A Song for the End by Kit Power
Bill Cutter’s band becomes an overnight success with their latest song, the only downside is that everyone that hears it cannot lie, if they do then they die. Violently. With people starting to drop of dead around him and people learning the darkest secrets of their loved ones and strangers, Bill is forced to hunt down someone from using the song as a weapon and maybe end the world!
Now, everybody lies, it is a fact of life. Everything ranging from, tiny little lies “yes, honey, you look good in that dress” to a bit more serious “I didn’t accidentally unplug your mother from life-support so I could charge my phone, no, never”. What would then happen if lying killed you? From the smallest little white lie to the big ones, just kills you indiscriminately. Thankfully Kit Power have tried to answer it in the novella A Song for the End. Bill Cutter and his band have somehow accidentally made a song that infects the listeners of the song and if they ever lie again, they die, bloody and messily. This spreads like wildfire, as the song goes viral (pun not intended) so a lot of people listen to it. Then people start dropping from the smallest lie, “do you have a crush on the girl in your class? No” drops dead. “Do you think your team will win the match? Yeah” drops dead! To be honest this made me think of how many lies and half-truths people tell throughout the day. All I wanted was a story that entertained me, but instead I am sitting philosophising about human nature. Well, they say great work of literature should make you think!
Anyways, I feel like I am just rambling here, back to the book: the beginning of the book starts out as a straight up horror tale, with plenty of brutal scenes and horrific implications. As the song is released in the world and its effect is apparent, someone close to Bill Cutter tries to weaponize it for their own end. Then the book switches gears and becomes a thriller, as Bill and Officer Luke Anderson races to stop them from utilising the song as a weapon of mass destruction. This switches up the pacing in the story and you cannot put it down!
Our main character Bill is a sympathetic protagonist, as he is trying to stop the song from doing more damage, he is also dealing with the fact that he is part responsible for creating the song, and seeing that he has listened to the song, he cannot tell a lie, something that will have a severe effect on his relationship status, due to the fact he has kept a secret from his girlfriend.
All in all, Kit Power has managed to write quite a memorable read. Also, it is a quick read, its (approximately) 160 pages ticks all the boxes. These 160 pages will leave you breathless. I breezed through this one and at the end I wanted more. But then again, I always do when I read something this good!
It is one of the Horrific Tales Publishing premium novellas series, so it comes in a neat little fancy hardcover that will look nice on the shelf!
I give this book 5/5 suggestive guitar riffs