Reaper's Bend

by Jonah Evarts

Kairos will stop at nothing to get his revenge. He chases the man who took everything from him deep into the twisted land of death, Reaper's Bend.

Eris refuses to give into the curse that's slowly killing her. Legend has it that the fabled Eternity Tree resting at the edge of the Bend might just save her.

Monsters and creatures from out of their nightmares await them as they stumble into a web of ancient blood feuds, discovering quickly that their tasks are not as simple as they seem. And in Reaper's Bend, even death itself may not be a respite.

Genres: Fantasy

498 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 30, 2025

Reviews

[Jonah Evarts · Rating 5 out of 5]

I might be slightly biased.

[Youssra (semi ia)]

Jonah is one of my favorite book content creators, so I'm so excited for his debut!

[Allison Evarts]

Loved it! I may also be slightly biased…That being said, I have also been consuming fantasy, sci-fi, and horror longer than the author has been alive so when I tell you this was a great read, take that for what you will! I loved the delicious creepy elements sprinkled in throughout - those were surprising! I thought the fight scenes were excellent. The plot line was interesting and I enjoyed learning about the characters and watching their relationship develop. I was never bored at all. I recommend you read it and strongly urge you then write a review so I don’t put a pox upon you. Thank you. 😊

[♡ Dakota ♡ (Sarcasm is my middle name)]

I enjoy Jonah’s content on social media. This has me very excited.

[꧁𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑙.𝑥𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑛𝑠꧂ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty solid debut, definitely felt tropey at times but the writing itself was strong. Took me a while to get invested in either of the main characters, though I preferred Eris.

[Jordy Rousse · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put this book down.
I had the same feeling for the first half of this book as I did for Piranesi… I kept wondering what the heck was happening, and HAD TO keep reading because I NEEDED to know! And let me tell you, it did not disappoint. I loved both main characters. I loved their journey (both physical and metaphorical). I loved the Lore. And I loved the story of the gods.

Definitely a must read!
Great job Jonah - I want to be you when I grow up!

[Mia Arotta · Rating 2 out of 5]

ngl this felt like it could’ve used another round of editing. the top reviews being more about this guy’s “influencing” should have been a sign.

[Annalise · Rating 2 out of 5]

For some reason, this book felt like it was built around popular tropes and arcs instead of being its own thing. The prose was nice at times but felt like it was trying too hard to be quotable to the detriment of the story. I did enjoy the characters, especially Kairos.

[Salinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an absolute ride! This book starts off fast and Jonah keeps his foot on the pedal!

We go on a journey with our two mcs and a dog to defeat a scarred man win or lose! Our quest for vengeance takes us on a tragic and beautiful story about what it means to be human in the wastes. And believe me, the story translates well to our normal where and thus helps connecting and feeling these characters! I think many of the lessons and dialogues will speak to readers like it spoke to me!

I absolute adored these two characters and that damn dog!

Also, I’m a total Varsik girlie!

I look forward to more books by these incredibly talented author!

Favorite Quote: “Grief is the ghost of love…”

GRADE: 4.5/5 (rounded up for Goodreads)

[Mackenzie Lem · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had very low expectations for Reaper’s Bend (not in a bad way) knowing that this is the Author’s first book. Some of the prose was a bit clumsy at times but I felt as though the author did a fantastic job setting the scene and building the emotional connection with the characters. My only real complaint about the writing is that I wish there had been some additional tension between the characters and more building on the romance between Eris and Kairos (not in an explicit/romantasy way, but maybe more budding of friendship before the romance) - particularly I would have loved to see a little bit more like the scenes we get of them at the library exploring their grief and healing together. I also would have loved to see a little more of their background woven into the story but I realize a first novel can only be so long and some of those details do need to get cut in editing for the sake of time, so a very minor complaint on my side I would say.

That being said, their story impacted me in a way I wasn’t super prepared for and was pleasantly surprised by. The author has some banger one-liners in here, too. I cried a bit at the end of this which is hard for a book to get out of me. I LOVED the arcs of the characters, I loved the way the book ended, and I loved the commentary on grief, empowerment, love, kindness, and finding your own path. I did almost deduct a star concerning Spot, I am glad to report I didn’t have to vindictively give a lower rating on that, haha!

Overall I think this was a fantastic first work. I can’t wait to read more from Jonah and hope they continue to write stories for us to enjoy. This was entertaining and impactful, and you can tell a lot of love, care, and hard work went into this!!!

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a time where I’m feeling pretty bummed about the world, this book gave me an escape and lent me its own brand of hope. Thank you, Jonah, for writing characters we see ourselves in and the reminder that we are more capable of greatness than we think. An incredible debut, I can’t wait for his next work.

[Kristina Guarriello · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 - really impressive debut worth checking out!

[Rina · Rating 1 out of 5]

it is my greatest regret to rate this book the way i have (1.5 stars), and it is, so far, my greatest disappointment of 2026.

jonah is one of my favorite booktokers — not that i follow that many, as i tend to stay away from the generalization of booktok as a whole. but since i resumed my reading journey, jonah has been a constant on my feed, and i've thoroughly enjoyed the manner in which he speaks about the books he's read. he's only steered me wrong a few times so far (i really hated addie larue, and the housemaid), but i digress. the point is, i love his content and i was beyond thrilled to hear he was working on a book, and as soon as it became available, i pre-ordered his novel. for everything i know of jonah's content and his taste in genres and opinions on books and the way with which he passionately weaves words together to animatedly discuss his latest reads as he implores booktok to further expand their TBRs, i fully expected to love his book. but, it became evident from the first few pages that this was going to be a painful book to get through. the fact it took me 2 weeks to read this says it all. i could only get through approximately five pages at a time before i swiped out of my kindle app and had to take a moment to reflect, or distract myself, before pushing back through.

there is very little that worked for me, and i am so, so, so, so upset that i feel this way. i feel terrible! guilty! i really wanted to love this, and i'm genuinely heartbroken that i don't love it, that i couldn't even mildly like it. the longer i read, the more i read, the longer it took me to read, the more frustrated i became, and the more i began to resent — then hate — this book, and i really, truly hate that i feel this way. i love jonah's content, and i respect him wholeheartedly, so i promise i am not trying to be cruel, but i am going to be as honest as possible.

reading is subjective, and i just wish i were among the majority (thus so far) who loved jonah's debut. i wanted so desperately to love this. to like this. i cannot overstate just how sad it makes me to write this review, that this book filled me with so much negativity.

what did work for me:
— the prose was nice, sometimes. sometimes. jonah's strengths, in my opinion, were describing the gritty details of the scenery and the world. it made it easy to picture and visualize. there were plenty of bold details that were very punchy and nice to read. however, for me, it stops there.
— the concept of this story and its plot are both interesting. the worldbuilding could use a little bit of work, but overall was interesting enough to keep people hooked. however, again, for me, the positives stop there.
— the dog. i liked the dog. i don't like how the dog was written, but i can't hate a dog, you know? "but rina how can you hate how a dog is written!" don't worry. i'll get to that.
— tanys. probably the best character next to the dog, but that isn't saying much, because the characters in this book were, unfortunately, in my opinion, poorly written, poorly characterized, and quite frankly, immensely insufferable.

i think the list stops there. there really wasn't much i liked, and i really, really say this with a heavy heart.

what didn't work for me:
— the dialogue. at many, many, points. if not nearly all of them. i hated it. it felt extremely unnatural. i hated the exaggeration in the constant caps locks and bold formatting. it ruined the immersion. it came across as sloppy writing, like a failure in describing the sound or tone of voice, so we took the cheap, easy route by leaning into formatting instead of, you know, writing. the conversations between characters are extremely forced, and sometimes they go on for so, so long with what feels like no end. not only that, but the dialogue switched between trying to feel fantasy-esque to being all too modern, especially every time eris spoke. perhaps it's a stylistic choice to show that eris does not come from a background of education, but there's a difference between being poor and uneducated and the author making the choice to write "gonna" in the dialogue, or things like, "What the ... Ah. Not good. Really not good." it's like, tropey, trying too hard to be funny or insert moments of levity where there shouldn't be any at all.
— the swearing. eris swears, constantly. it's almost her entire personality. i understand it's supposed to make her look like she isn't like other girls, that she's tough and brazen and foul-mouthed and so cool, but the way she swears is just intensely unnatural and forced.
— so on that note, eris. eris did not work for me. just to copy and paste my note from kindle:

eris is genuinely insufferable as a character. so is kairos for the record. but eris annoys me even more just because of how she swears all the time. it’s so forced and unnatural and feels more like a trope rather than a display of personality. she’s supposed to come off as brash and uncouth and emotional but the way she swears feels childish. it’s really forced, like the author was just looking for ways to shoehorn it in for a giggle. it ruins serious moments. it’s so unnecessary.

