Dead Ends

by Samantha Byres

All-round chaos merchant Nell Jenkins has returned to her small hometown to fulfil family duties for the mother and brother she' s barely seen since making her escape as a teen. But her homecoming isn' t the triumph it should be. She has nothing to show for her time in Sydney but a string of failed relationships, crappy jobs and an ongoing HR complaint against her ex-girlfriend, now former boss.Settling right back into old habits, Nell finds herself sparking a relationship with her dead best friend' s brother Mick, as well as the newly arrived and equally unreliable Katya, who is working for the once-famous TV psychic Petronella Bush. Driven by her lust for Katya, an empty bank account and the need to come to terms with two life-defining deaths from her past, Nell is drawn deeper into Petronella' s charismatic web.Dead Ends is a beguiling, big-hearted portrait of love and loss, and the bad decisions we make in their wake.

Genres: Fiction, Queer

304 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2025

Reviews

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dead Ends thrums with energy. The prose slaps, sardonic one-liners alternate with curt dialogue and prosaic sex scenes. Much of this is funny, in the way of that funny friend who'll keep you too busy laughing to ask if she's ok. And Nell is really, really not ok. She is driven to unravel the mystery of her Aunt's disappearance to distract her from whatever happened to her own best friend April. Which also nicely serves up two mysteries for the reader. By far the more compelling for us is what actually did happen to April, and Byres gives us small glimpses as her plot unfurls, a story we get ever more invested in as the cast of characters in the town starts to come into focus.
This has all the trappings of a mystery - including the pacing and page turning. But in the end, Byres gives us something larger. This story wears its sadness on its wisecracking sleeve, engaging us in details of these people at this time, but also in the tragedies of so many girls in so many towns. Dead Ends shows us the joys and strengths of town life, but also the invisible, tight bonds of sexism, classism and racism that these gorgeous people are trapped in. I'm not sure I've read a book which so manages to deliver an ending that feels complete, while also bringing the reader to understand that, in the end, the specifics don't really matter. We knew the outline all along. The real mystery, which Nell makes real inroads to, is how to live in this world with joyous defiance, not the self-destructive kind.

[elle · Rating 5 out of 5]

it’s going to take A LOT for another book to top this as my best read of the year. wow.

[georgie · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75!!
i picked this book up on a whim when i saw it at an op shop & was really drawn to this cover design, and im so glad i did!
our main character Nell is so well written imo. i think so many novels published recently center around a 'messed-up woman,' and this characterisation can often come across as really over the top & unrealistic. it has definitely become a bit of a meaningless trope in recent times. but i think Samantha Byres has done an incredible job in writing a incredibly believable and relatable main character, who is really awful at many points during the story, but god i felt for her so much. there is so much empathy behind this characterisation. Nell was a fascinating point of view to read from, and she definitely embodied quite a few of my flaws, which is always lovely to read about. 🙈🙈
'Dead Ends' is quite loose in its timeline & structure, often flicking back and forth between past & present quite quickly. but i didnt find it at all confusing (as i often have with other books similar in structure). i think this loose structure worked incredibly seamlessly with a character returning to the small town she fled, as the audience gets to watch these old memories reemerge sporadically throughout her present timeline.
i think this book balances its many moving part really well, without sidelining or overemphasising certain parts of it. i also think its paced incredibly well for a story that is simultaneously a deep character driven story exploring a few months of a persons life, whilst also being a fascinating mystery that critiques small-town oppressiveness & misogyny. we spend enough time with all the different parts of the story that becomes a really satisfying whole. i absolutely loved the atmosphere created here. i cant describe it in words at all, but its one of my favourite styles of atmosphere yk???? loved the musing on spiritualism and the afterlife. im fascinated by stories surrounding it, but i also loved that its not a central focus of the story. i love a good exploration of grief & loss, and this one did it particularly well & uniquely. i really appreciated that we get quite a wide cast of characters that have all experienced and dealt with grief differently, and that theres not a preachy authors voice coming through condemning and championing different kinds of coping. the narrative voice is quite accepting & validading of all the different ways grief can manifest which is really cool to see in a single narrative.
ill be honest in saying the ending kinda confused me, and i had to go back and reread several parts of it to finally understand the whole picture, but i think it ended really well. it didnt dwell or pander, but answered many questions it had opened up throughout the narrative, and left off on a ambiguous but hopeful note for Nell.
my few critiques of this book are pretty superfluous in the grand scheme of things, but there is some turns of phrase & slang in here that feels a big dated (even though this book was only published last year!). and it doesnt feel entirely necessary to the wider story/characters as its not set in a specific year or period. definitely some cliches used here and there that feel a little cringy at times 😭😭😭. & not really a critique, but it suffers from that very common debut-novel-tone of trying really hard to be something. thats not necessarily a bad thing, but it meant that some of the writing came across a bit clunky and overthought, rather than being a bit more smooth & effortless. i can totally see past this tho considering the rest of the book was so incredible!! it was just something i noticed while reading!
i think i read this book at a really good time in my life. its something that will definitely linger in my mind for a while, and i know i will be desperate for a reread very soon. ive already broken out the old pen and paper to feverishly scribbly down some of my thoughts on it. but if you get the chance to read this book, i totally recommend it! i will defo be purchasing Samantha Byres' next book the second it releases. also omg the cover of this book is so gorgeous. i was interested in the blurb when i read it in the op shop, but it really was the cover that would not let me leave it behind!!

[Melody | Spilt Wine Book Club · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 — When Nell has to return to her hometown to care for her mum, her past resurfaces. She reconnects with her dead best friend April's brother, Mick, and starts sleeping with Katya, the assistant of a local psychic.
Much like the blurb, this book is wild. Chaotic, eerie, dark, and so dryly funny. Nell cannot make a good decision to save herself, but I loved going on this ride with her. The mystery elements were enthralling, and I really enjoyed the way we jumped back in time to Nell and April's friendship during their teenage years, as details surrounding April's death were gradually revealed.
I couldn't put this one down. A fantastic debut about loss, love, and reckoning with the past.

[Rach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite being a little unsure in the first few pages, I found myself taking this book with me everywhere, just to find pockets to read more. Harsh but always with a sense of slight hopefulness for the characters and their flaws. It was a cleverly woven story and finishing it left me pleasantly satisfied.

[Daria · Rating 3 out of 5]

the first half was really good, the second half was less so, and I really did not like the ending

[Laura Higgins · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very unlikeable and seemingly completely unattractive protagonist still somehow manages to have a brilliant sex life in the middle of exploring gendered violence and the role of a family carer in a small town (coming from a small town myself, I have never had such a welcome home experience!) Only really completed so I didn’t have another DNF in this year of ‘bad reads’.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

(4.75 stars)

A startlingly sober and reflective work of rural noir, that wears the structure of a mystery (and has the page turning compelling pace of one), but is far more interested in the flaws and humanity of its protagonist, in such a way that feels so real, finding an empathetic commentary on the nature of trying to exist in this world, especially in regards to growing up in a small town, queer. Extremely sexy (maybe even grossly so), a bleakly funny sensibility and so vividly constructed, an absolute corker of a debut.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun easy read, looked forward to the story as soon as I read the interesting blurb. Lots of believable characters with a delicate touch of the woo-woo (if you believe in that sort of thing - I'm undecided ;) and enough loose ends to keep me thinking after the last sentence.

[Rula Paterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m obsessed with this book! Gripping, heartbreaking, relatable - all the things good fiction should be.

[Jillwilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can really see this novel as a teleseries – it’s got good ingredients. New Zealand-born Nell Jenkins is 33, queer, and an “all-round chaos merchant”. She has returned home reluctantly to look after her mum who is sick. Home is a small town in New Zealand. In coming home, she is also in flight from her Sydney -based life where everything has gone to shit including her relationship and her job. It is a “tale of wrong decision-making".

A reviewer muses on the genre that this book potentially belongs to — “messy-girl-returns-home”. She writes: “There’s a certain kind of debut novel we are all familiar with by now. The blurb reads something like this: “Marnie Stevens is 27 and she’s a wreck! Back living at home after failing to make good in the city, she’s once again caught up in the quagmire of memory and lust she thought she’d left behind… The question is: do ghosts ever really lie?” Think Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong, Welcome Home, Caroline Kline by Courtney Preiss and Homebodies by Tembe Denton-Hurst. The appeal for publishers is clear: this plot type leans in to culturally relevant anxieties about Millennial precarity, and the appeal of small-town simplicity is catnip to burnt-out young women. But due to the market saturation of the “messy-girl-returns-home” novel, it’s difficult for books in this realm to stand out.” (https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/c...)

I haven’t read the books she mentioned, but I really liked this novel (as did the aforementioned reviewer, Madeleine Gray). It has an authenticity about the ways that the small town is evoked, and also in terms of the characters, the dialogue between people, and the ways that they relate to each other. I liked the way that Nell’s sexuality was evoked, and funny situations she got into. Byres really knows the constraints and benefits of small- town life. It’s also engaging because there are some mysterious elements to be unpacked. We learn that Nell left home as a teenager after her best friend, April, was murdered and that Nell’s auntie went missing before she was born and has never been heard from again. A psychic comes to town and this becomes part of the narrative. Madeleine Gray found three reasons to rate this novel: “One: it’s queer as hell. Two: it’s also a murder mystery, a rural noir that refuses the genre’s sexist leanings. Three: the prose is fresh, literary and funny. For me, it’s the Holy Trinity of compelling contemporary fiction.” I liked it too and think it's pretty good for a debut novel.

