My new horror/sci-fi novella is out on Tor.com:

Beautiful Remorse is the hot new band on the scene, releasing one track a day for ten days straight. Each track has a strangely powerful effect on the band's fans. A curious music blogger decides to follow Beautiful Remorse on tour, and realizes that the singer, Airee Macpherson, is hiding an incredible secret. YOUR FAVORITE BAND CANNOT SAVE YOU is a darkly comic whirlwind tour of the supernatural side of music.

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Library Journal starred review:

DEBUT A music blogger discovers a remarkable new track by an unknown band, Beautiful Remorse. It's more than hypnotic, literally entrancing the listener for hours. And it's only the first track from their new album. As Beautiful Remorse drops a track a day on Bandcamp for ten days straight, and the narrator joins them on tour, it becomes clear that something strange is going on. Each new song has a more powerful and destructive effect on those who hear it. Remorse's lead singer Airee Macpherson is aiming this album at the world like a loaded gun, for a bizarre purpose of her own. Playwright Moore puts together a fast-paced tale of an indie music scene and occult sf weirdness that doesn't lose momentum despite its rather frenzied conclusion. Its music-based supernatural elements are reminiscent of a 21st-century Ballad of Black Tom, but at a faster tempo. VERDICT This debut novella is a lean, quick read with no fat. The clever, exciting story mixes weird fiction with an engaging and mysterious plot.—JASON PUCKETT, GEORGIA STATE UNIV. LIB, ATLANTA

Booklist review:

Moore’s debut combines musicology and occultism in a fast-paced, frightening, and at times humorous adventure. The unnamed narrator is a little-known and slightly condescending music blogger who comes across a mesmerizing piece of music by the band Beautiful Remorse. Told in 10 “tracks,” the story gets progressively weirder as the narrator meets up with the band to do an interview and realizes that listeners, himself included, react oddly when exposed to the hypnotic rhythms of the music. The last third of the book explodes with tension as the future and present collide in a slightly rushed but entertaining conclusion. While readers would benefit from a more detailed explanation of the more obscure references, such as the occult philosopher John Dee and the angelic language Enochian, the crisp pacing and the endearing if slightly flawed narrator make for a good tale. Offer to fans of Chuck Palahniuk’s Lullaby (2002), viewers of Warehouse 13, and to readers who enjoy quirky occult fiction laced with pop-culture references and grave implications.
— Craig Clark

The Grimdragon:

Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You reminded me of the good bits of Bird Box, as written by China Miéville. It was fucking bonkers & I dug the hell out of it! Funny, dark, weird. This was just so damn fun! Scotto Moore has a radical debut on his hands & I look forward to reading whatever he releases next!

Jeff Somers, Barnes & Noble blog:

Scotto Moore—the mind behind the darkly, strangely hilarious Lovecraftian Things That Cannot Save You Tumblr and the music blog Much Preferred Customers—writes a short, sharp debut novella that brings together both of his obsessions.... This quirky horror story is just as fun as the premise suggests.

Meghan Ball, B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog:

Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You is the novella equivalent of four guitar chords played loud and fast over screaming vocals. It’s a bottle thrown, a messianic stage dive, a structure fire at an outdoor festival. It will delight fans of horror novels, music nerds, and everyone in between. And even knowing what I now know about Beautiful Remorse, I’d still listen. Tell me this song will change my life? I’ll risk it.

Adrienne Martini, Locus:

The idea of music as a force for violent behavior isn't new, of course, but Moore's voice and his modern twists make it feel fresh.... Moore writes with a playful jauntiness that buoys the growing darkness rather than undercutting it. His details about a certain subset of music nerds give the story some great texture.... the ride is a fun one and the soundtrack is killer.

Reviews & Robots:

Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You is one of the tripiest things you’ll ever read.... There’s really just no way to get around it — Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You needs to be read to experience the madness. Your mind won’t be taken over by a time traveling super musician, but you will laugh a bit and gasp a bit and generally wonder how someone could have imagined a world so strange.

The BiblioSanctum:

Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You ended up being as quirky and wild as its title suggests, and quite honestly, it’s rare for a book to be this weird but for me to still like it so much.... Let me just start by saying that the insanity of this book is a feature, and not a bug. As such, it probably won’t be for everyone, but I genuinely enjoyed every moment of the story and it’s one you should check out if you’re looking for something a little different and offbeat.... Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You is really one of those books you have to experience for yourself. Needless to say, I had a lot of fun with this one, and if you enjoy fast-paced eccentric stories and don’t mind a slight horror bent with lots of WTFery thrown in, I hope that you will too.

Cemetery Dance:

Just when you thought Lovecraftian horror couldn’t get any weirder, Scotto Moore tosses out this tongue-in-cheek tale of a band that is destined to bring about the end of the world.... What ensues is pure entertainment, sheer fun in grandiose storytelling that just might cause old Howard Phillips to rock a bit in his grave.

Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog:

Everyone knows the joy of discovering a new favorite song and feeling the entire world open up just a little bit across those three to five glorious minutes. Just substitute joy with “dawning horror” and that’s this novella in a liner note.

Los Angeles Public Library:

The writing is crisp and the action is, once started, non-stop.... The result is a quick, but satisfying, read that shifts from laugh out loud funny to more than a bit terrifying as it rushes to an ending that is a bit of a surprise. And it may cause you to pause, for just a moment, before you hit play on a new song by a band with which you are familiar.

Elizabeth Hand, Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction:

A wickedly clever amalgam of science fiction, horror, and contemporary music that makes one reconsider whether Ziggy Stardust’s arrival here on Earth might not, in fact, be such a good thing... I could have read Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You in one sitting, but I stretched it over two nights because I couldn’t bear for it to end... Buy this book.

From Kieron Gillen's newsletter:

I was asked to read Scotto Moore's debut Novella by Tor for possibly giving a quote. I don't know Scotto, so me saying yes would be a surprise, except for the fact it's called Your Favourite Band Cannot Save You. I gave it the following blurb: “understands a key truth about Ziggy Stardust: Rock and roll messiahs are really fucking scary.” You like what Jamie and me do, you'll probably like it.

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