—kairos. i did not like him either, but i have substantially less to say because he just didn't stand out to me at all. it didn't feel as though he had any sort of personality. he was not really memorable, and i don't see what there is to like about him. he was just sort of there, but he pissed me off in the beginning for his stupidity and the way he treated the dog.
— the abuse of onomatopoeia. like, when i say abuse, i mean abuse. it was constant in your face at all times. WOOF! WOOF! WOOFWOOF! or Tweet! TweetTweet! like! this is just bad writing. and, again, the cheap and easy route to avoid describing the barks, the chirping. it's lazy, and above all, it was incredibly annoying. it comes across as childish writing. it was extremely aggravating to read. i can forgive it if it were written like, "And then he hears it, a sharp bark cutting into the silence. Woof!" or somefuckingthing like that, just as a quick example. But it's always capitalized, and completely overused. it made it hard to not be mad at the dog just for barking simply because the author decided to do the most insufferable thing possible to portray the dog barking.

— the writing. for what few positive notes i made about the writing, i have more negatives. this is going to have to be broken down into sections of its own, because there was just so much.

• "The sun was a fat red ball [...]" — there is zero finesse to the writing. i know this is the author's debut, but i expect a little more maturity to the craft when it comes to fantasy novels. there is a difference between succinctness and just blunt, poor word choice. this is the latter. sure, it does the job, paints the picture, but i imagine there's nicer ways to write this.
• "Like an egg cracked over his head, all the rage and wrath and hate that he’d ever felt returned." for the particular tense moment that this scene was giving off, this was a poor metaphor. there had to be a better way to phrase this, rather than an egg being cracked over his head.
• all tell, no show. this book's writing suffered from this, immensely. it took away from the immersion and storytelling. we were constantly trapped in the characters' heads and their inner narration of asking stupid questions, or explaining to the reader in their thoughts or in dialogue the things that should have been carefully described in the writing, but no, we were told this and that and everything in between. again, it's a lack of finesse.
• i feel like i could say more but it's already slipping. this book was extremely long to have done almost nothing. like, yes, things happened, but the pacing was horrible, the interactions were forced, and it was just missing so much substance. it was a lot of words written to have done so little that i started speed reading and still didn't miss a beat. i saw another reviewer compare the reading level of this to eragon and i would just like to say, respectfully, put some respect on eragon's name because eragon was written by paolini at 15 and it still holds out very well, actually.

the writing style was just really annoying me. again, the constant introspection, the constant asking questions in the narration. it does not add to the characters' voices. it just comes off as boring, sloppy writing. this book needed several more rounds of edits. i really truly hate to make this comparison, but this book felt terribly like the age of scorpius, the notorious book on tiktok that was hyped up to hell and back and flopped on its debut because it became clear that it suffered in editing processes and missed its mark. reaper's bend feels exactly like that, to me.

— again, the pacing. it was all over the place. kairos and eris meet rather quickly. i would have liked more backstory for the setting, to see what starts them on the journey, to see their personal motivations as to what gets them going on the road instead of hearing about it and seeing them forced to interact and forced to speak. their every interaction felt like it was playing into a trope. and i know i'm getting repetitive, but i really, truly cannot overstate just how forced all of their interactions were. their dialogue, eris convincing herself to join kairos, the constant "i know we're strangers and don't owe each other anything but i'm going to journey to the ends of the earth with you anyway" like that's so fucking annoying! like pardon my language, but this book was so frustrating.
— the worldbuilding. the premise was there. the promises of something great were there. but there was little immersion. it felt like eris and kairos were journeying and nothing was happening except a bunch of sleeping and taking turns taking watch and sleeping in shifts and a bunch of insufferable, obnoxious, forced dialogue. i wanted to know more about the world, how things came to be this way, what happened to its people. where are all the people? i wanted to see interactions along the way with more than just the gods. the stakes were high, sure, but it didn't feel like it, in large due to this. it just didn't feel like anything was so dire, aside from the fact that eris was cursed and that kairos was being held hostage by a vengeful god.
— the gods. oh my god. they were actually insufferable. i think they were my least favorite characters of all. the concept of them were so interesting, and it's just so unfortunate they were written the way they were. again, the dialogue is a problem. the lack of finesse in the writing is a problem. they had the personalities of children and it was just so, so, so sad. it was aggravating! worst of all was varsik. varsik felt like a discount loki or, i don't know if anyone played FF14, but also felt like a discount emet-selch. like varsik felt like they were trying to be some trickster-type god and it was just! awful! the dialogue from and between varsik was just so, so, so insufferable.

