Evil in Me

Set in the early 1980s against the backdrop of the Satanic Panic and the punk scene surrounding bands like The Cramps, Evil in Me follows Ruby Tucker, an aspiring musician stuck in a small rural town after a falling-out with her best friend and bandmate ended her dream of making it in the Atlanta punk scene.

While helping her eccentric neighbor catalog his religious artifacts, Ruby is possessed when an ancient ring clamps onto her finger, binding her to a blood-thirsty demon. The only way to free herself is to get hundreds of people chanting a spell in unison — an act complicated by the fact that the ring itself is a beacon, drawing a wicked, flesh-hungry mob straight toward her. Behind it all is the demoness Lady Sheelbeth, who has sent the shedim Beel to corrupt Ruby and turn her into a weapon against the last living Jewish Kabbalist mage.

To survive and save her soul, Ruby has one shot: put her old band back together and get a stadium's worth of strangers singing a song powerful enough to break the demon's hold. The novel combines possession horror with a music-scene backdrop, and the physical edition includes nearly two dozen of author-illustrator Brom's paintings.