[ReaderSP · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the latest book sent to me by my online book club, WellRead. I generally really enjoy the books they sent me and I love discovering a new author so I was excited to start reading.

The main character is Nell and we meet her as she returns to her childhood home in the wake of a health crisis for her mother. From a small town in New Zealand, Nell left and never looked back after the death of her best friend April when they were young. What follows is Nell on a path of destruction, haunted by memories and disturbed by her current messy life. We meet a whole range of characters from Nell’s past and some new characters that cause Nell to face all her old demons.

I really enjoyed this book and I enjoyed it all the more as it is probably not a book I would have chosen for myself. I liked Nell and her self-destructive ways and bad decision making. I enjoyed the characters and I feel like the portrayal of a gay child in a small town was really done well. This book combines dark queer humour with astute social observation and a whole load of fun steamy scenes. A very well written debut.

[Olivia Hurley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this! Really liked the spooky small town setting and exploration of returning to your hometown after time away without much to ‘show’ for it. I liked Nell as a character - she had that roguish, slightly chaotic bent to her but without the intensity that can make this kind of character feel forced and over the top. Thought the shifts in timeline were done well - slowly piecing together the past but without some big reveal. However whilst I liked that there wasn’t a dramatic twist I do think we could have spent a little bit more time on April’s death and its immediate aftermath. It felt odd that the whole book was leading up to this event and then it was quickly skipped over. On that same vein I think the ending felt a tiny bit rushed, and it was kind of jarring to end with Nell suddenly going back to Katya. I think I would have preferred that she finally did go on to something bigger, rather than going back to a fairly dysfunctional relationship. But that might just be personal preference. Overall I enjoyed the way this book was written, I liked the characters and the story was solid, if a tad slow at times.

[Jenny Valentish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sam Byres is a wild new voice in contemporary noir, but besides that, Dead Ends is hands-down-pants the hottest book I've ever read.

Her prose is so muscular that every line takes a shot at the title: "I switch to gin and tonics and it’s like drinking handfuls of sweaty coins" … "This town is a maze of trip-wires. Clip one and they all go off" ... "It’s a fact universally acknowledged that the morning after you’ve had your hand inside another girl, and you go to sleep with that hand throbbing with phantom heat, your ex-girlfriend will send you a text message at the earliest hour possible." ... "Her eyes roam over my face, slide right off and she looks toward the supermarket instead. Break my heart over this girl? Love her? Everything I felt for her is so far away it’s like looking at it on a map. Lines that show you something’s there, but you’ll never know how it feels to be on the ground."

Dead Ends is a must for anyone who loves black wit, a dark, twisty tale and a thrillingly flawed protagonist.

[Josh Gardiner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an incredible debut from queer author, Samantha Byres and gosh has it lit a flame inside me.

Dead Ends follows, Nell, a woman in her 30s returning to her hometown in Aotearoa to care for her mother. Returning after losing almost everything of her life in Sydney/Gadigal, she is slapped in the face with memories of her past. She encounters those she loved and despised while learning time doesn’t stand still for places in our past (or does it?).

This book had me at its queer, late coming of age theme and its gritty and primal protagonist.

“Every queer from a small town I’ve met has had an extra layer of defensiveness, an extended adolescence, while they grow into themselves, into the people they couldn’t be back where they were from.”

A queer, dark and honest story covering selfishness through grief, self worth, family & domestic abuse. A great read for those who love a mystery and some heavy introspective themes.

[Issy Reynolds · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not care less about this shitty person doing shitty things. Hearing about a woman being murdered by her boyfriend and treated like she deserved it was so gross. It was so obvious that it was Ryan, but you have to wait the whole book for that to be confirmed as if it’s a big reveal. Her dad letting him go was insane but I still wasn’t shocked. At least Ryan was also killed. Idk the writing sucked and it was so stop start in different times and locations. And all the characters were so shallow. The only character I feel I understood on some deeper level was Cal. And why did Petronella tell Nell where heather was and then skip town? Also, calling this a queer book on the cover and then having her mainly sleep with a man the whole book even though the character declares she only really likes women? And the sex she does have with a woman is so brief and hardly described? And the woman she slept with was straight but just bored? Pissed me off

[Cassandra Templeton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nell, our heroine, returns to her childhood home in the wake of a health crisis for her mother, a small town in New Zealand that she left and never looked back at after the death of her best friend April. Into the disturbed anthill Nell causes steps another fragment of her past, a faded TV psychic, who wants one last shot at fame and fortune.

Byres nails the futile, claustraphobic agony of being a queer kid in a small country town. Secrets can't be kept, everyone knows everyone else's business and it's all sad and sordid, dead end towns and dead end lives.

Funny, sad, tragic and yet in the tragedies they find their own beauty. Sometimes closure is not everthing you'd hope for and it is in the letting go that you can find some sort of peace.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like this is the novel I've been waiting for... a hot queer feminist take on remaining tethered to the working-class rural town you grew up in, despite your many attempts to escape it. The protagonist, Nell, the novel's anti-heroine, is equal parts messy and relatable. Her supporting cast of weirdos, loose old mates and judgemental family members amplifies and animates Nell's questionable decision-making and gradual unravelling of past hurts. I love that this novel combines dark queer humour with wry (and astute) social observation and plenty of fun steamy scenes to keep you page-turning. It's staunchly feminist without ever feeling trite or righteous. Read it, and lend it to your mates!

[Elisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book - the main character was interesting, and the themes of small town drudgery and aimlessness were relatable. I was constantly wondering what was going to happen next, and though the unraveling mysteries were engaging I was less concerned with getting to the bottom of them than just enjoying the journey and the writing. It felt like the author needed to share small details of everyday life more than they needed to tell the narrative and I appreciated that. Don't get hung up on the sexual expression of the main character, or anyone's sexuality for that matter - labels are a little restrictive in the face of the complications and intricacies real life, don't you think?

[Mel]

Gets a little lost in the fourth act . . . but maybe that's fitting.

I always complain that Australia and New Zealand [funding bodies, mostly] don't appreciate and produce enough noir, and this is the kind of shit I'm talking about. Noir to the core. A corrupt system; dark and darkly funny; the twin spires of a woman long ago and a girl so recent you can almost still hear hear intertwining in the life of a drifting, searching prototype of a PI desperate enough to turn to a psychic, or fuck her own best-friend's-brother; smoking and drinking and fucking the pain away; finding out and remembering what happens, respectively, and what good does THAT do?

Well, maybe some.

[Brianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
I was stuck between a 3 and 4 rating
I enjoyed this book. It was frustrating to read about the signs of DV ignored by the community but that’s exactly what made the book feel real.
I enjoyed the structure enjoyable to read, flipping between present and past with her relationship with April.
Some of Nell’s relationships felt a bit flat to me, especially with Katya (who I found annoying).
Overall I enjoyed it but didn’t love it

[Gavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, fast & loud. Incredible book and incredible writing. "I cross the river before midday ... sleep chasing me up the hill like a dog." Brilliant first person narrative. Life is messy and they don't get much messier than this. Gripping story of a home-coming interwoven with the death of her best friend and disappearance of her aunt many years ago. Oh, and lots of sex.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

What on face value is a “homecoming with your tail between your legs” story is much more enjoyable than that.

Black humour, a couple of mysteries solved and a writing style that suggests that Samantha Byres has a real ability to absorb all of life’s little idiosyncrasies and retell them perfect makes this a really good read.

[Ash · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Every queer from a small town I've ever met has had an extra layer of defensiveness, an extended adolescence, while they grow into themselves, into the people they couldn't be back where they were from."

I really enjoyed this read, it was witty but real. I just felt like it ended leaving me with a bunch of threads. Maybe that's life. And I suppose it fits with the narrator; a loose unit failing forwards with a bunch of unresolved trauma. Still.

That aside, I liked it for the lesbianic yearning, the sharp prose, and an intimate snapshot into small town New Zealand life.

[Richard Bowen · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Audiobook]
Enjoyed this listen. The frank description of sex (definitely not love) was kinda blunt, but it provided a great insight into the main character.
I probably needed to concentrate more, but I found myself confusing the other characters.
And the end. Yep, liked it. Left me thinking.
Narrator was clear and perfect for the book.

[Chloe · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story that somehow manages to weave so many themes together I was feeling whiplash. small town life, domestic violence, queer sex, a TV psychic, 70s communes, high school relationships.. some of it I loved, but overall was a bit too much of a jumble of themes so that each one didn't get the exploration or depth to really unpack it.

[Sagan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book injected fun back into my reading life. Thats not to say it isn’t serious, because it is. The content matter breaks your heart but he narrators voice makes you laugh. There’s kernels of wisdom under the guise of throwaway comments.

[Garth Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sam Byres nails the perma-adrift nihilism of being dragged, kicking, back into the rip of your messy small town genesis.

The prose is coiled and ruthless, the humour none-more-black, the themes serious as a triple bypass.

Fucken loved it.

More, now, please. 🙏🏼

[Claudia Hempenstall · Rating 1 out of 5]

The most unlikeable protagonist I’ve experienced since reading Lolita. Honestly I hated this book. It’s poorly paced and structured and the characters are all ridiculous. The central narrative isn’t clear and the book feels directionless for most of the time. I’m really disappointed in this read.

[chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up