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End Times
Brother and sister soulmates Jon Karl and Summer Odom, orphaned at an early age and thrust into the human comedy of a small southern town, must survive a variety of predators, especially a sociopathic barber who abducts Jon Karl, forcing Summer to access a surprising inner strength that changes both their lives.After the death of their mother, Maryrell, Jon Karl and Summer Odom are raised in the town of Douvale by their grandmother, Mildra, whose boss, Spruill Dawes, steps into the role of surrogate father. Jon Karl befriends his son Millard. Jon Karl, sexually precocious, finds himself increasingly humiliated by the ravenousness of Douvale women and yearns for a hermit life while mythologizing the few women he likes to think actually loved him. Summer attracts oddball boys which sends her through a series of ill-suited males and strange jobs.
Complications arise when Balch, a local barber, becomes obsessed with Jon Karl, and even more arise when Jon Karl catches the eye of Vance, a young strip club owner and porn filmmaker. Then, when Jon Karl gets into an ill-advised cannabis-growing scheme, he leaves himself vulnerable to blackmail by Vance. Things get worse when Jon Karl is sentenced to the for-profit Baptist correction center run by Spruill's hated rival, Pruet Echols, and he finds Balch working there. One day, Summer's intuition of something wrong sends her, Spruill, and the sheriff into a ghastly scene and a dangerous rescue of Jon Karl. Jon Karl is released to pursue at last the life he longs for, but becomes increasingly seduced by the strange energy of an abandoned roadside house and the oddly familiar portal it seems to offer. Summer has uneasy premonitions about the house, and with the legacy of a young son from one of her earlier boyfriends, and at last a promising relationship with the latest, survives.
Complications arise when Balch, a local barber, becomes obsessed with Jon Karl, and even more arise when Jon Karl catches the eye of Vance, a young strip club owner and porn filmmaker. Then, when Jon Karl gets into an ill-advised cannabis-growing scheme, he leaves himself vulnerable to blackmail by Vance. Things get worse when Jon Karl is sentenced to the for-profit Baptist correction center run by Spruill's hated rival, Pruet Echols, and he finds Balch working there. One day, Summer's intuition of something wrong sends her, Spruill, and the sheriff into a ghastly scene and a dangerous rescue of Jon Karl. Jon Karl is released to pursue at last the life he longs for, but becomes increasingly seduced by the strange energy of an abandoned roadside house and the oddly familiar portal it seems to offer. Summer has uneasy premonitions about the house, and with the legacy of a young son from one of her earlier boyfriends, and at last a promising relationship with the latest, survives.
428 pages, Hardcover
Published September 15, 2023
About the author
John M. Williams
12 books7 followersI retired from LaGrange College in 2015 and live in LaGrange, Georgia. Currently I serve as a mentor in the Reinhardt University Creative Writing MFA program. I write fiction, non-fiction, plays, essays, and the occasional film script. I was named Georgia Author of the Year for First Novel for "Lake Moon" in 2002. My most recent publication is my novel "End Times," (2023). Other recent publications include "Monroeville and the Stage Production of To Kill a Mockingbird (2023), "Atlanta Music in the 50s, 60s, and 70s: The Magic of Bill Lowery" (with Andy Lee White, 2019), "Village People: Sketches of Auburn" (2016). My and Rheta Grimsley Johnson’s musical play "Hiram: Becoming Hank," about the formative years of Hank Williams, has enjoyed four successful productions, and is scheduled to be produced in fall 2024 in Pass Christian, MS.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
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April 15, 2025On one level, it's difficult for me to review this book since it and I are on such different wavelengths. That's the right metaphor, I think: it frequently looks down on things I look up to, and up to things I look down on.
On another level, and the one on which I'll focus here, I know exactly how I feel about this writing: it is incredible. I've read this book twice now. The characters are unique, vivid, and interesting. Readers will wish they could sit down with Redwine Pile for an hour. The setting is deeply southern, with all of its riverbank strangeness. The plot is a wild ride, and one that takes readers out among subcultures that are all around us but often on the outer limits of our experience--the world of drugs and drunks, mushrooms and marijuana.
Not that that's what the story is about, but it takes you there.
The story, I'd say, is of a young man's quest for Something--he knows not what, exactly--and his inability to find it, or even to pursue it unmolested. Always there is someone wanting something from him, someone exploiting him or the ones he cares about for, you know, money, pleasure, time, etc.
The writing style is what you won't forget in this book. In an age where books so often seem to have been written with the screen in mind ("I hope this gets turned into a movie someday"), this book is written to be read. It is a striking achievement of language. The sentences dance in the strangest but most musical ways--you think you're lost in a sentence but never are.
In this respect, quite probably this book is a masterpiece.
I'll close with some such sentences:
"He remembered being invited somewhere in that radiant void of time to ask the question. Which he had done--and though he didn't remember what the question was, he would never forget the answer, because it was suddenly standing before him, looking at him."
"Of course Jon Karl had no way of knowing that she was ecstatically planning to take everything out of her bedroom and paint it--both the room and the everything--lavender."
"Most days, basketball boy was there, playing against himself, hammering away, each fading jump shot over the never anything but imagined defender another penny in the jar of muscle memory--but not on this day."