i don't know what else to say, because there are so many small, specific things that really annoyed me. reading this book filled me with such immense frustration that it was truly beginning to anger me. i hate that i feel this way when i was so excited to read this. i hate that, in the end, i came out resenting this book. there was not a lot of good in it, in my opinion. i know it's a debut, but there have been so many incredible books i've read that have been debuts. to mention it again, eragon. that book has stood against the test of time, and it's incredible, considering paolini's age when he wrote that book. empire of silence by christopher ruocchio, to name another. now, that book was incredible and i still cannot believe it was a debut.

i had high expectations, and unfortunately, none of them were met. i'm left saddened by what could have been, and just bereft by what i've been left with. i wish i had kinder things to say. i truly regret that i could not enjoy this book. it felt unpolished, and i hate saying that, knowing this is the fifth attempt to bring this story to life. it needed so much more editing and polish and finesse. i wish jonah luck in future endeavors, because he does have such incredible potential, but this debut fell short for me.

[Zac · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reaper’s Bend Review

-No Spoilers YET-

I rate this book and write this review with the heaviest of hearts. I, like most people who will read this book, discovered Jonah Evarts via TikTok due to him posting book reviews and recommendations. I’ve watched countless of his videos because of his passion and excitement for books and storytelling combined with his natural charisma and personality. My favorite book of all time? Recommended by Jonah via TikTok. My favorite Sci-fi book? Recommended by Jonah via TikTok. There are more books I’ve read and more I will read because Jonah specifically recommended them. So when I hear that Jonah himself has written a book that combines all of the story elements and character arcs he enjoys (which I also enjoy), I was beyond excited to read it. I started reading his book the DAY it released and even preordered it. He has never let me down.

Until now.

When starting a new book, there can be growing pains. New characters, new world, new POV, new writing style, new author, etc. I’ve felt these growing pains before for books I’ve read and loved. The pains when reading only a few pages of Reaper’s Bend were strong. After 5 chapters, I was already considering the DNF route. But, sometimes you gotta listen to a song more than once, or read a book for a little longer, or watch a movie again to like it. So I pressed on. That was a mistake.

My first and constant complaint is the writing. The book is written on a reading level consistent with PJO and Eragon, etc. which isn’t an issue per se but it’s good to know in case you aren’t interested in reading at that level. Even if you are though, it’s still bad. I get the sense that Jonah saw this as a movie in his head and is trying to tell us what he sees. Jonah consistently tells us everything instead of showing. This is why the character is doing this, this is what the character is feeling about x y z event, etc. Coupled with the random sprinkling of word-of-the-day-thesaurus finds, it’s jarring. Also, the entire book is in 3rd person BUT will shift “perspectives” between the main characters? Ok, I guess. Perhaps I am biased in this next critique, I can acknowledge that, but I know how Jonah speaks about books. And there are lots of times reading Reaper’s Bend that I can feel Jonah’s TikTok book talk in the words I’m reading.

But what about the story itself? This review exists because of the story, because I kept reading hoping for salvation. I was not saved.

-SPOILERS AHEAD-

Reaper’s Bend is an area of the world that is barren and desolate. Long ago, there existed gods of various types, all of which are dead now. Our main character (Kairos) is marching through this land to find a man responsible for killing his family. He quickly stumbles into a dog (like a normal dog in our world) that starts following him and then promptly runs into trouble with some sort of monster. Kairos fights and runs away and ends up falling down a slope in a forest, landing at the feet of our second main character (Eris). This meeting isn’t satisfying to me. But then salt gets rubbed into my wound because neither character wants to travel with a companion, until Eris convinces herself (??) that it’s a good idea. Also the dog is still here. We learn that Eris actually has a good backstory and character motivation only for all of that to be thrown out of the window in favor of completing Kairos’s quest.

Kairos quickly finds the man that killed his family only to discover it was intentional as a ploy to draw Kairos to Reaper’s Bend so that an old god can take over his body and use him as a tool to kill a bunch of gods. Yes, the dead gods. They are … alive? Somehow? Maybe dead god means they are no longer responsible for making the world work but they’re still alive and in a weakened state. But we see dead god bodies earlier so… I don’t know. This god takes over Kairos’s body to fight and kill a different god. Then Kairos is forced to continue and kill other gods. He tries to go home and gets deathly sick. Also, he can’t die. Like, he dies but gets brought back to life. So he literally has no desire to do this, but he also has no choice. All of this culminates to a very uninteresting main character.

