My Ex, the Antichrist

by Craig DiLouie

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

A horror steeped in music. When the world is set to fall to pieces, the 90’s punk band with a “devilishly” charismatic front man attempts to save it. Playfully dark, thrilling and reflective — this book is a riot.

From rising star of horror Craig DiLouie comes a twisted tale of love, heartbreak, and the apocalypse. We all have bad exes. Lily Lawlor's just happens to be the Antichrist.

"DiLouie brings his sharp mix of heart and horror to the end of the world with this clever story about rock and roll, relationships, and destiny." ― Peter Clines, New York Times bestselling author

1998: Lily Lawlor and Drake Morgan form a punk band. Drake inspires faith in some. Fear in others. Lily is a believer.

2010: At the height of her stardom, Lily walks into a police station and confesses to a murder.

Now: The band has refused to talk to the press about their riotous past, Lily’s confession, or anything else. It's been over a decade, but Lily has finally agreed to an interview. And the band is following her lead.

What follows is a story of prophecy, death, and apocalypse. A story about love found and love lost. A story about the antichrist. Maybe it’s all true. Maybe none if it is.

Either way, this is their story. And they’re sticking to it.

"One hell of a performance! DiLouie once again proves he is a master of the epistolary genre." ― Lee Murray, five-time Bram Stoker award-winning author

"Reading My Ex, the Antichrist is like letting Behind the Music take you to hell and back." ― Andy Marino, author of The Swarm

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316578189
Publisher:	Orbit
Publication date:	07/01/2025
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Craig DiLouie is an acclaimed American-Canadian author of horror and other speculative fiction. Formerly a magazine editor and advertising executive, he also works as a journalist and educator covering the North American lighting industry. Craig is a member of the Imaginative Fiction Writers Association, International Thriller Writers and Horror Writers Association. He currently lives in Calgary, Canada with his partner, Chris Marrs, and two wonderful children.

Editorial Reviews

"Cheekily playing off of the age-old accusation that harder-edged music is satanic, DiLouie spins a story that is fresh, entertaining, and intensely unsettling. Is Drake Morgan actually the Antichrist? The answer may leave readers existentially unmoored. An easy hand sell for fans of Grady Hendrix's We Sold Our Souls or Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Silver Nitrate, but don’t forget those who loved the discomforting verisimilitude of The Ghost That Ate Us, by Daniel Kraus." 

—Booklist

"Craig DiLouie is the sly officiant presiding over this marriage of heady theology and anthemic punk rock. This book weaves age-old philosophical conundrums into a sensitive, aching, and raw portrait of a band’s rags-to-riches tale. With its lively oral history format, reading My Ex, The Antichrist is like letting Behind the Music take you to hell and back."
 —Andy Marino, author of The Swarm

"A tale of love, self-discovery, and following your dreams, all told through the twisted lens of a rockumentary about Armageddon. Craig DiLouie brings his sharp mix of heart and horror to the end of the world with this clever story about rock & roll, relationships, and destiny.”
 —Peter Clines, New York Times bestselling author

“One hell of a performance! With My Ex, the Antichrist, Craig DiLouie once again proves he is a master of the epistolary genre. Immersive, compelling, and chillingly plausible. It’s as if you were there. Resounding.”—Lee Murray, five-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Grotesque: Monster Stories

"DiLouie seeds the narrative with enough pop theology to undergird its tongue-in-cheek excesses, which include a cabal of rogue clergy wielding rocket launchers and a Universal Priest stage performance that unfolds like a mash-up of The Omen and This Is Spinal Tap. It’s a wild ride." 

—Publishers Weekly

“The ultimate battle draped in rock and roll… DiLouie’s latest novel is an exciting glimpse into music history and the enigmatic 2000s with a timeless tale about the end of the world and love, of all things, as its connective tissue. What a wild ride.”—L. Marie Wood, author of The Realm Trilogy and The Promise Keeper

"Gory, glorious, and just a little too believable, Craig DiLouie’s latest is a slick meta slasher movie in book form, set in the brutal intersection of art and obsession."
 —Peter Clines, New York Times bestselling author on How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive

“DiLouie assuredly weaves a punk band’s rites of passage with the dark arts, crafting an occult love story from burnt-out memories and scavenged, sacred hearts.”—Andrew F. Sullivan, author of The Marigold

“Thrumming with energy and tension, My Ex, The Antichrist is a horror-filled love letter to music and how it can save our souls.”—Kaaron Warren, author of The Underhistory

"DiLouie remixes classic horror tropes into a harrowing thriller set in 1988... Readers will be pulled in by the morally twisted characters and serpentine plot. Film buffs will especially enjoy this paean to ’80s slasher films and the people who love them."

—Publishers Weekly on How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive

“How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive is a blood-spattered homage to horror films, an ode to the craft of filmmaking, and a cautionary tale about the fiery—often destructive—creative passion inside every artist, one that continuously teeters on the brink of insanity. DiLouie has created a celluloid cursed object story that John Carpenter himself would stand up and applaud from the front row.”—Philip Fracassi, author of Boys in the Valley on How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive

“A tricky, twisty book with more levels to it than a slasher movie has sequels. DiLouie knows what makes the horror genre tick.” —David Moody, author of the Hater and Autumn series on How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive

"Confidently striding through the genre, DiLouie displays a deep and abiding love for horror, even as he finds new ways to bend our disgust and despair to his will. The camera cannot turn away."—Andrew F. Sullivan, co-author of The Handyman Method on How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive

"With well-developed characters, a swiftly paced narrative, and mounting dread, this new twist on the ghost story will delight horror readers."

—Booklist on Episode Thirteen

"An epistolary descent into a living nightmare . . . well-written and genuinely unsettling. Fans of paranormal documentaries, ghost-hunting shows, and found-footage horror will lose their minds over this one."

 —Kealan Patrick Burke, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Kin on Episode Thirteen

"Episode Thirteen is a suspenseful and engaging Rubik’s Cube of a novel. The reader has great perverse fun twisting the pieces back and forth, facet after facet, until Craig DiLouie’s grand design stands revealed in all its febrile splendor."—James Morrow, author of The Last Witchfinder on Episode Thirteen

“DiLouie follows a found-footage narrative before veering into gloriously mind-bending terror. . . .  In this subversion of the classic haunted-house/found-footage story, DiLouie demonstrates his ability to toy with and eventually upend readers’ expectations.”—Library Journal (Starred Review) on Episode Thirteen

"With this chilling story of cult abuse, DiLouie proves his mastery of the slow slide from psychological drama into supernatural horror . . . . Horror readers will be hooked."—Publishers Weekly on The Children of Red Peak

"A heart-wrenching, thought-provoking, terrifying tale about the meaning of life... A great choice for fans of Stephen Graham Jones' The Only Good Indians (2020), Paul Tremblay's Disappearance at Devil's Rock (2016), or Alma Katsu's The Hunger (2018)."—Booklist on The Children of Red Peak

From the Publisher