"Jon Karl glanced over at the collegial-looking man talking and laughing in a little group of country club types, with what had to be his big-hair tanning bed wife and cleavage-showing hottie daughter, whose eyes were locked on, of all people, himself, then, colliding with a nasty look from Zadie, looked back at Spruill who had turned his attention elsewhere."
On another level, and the one on which I'll focus here, I know exactly how I feel about this writing: it is incredible. I've read this book twice now. The characters are unique, vivid, and interesting. Readers will wish they could sit down with Redwine Pile for an hour. The setting is deeply southern, with all of its riverbank strangeness. The plot is a wild ride, and one that takes readers out among subcultures that are all around us but often on the outer limits of our experience--the world of drugs and drunks, mushrooms and marijuana.
Not that that's what the story is about, but it takes you there.
The story, I'd say, is of a young man's quest for Something--he knows not what, exactly--and his inability to find it, or even to pursue it unmolested. Always there is someone wanting something from him, someone exploiting him or the ones he cares about for, you know, money, pleasure, time, etc.
The writing style is what you won't forget in this book. In an age where books so often seem to have been written with the screen in mind ("I hope this gets turned into a movie someday"), this book is written to be read. It is a striking achievement of language. The sentences dance in the strangest but most musical ways--you think you're lost in a sentence but never are.
In this respect, quite probably this book is a masterpiece.
I'll close with some such sentences:
"He remembered being invited somewhere in that radiant void of time to ask the question. Which he had done--and though he didn't remember what the question was, he would never forget the answer, because it was suddenly standing before him, looking at him."
"Of course Jon Karl had no way of knowing that she was ecstatically planning to take everything out of her bedroom and paint it--both the room and the everything--lavender."
"Most days, basketball boy was there, playing against himself, hammering away, each fading jump shot over the never anything but imagined defender another penny in the jar of muscle memory--but not on this day."
"Jon Karl glanced over at the collegial-looking man talking and laughing in a little group of country club types, with what had to be his big-hair tanning bed wife and cleavage-showing hottie daughter, whose eyes were locked on, of all people, himself, then, colliding with a nasty look from Zadie, looked back at Spruill who had turned his attention elsewhere."
October 12, 2025
After reading and talking about End Times in our club, I kept thinking about how perfectly it would work as a visual story. The tension, the small-town atmosphere, the characters, it all plays like a film in your mind. A short video trailer would capture that eerie beauty and help more readers find this hidden gem.
October 12, 2025
Our book club discussed End Times last week, and so many of us agreed, this story has such a cinematic feeling. The scenes are vivid, the emotions are raw. Honestly, it would make an incredible short trailer. The tone and visuals are already there in the writing; I could see it bringing more readers in right away.
October 12, 2025
Our Silent Book Club NYC readers really connected with this book. It’s rare for a story to feel this alive in conversation, everyone had something different to say about it. End Times is emotional, funny, dark, and oddly hopeful. John, your writing deserves a wider audience. Please consider turning this into a short book trailer, it would be fantastic.
October 5, 2025
I wasn’t prepared for how much this story would affect me. Summer’s strength hit me right in the chest, that scene near the end made several of us tear up. End Times feels both personal and symbolic, like a reflection of the world we live in.
October 5, 2025
As readers, we appreciated how John M. Williams weaves moral philosophy into everyday life. There’s humor in the absurd, tragedy in the mundane, and that balance is hard to achieve. End Times does it gracefully, with characters that feel painfully real.
October 5, 2025
Our group found End Times deeply moving. It’s one of those stories that stays with you — raw, unsettling, but full of quiet humanity. The brother–sister bond touched everyone in the room. It reminded us that love and endurance are the real acts of courage in dark times.
October 5, 2025
The discussion guide really brought out layers we might have missed. The question about “survival beyond the physical” led to one of our best conversations this year. Everyone agreed that Jon Karl and Summer feel like people we know, flawed, funny, and human.
October 5, 2025
This one surprised me. I thought it would be a dark southern gothic, but it turned out to be more like a meditation on survival and love. I found myself rereading passages just to sit with the emotion. Williams has a quiet brilliance in how he shows people at their breaking point.
October 5, 2025
Our members loved it! The tone, the weird humor, and the southern charm made for a lively evening of discussion. We all agreed this would make an incredible short book trailer, the kind that makes people curious right away. It deserves more eyes on it!
October 5, 2025
I keep thinking about Summer and Jon Karl. Their world felt so vivid that it almost blurred into my own memories. That’s rare. Thank you, John, for giving us something to feel so deeply about. Our club loved featuring your book.
October 5, 2025
The story has that cinematic edge, every scene felt visual. We all said during the meeting that End Times would work beautifully as a short film or book trailer. A good visual teaser would help more readers discover it, because it’s such a layered, emotional story.
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October 12, 2025I read End Times after we featured it at Silent Book Club NYC, and I’m still thinking about it. The way John Williams writes about pain, connection, and survival feels painfully real. It’s one of those stories that quietly moves under your skin and stays there.
March 10, 2025
I was as in to this book as I’ve been in a long time. End Times had Very compelling characters. I’m looking forward to reading more.
April 23, 2025
Old-school southern storytelling. I loved it.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews