End Times

by Rio Youers

Here there are angels. Here this is sin. Take my hand, let me show you salvation . The girl in the woods is back. She is beauty. She is vengeance. She is end times. Recovering heroin addict Scott Hennessey finds her, beguiling and mystical, floating in the rain. He is drawn into her embrace, and her body becomes his new obsession. But he senses her danger and knows she is linked to a past he has tried to forget—a past she will awaken with fire and passion. The memories return and with them, the darkness. On the precipice of despair, Scott must confront the shadows he has left behind. His ruined soul leads him from the cold city streets to the wild prairies of South Dakota, and Mia Floats Softly, his beautiful addiction, is with him every step of the way, haunting his heart and his dreams.

188 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Rio Youers is the British Fantasy and Sunburst Award–nominated author of Lola on Fire and No Second Chances. His 2017 thriller, The Forgotten Girl, was a finalist for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel. He is the writer of Refrigerator Full of Heads, a six-issue comic series from DC Comics, and Sleeping Beauties, a graphic novel based on the number-one bestseller by Stephen King and Owen King. Rio’s latest novel, The Bang-Bang Sisters, was published by William Morrow in summer 2024.

Reviews

[Sjgomzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rio Youers is incapable of writing a bad book. Impossible to classify, as with most of his books. This was beautiful at times. Native American legends, the horrors of drug addiction, angry god’s, and a fascinating journey, from rock bottom, to hero.

[G.R. Yeates · Rating 5 out of 5]

End Times is a superb work of dark speculative fiction. Social realism, rock’n’roll, body horror and Native American legend are all interwoven into a tale that takes you on a haunting journey that feels like navigating a spiritual leyline. Rio Youers writes with a distinctive voice and the word that best describes it for me is passionate. You can tell this a story told by someone who loves the telling as much as the tale itself and it shows in the careful, poetic selection of the words. End Times is a love story but not in the paranormal romance sense. The love here is as grim and frightening as it is beautiful and daunting. Need I say, I recommend this book.

[Michael Louis Dixon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed End Times overall. It is a compelling story that combines a modern urban drama with Lakota myth in a spellbinding conflict. The main character, Scott Hennessey, is a flawed person--both physically and mentally. He is as much a mystery to the reader as the irresistible Lakota woman he is enthralled with. While the prose is beautiful, the writing can sometimes tip over into melodrama. Sometimes the words would resonate in beautiful ways, and other times they made me roll my eyes. Still, I’d recommend this book to anyone who’s a fan of Urban Fantasy in the vein of Clive Barker and Neil Gaiman.