Title: A Song for the End

Author: Kit Power

Release date: October 30, 2020

Why did I not have this on my radar sooner?

I remember seeing this a bit when it was released, but for some reason I never took a closer look into what it was about. It maybe due to my recent misses when it comes to music/horror themed releases, but this sounded great.

I snagged a copy recently and threw it to the top of my TBR. If it wasn’t for a few other books I have on the go, I would’ve easily read this in one sitting. It was captivating and a refreshing take on apocalypse themed stories.

What I liked: The story is told in rapid fire fashion. We start off with a seemingly innocent band practice coming to a end. All of the members believe they’ve finally written a hit song, just none of them can really recall how it went or what the lyrics were. The song gets uploaded to the bands Youtube page and from there, things go full out.

Power delivers this story with delight. Once you listen to the song you have to tell the truth or your brain will explode. That’s right. You even so much as attempt a lie and hemorrhaging occurs. So, the majority of the story is a race to stop the song from spreading as the government tries to isolate what is causing this pandemic.

I really enjoyed all of the characters, except one, which I’ll mention in a bit. The rest were all spot on and I loved how as the reality of ‘telling the truth’ sets in, we see the ramifications become apparent to each and every individual.

This was a really great, fresh take on anything pandemic/apocalyptic related. We see the fall of civilization occur, in real time, as the spread of the song online takes hold.

Now, I do want to say – the word pandemic is one a lot of people want to avoid in literature right now. There really is no other way to describe what is occurring in the story. It isn’t a virus based story, but when the infection of the song takes hold and spreads, that meets that definition of pandemic and Power does a great job of keeping the action frantic.

What I didn’t like: I truthfully loved 99% of this book. The only thing I didn’t like was a single character. Our main characters significant other. When our main character, Bill, calls her back finally to tell her what is happening, that interaction annoyed the hell out of me. He tells her the song causes this to happen. He warns her. Yet we still read along as she turns on a computer and wants to hear it herself. AAHHHH!

Why you should buy this: Are you looking for a really quick, burst of fun with a unique and exciting premise? Here you go. This was such a blast and one that I’m glad I dove into. Power really engaged the reader throughout the entire page count. This was one that I was hoping I’d dig going in but found I loved it once finished, and that’s always a massive bonus.

Definitely worth checking out and sits nicely alongside Scott Coles ‘Crazytimes’ and Carl John Lee’s ‘The Blood Beast Mutations’ for best, unexpected fun novellas this year!

5/5