“A page-turning tale of Faustian bargains.” —Alma Katsu, author of The Deep and The Hunger
A TOWN DIVIDED. A DEMON MADE WHOLE.
When rock guitarist Ash Hudson suffers a career-ending hand injury, she seeks out the only thing that can heal it–her hometown’s darkest secret.For decades the residents of Hollow Hills, Pennsylvania, have offered their diseased and injured body parts to a creek demon … secret.
For decades the residents of Hollow Hills, Pennsylvania, have offered their diseased and injured body parts to a creek demon named Snare. In return, Snare rewards its Traders with healthy replacement parts. There’s only one catch: if Traders leave town, their new parts vanish forever.
Ash wants a new hand, but living in Hollow Hills isn’t an option. Not when her band is one gig away from hitting the big time. Desperate, she bargains with Snare, promising to help the demon complete its organ collection in exchange for both a new hand and the freedom for everyone to leave town.
As her band’s show rapidly approaches, Ash teams up with her estranged father in a last-ditch effort to recruit new Traders. But not everyone trusts Snare’s offer, and Ash soon learns how far her neighbors will go to protect their precious parts.
With her family in danger and her band waiting, Ash must find a way to help Snare. But even if she succeeds, there’s no telling what Snare plans to do with everyone’s bad parts.
Fans of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Richard Laymon, and Blake Crouch won’t want to miss this gritty, fast-paced, supernatural thriller.
Grab your copy of Bad Parts and start reading today!
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR BAD PARTS:
“Bad Parts asks the intriguing question, ‘What would you give up to make your body whole again? Can you put a price on your dreams?’ A page-turning tale of Faustian bargains, bad choices, and hard lessons.” —Alma Katsu, author of The Deep and The Hunger
“A non-stop thrill ride! The twists keep coming tighter and darker as the novel races toward its grisly, unexpected, and thoroughly satisfying finish.” —John Everson, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Covenant and The Devil’s Equinox
“One of the most original horror novels in recent years. It reads like Needful Things if it had been written by Richard Laymon.” —Tom Deady, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Haven
“This heavy metal love song about a deal with a unique kind of devil hits all the right notes as it flies by. McNulty delivers a tight, high-octane small town horror story that will literally grip you from beginning to end. It’s everything you want: an awesome book featuring unforgettable characters and plot twists by a must-read new author.” —Michael Arnzen, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Grave Markings
“Brandon McNulty is a master of his craft.He introduces us to a town where something is terribly wrong…and a main character we can’t help but follow into the mesmerizing darkness that is Hollow Hills. Open Bad Parts at your peril: you won’t be putting it down until the final page is turned.” —Frederic S. Durbin, author of A Green and Ancient Light and Dragonfly
more
This book was so not what I expected and I mean that in a good way. How far would you go to replace a broken body part with the “help” of a paranormal being? Ash and her family went all out. Well written and unique!! The narrator was perfect for a young angsty band chick with dreads. Look forward to the next part.
I received this audiobook via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
If you enjoyed NEEDFUL THINGS, you’ll find a feast of small town secrets and shady deals with demons in BAD PARTS! And the audiobook performance by Ellie Gossage was excellent.
Brandon McNulty knows as well as Stephen King does that the key to great horror/paranormal thrillers doesn’t lie merely in pulse-pounding action or in stomach churning gore or in an eerie original premise—although Bad Parts does excel on all counts—but in snaring readers’ hearts with emotionally authentic characters. Especially Ash and her family, all of them feeling damaged (often literally too) but fiercely loyal to one another and trying to be closer and more honest.
This is the primary reason I intend to collect and read all of McNulty’s works from here on out.
McNulty delivers plenty of emotional pay-offs with both well-crafted prose and a compelling main cast. His characters are haunted by the past and present alike (and, deep down, by their fears of letting each other down or not being enough).
Further, there is a laudably strong sense of place in the small town of Hollow Hills peopled with strong side characters, many with a mean streak, and the author likewise captures well the grungy urban bars and clubs where Ash’s band Bad Parts plays.
And I liked the push and pull of the relationship between the troubled and ambitious lead guitarist Ash had with her lovably goofy and kind star vocalist bandmate Cheeto, who sees her as a much stronger and better person than she sees herself. At the beginning there’s a glimmer that Cheeto’s right about her, but Ash has to take a lot of wrong turns before she realizes, perhaps too late—this is horror, after all—what sacrifices are worthwhile and what matters most.
A Page-Turning Thrill Ride
Despite something of a weakness in the differentiation of character voices, and a few typographical errors pertaining to one character’s name (which have stopped me awarding five stars), this book hits home hard in all the ways that count.
I read Bad Parts from start to finish in one go, in the space of a few hours. It kept me turning pages throughout; every page, every paragraph, almost every *sentence* ends with a punchline that left me wanting more and voraciously ploughing ever onward.
The characters being as clearly defined as their motivations are contributed a lot to my fascination with the story. I wanted to see where these people were headed, and where they’d end up. The conclusions to their little arcs did not disappoint. In brutal, gritty, but not undeserved fashion, each thread the author spins is tied off nicely; and not a single punch is pulled.
So, in conclusion, if you’re the type to appreciate a dark and complex web of scheming characters all struggling against one another for access to—and even control over—a supernatural spring of healing in a backwoods town in rural Pennsylvania, then you’ve come to the right place. There’s action, suspense, double crosses, graphic violence, and an onslaught of twists that won’t let you stop guessing what’s coming.
Having read Bad Parts, I’m eagerly awaiting whatever author Brandon McNulty has up his sleeve for us next.
Thank you to netgalley and the author for the review copy of this audiobook!
This book was not what expected! It was better! I really enjoyed it and the tragedy this book holds and the story it tells was done great! I will be keeping an eye out on other works by this author!
However, the narrator wasn’t the best but I did speed it up and ended up enjoying this a lot more!
I highly recommend this read.
The premise of this book is incredibly interesting. It’s a little bit horror, a little bit thriller, a little bit supernatural. And it held my attention from beginning to end. But that ending!! I listened to this on audio and I was just sitting there with my mouth hanging open. It ends on such a cliffhanger! Now this is just book 1, so there will be a second book at some point. Hopefully all the questions I was left with will be answered in that book.
So. much. fun. I cannot wait for the next books in this series. McNulty’s writing is crisp and gutsy. His characters don’t have a false luster but instead enrapture with believable yet dangerous flaws. Ash especially isn’t crafted as the stereotypical bad girl that I am loathe to find leading thrillers. A desperatation and impulsivity underlies her strength as a woman bent on getting what she thinks she needs. Tightly plotted and intensely paced, BAD PARTS is small town horror at its best.
Holy cow, the intensity on this is through the roof!
I thought the idea that you could trade your bad body parts for new ones intriguing, and I had a feeling Ash wouldn’t like the restrictions that come with the trade. The thing I loved about this one is that there were quite a few characters that had a stake in what was going on. They all had traded something or needed something from Snare.
Once things started going downhill for Ash, it only got worse. It’s all incredibly tense. You lose hope, then gain it multiple times. The storyline is super fun, and Ash is a great main character. I love her strength, and that she won’t take no for an answer. And to think this is book 1 in a series! I can’t even imagine where book 2 will lead us, but I can’t wait to find out. Nicely done.
This book was chock full of action, suspense, violence, and wickedly delightful twists and turns. I recommend it highly. I mean, as a writer, I have a much harder time getting into a book, but not this time. Finished in a week!
I thought this was a really great book. I found it to be a suspenseful thriller/horror. The story is well written and keeps you pulled in from start to finish. The characters are well written and developed. I found this a hard book to put down. If you love thrillers or horrors then I recommend reading.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Bad Parts although marketed as a supernatural thriller was SO much more than I antipcated. In my opinion it is very much a fast-paced supernatural horror thriller. This book was packed with so many key elements of both thriller and horror that I would be pressed to try and limit it to one.
The overall plot is fantastic and fairly unique although the trading of damaged body parts was reminiscent of the horror goth musical ” Repo the genetic Opera”. Which I must admit was not a bad thing for me at all! The concept of the creek “demon” and the traders had sort of satanic/ cultish/ black market feel to it and I was 1000% there for it. Overall this was just a thrilling read that kept me on my toes. There was enough mystery, fear, gore and action to keep me interested and turning the page. Also I absolutely love a good book that focuses around a bad ass heroine and Ash’s character really delivered that.
I recieved a digital copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley im exchange for an honest review.
The story line was great, the character work was terrific and the book had a fairly smooth flow to it. This was a good read which kept me hooked from beginning to end. I look forward to more from this author.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Bad Parts is just the kind of creepy story that works well for the Halloween season. It’s a bit too far into cheesy territory but just the idea of the traders is chilling. Despite that, I had a few problems with this one. Parts of the story are drawn out while other parts move at a fast pace with lots of action, and the bounce back and forth is rather jarring. This story is loaded with possibilities, but it kind of feels like the author didn’t know how he wanted it to go so he threw everything at us. Then we have a whole cast of characters who seem to be incapable of making a good decision. Seriously, not a single one is the type of character I’d want to root for. There is a turnaround for a couple of them late in the book, but it’s too little, too late, especially after everything that has to happen for them to get to that point. It all comes together to make for a story that is convoluted and busier than it needed to be. Sometimes, less is more, and this book could’ve used a bit of that for a more effective story. Finally, there’s the narrator, Ellie Gossage. Her voice works well for audio, and she does inject a good amount of excitement into the dialogue. It’s the rest of the story that falls short because everything that wasn’t dialogue sounded like a news reporter, reporting a story. It had that same tone and felt distanced from the story. In the end, Bad Parts was an okay story with promise, but the whole of it fell way short of the mark.