But the worst part is the stupid dog. It is extremely obvious very quickly that this dog is some sort of god or powerful being in disguise, maybe something else but it’s meant to be a surprise twist that the dog is not just a normal dog. God forbid it isn’t any of that because the book only moves along BECAUSE of the dog. It constantly finds our characters and barks so that they can go back and save each other from death. Or it leads to them to where they need to go. Or… it shows up one morning with a key to give to them. A key that neither the characters nor the reader know anything about. Then the dog leads them to the keyhole, even showing them to look behind a tapestry. It’s bad enough our characters seem to have no agency, but there’s also a literal dog pulling them in the “right” direction?

We get some history about the 5 main gods of the world and their history with the 6th god that is trying to kill them all. This history is actually kind of interesting and provides a decent motive for our antagonist.

The ending.

It ends. Turns out there is another plot twist, but that’s only because the evil god of the main 5 is arrogant and stupid. Our heroes defeat the bad guy because the dog turns out to be a champion of a different god that was trapped in dog form and he gave the heroes the tools and information to be able to win. The power of the gods that was absorbed into the bad guy was released upon his defeat and Kairos gets to absorb it and attain godlike powers until he uses it up. He fixes all of the problems, including the interesting backstory of Eris, and then he doesn’t exist anymore.

In conclusion, this book attempts to be the typical high fantasy hero adventure but falls flat because of bad writing, hollow world building, and characters with no agency.

JONAH if you are reading this I sincerely sincerely hope you take this as the constructive criticism I wish it to be. I still think you’re great and keep doing what you do.

[Andy Peloquin · Rating 5 out of 5]

TL;DR Review: A shockingly good debut. A dark and beautiful story about hurt people finding healing through healing another.

Full Review:
I’m calling it now: Jonah Evarts is a talent to watch! Anyone who comes out swinging so hard with such a powerful debut is an author the world needs to take notice of.
Reaper’s Bend drops you into a grim, gritty world: mostly barren save for plants and animals that are definitely trying to kill our main characters, it feels like the wastelands of The Vagrant and The Dark Tower. It feels tonally similar to those as well, with a character (Kairos) who is hell-bent on pursuing their family’s murderer across this blasted world, at any cost, even if it sets him to face down gods and monsters of nightmare.
But where it diverges from those books is that Kairos is not alone. Where his journey begins with only the nightmares in his head for company, he ultimately finds himself companions who are too stubborn to leave him behind: Eris, a bounty hunter trying to outrun a terrible curse, and Dog, a dog who…well, he’s just the goodest boy in a lot of truly delightful ways.
Both Kairos and Eris are haunted by their pasts, carrying through this wasteland enough emotional baggage to fill three wagons. As they journey together, the broken pieces of their lives slowly start to fit together—accidentally at first, but more intentionally the more they come to understand each other. It becomes a story about hurt people finding healing through healing another. Their stories are unique, and yet they both bear deep scars and are trapped in their own lives. It’s only when they each help the other that they find their own way forward to healing and a better life.
Be warned: this is not a happy story. It’s dark, bloody, gripping, and visceral. Kairos dies repeatedly, and every time he is dragged back to life by the mad god who is determined to use him to execute his vengeance on the world. There is suffering, there is pain and loss, there is so much misery in this bleak world.
And yet, by the end, you will find you have been on a journey that leads to…if not a happy ending, one that is incredibly emotional satisfying. The ending had me in literal tears, and I found myself truly enchanted by the journey.
It starts off a bit slowly, focusing on the individual characters’ suffering and pain, but once it kicks off and really sinks its teeth into their bond, it becomes an emotional experience I cannot recommend highly enough. One of my top indie reads of 2025, one that marks Jonah as a talent to watch for sure!

[Sarah Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reaper’s Bend throws you straight into the wreckage of an Elden Ring-style apocalypse and asks the more interesting question of what comes after the battle is over. The world is bleak, bloody, and unforgiving, and for a debut, the prose absolutely punches above its weight. Evarts has a knack for vivid, gory imagery and some seriously good one-liners that make the violence land again and again.

I did wish for a bit more backstory before the quest kicked off, but once you’re in, it’s hard not to keep going - especially with a dog sidekick (Spot is the real MVP) and the surprisingly fun contrast between Eris’ comedic relief and Kairos’ stubborn, broody misery. Not my usual cup of tea, but ambitious and visceral, and I’m genuinely interested to see how Evarts sharpens his craft in future books.

[Sid Aylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

4⭐️ A little sad that Kairos didn’t get to be a father. Although I do like a good bittersweet ending. Love that Kairos and Eris’ relationship didn’t feel forced and rushed and actually took time to develop.

[Mitchell Lamy]

Great debut from one of my favorite booktokers. Hope to see more.

[Cathrine Thorstensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

«We do not have control of the randomness of this world, but we do have control over how we act in accordance with it.»