You is a quick paced read, perfect for a road trip or just a quiet afternoon with a book. If you look for something different, it has a strange mix of music, humor, horror, sci-fi, maybe a tinge of Cthulhu mythos. If you liked We Sould Our Souls, you might like Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You as well.