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Outlast Your Gods
Lost in his head, young Rowan dreams of a life he fears he’ll never have. Torn between chasing his own desires and pleasing his overbearing father, Rowan struggles to find a balance as he faces the challenges of growing up. When a new couple move into the trailer next door, Rowan befriends the confident and charismatic husband, a man named Sawyer. Unlike his father, Sawyer listens to Rowan. He listens a lot. He encourages Rowan to stand up to the town bullies and chase the girl he’s been fantasizing about. There’s a raw and honest edge to his advice that captures Rowan’s loyalty. But as their friendship grows, Rowan begins to sense that he’s on a collision course with a horrific darkness that began only as a shadow. When faced with the impossible, sometimes your only hope is to outlast your gods.
- GenresHorror
161 pages, Paperback
Published August 21, 2020
2 people are currently reading
184 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 24, 2025
1500th review!!! Thank you to all my Topsiders who have supported me thus far in my journey through the literary world! And to mark this awesome occasion, I wanted to do something special. So, I bought Elias Witherow’s Outlast Your Gods. His Black Farm books changed the way I viewed horror and he’s just stupid talented. Here, Rowan was a wonderful lead and the author perfectly captured the torturous experience of sitting in church, being around a girl you like at a young age, and the general awkwardness and anxiety associated with adolescence. More specifically, also being around an abusive and traumatic environment with toxic and dangerous people, which created a shockingly realistic nightmare. Witherow really captured the heart of all the characters. Not many of them, but there didn’t need to be. The concept had me reminiscing about many parts of my unpleasant childhood, so a lot of this hit hard. The story was raw and meaningful and kept me nauseous throughout. Exactly the way it should have impacted me as the reader. I’m giving this 4.5 stars, only because I felt like the ending was a bit incomplete and rushed, but not by much. No spoilers, but I would have liked some additional context to wrap all the loose ends up a bit further. However, what we got was still very good. Here’s to 1500 more reviews!
October 9, 2025
Dark, twisted, a great place for a child...
A page turner.
The ending, over and done with before I wanted it to be. Tell me more about what happened after! 😢
A page turner.
The ending, over and done with before I wanted it to be. Tell me more about what happened after! 😢
December 30, 2020
A dark page turner.
Dark And twisted, this story was quite the page turner on a dark night. However, I felt as though it didn't live up to its full potential. Definitely not one of Witherow's best works.
Still, I rate it 4 stars because I did enjoy reading it and wound up finishing it almost as fast I did The Third Parent.
I think you should really read it for yourself. It's worth it.
Dark And twisted, this story was quite the page turner on a dark night. However, I felt as though it didn't live up to its full potential. Definitely not one of Witherow's best works.
Still, I rate it 4 stars because I did enjoy reading it and wound up finishing it almost as fast I did The Third Parent.
I think you should really read it for yourself. It's worth it.
February 21, 2025
Full Spoilers and mindless rambling ahead:
I have such an appreciation and love for Elias Witherows work that he's quickly become my favorite author. I love the first two parts of Tommy Taffy and I'll be reading the novel of the Third Parent soon, his short story Feed the Pig is incredible (can't wait to dive into the Black Farm!) And I really love his short story Tall Dog. He has such an interesting way with words and weaving imagery in such a beautiful and at times horrifying way. And the way he uses very visceral imagrey to convey interesting themes is incredible. And I can safely add this to stories I love by him that do that.
It's dark, twisted, violent and can be very brutal. Rowan is a young man and is often dealt a bad hand. He is bullied, gets in trouble for it and its very unfair to him because it aeems like no one listens to him outside of his absolute saint of a mother, Rose. He soon meets a man named Sawyer who is his new neighbor and has a care free attitude and is seemingly very nice. So he finds himself being tugged between a more reserved upbringing and Sawyers care free demeanor. His father who is very strict, and while he has good intentions it does come across as kinda selfish. As if only concerned about how his family is viewed even if it means treating him unfairly.
For example Rowan comes across a rabid dog who is fighting an innocent dog and kills it, then it targets him and gets attacked by that same dog (some nice subtle foreshadowing of what Sawyer will soon become. The equivalent of a rabid dog) and Rowan has to unfortunately kill the dog. It's either him or the dog. And when Rowans dad sees the state he's in, beaten up, bloodied and traumatized he just fixated on the fact he had to kill a rabid dog. Seemingly uncaring of the state he's in.
And slowly Sawyers true colors comes to light as he becomes unpredictable, dark, twisted, unhinged and out of control. And it all comes to a head at the end where Sawyer is beating up his wife Gayle, who is also a saint and undeserving of his wrath and unwarranted aggression. Rowans dad George hears whats going on next door and comes in and starts trying to help save Gayle and Rowan. During a struggle between George and Sawyer, Rowan had to shoot him to get him off his dad. And to protect those around him George delievers the final blows and takes out Sawyer.
There's a beautiful moment between George and Rowan after everything happens where George finally sees how he's been acting and they have an exchange that has so much heart it made me teary eyed.
Honestly I love the way the book ended. I totally get why some wouldn't get satisfaction with it. George tells Rowan to tell the police he shot Sawyer. So Rowan reluctantly agrees and his father gets brought in for questioning. Personally it gave me enough to latch onto to have a very satisfying ending. It gives George a nice bit of growth which I loved. In my mind I was screaming GET HIM GEORGE!!!! And to have him do what he did was just the perfect way to sell that he actually does love his son, but was going about showing him how to be a good person in not the best way. Rowan in turn wants to help his dad and set this whole story straight once he's out of the hospital. There's also a beautiful and wonderfully earned moment between him and his crush, Brenda at the end of the last chapter and it's a great way to end the story.
Sure I wish there was an epilog of sorts giving us full closure knowing how George gets out of trouble. But personally everything that happens at the end points to a very apparent self defense case. Maybe made complicated if Rowan does want to come forward and say hes the ine who shot Sawyer. So I fully believe it works out. But it would be nice to see that written out. But that's just a nitpick honestly. I love this story! Elias Witherow does it again. :3 A brutal but in other ways beautiful tale about family, finding your place in this world, some smatterings of toxic traits some men can be raised in (not crying, just put your head down, work and conform to traditional ideals), and just navigating the confusion of growing up.
I have such an appreciation and love for Elias Witherows work that he's quickly become my favorite author. I love the first two parts of Tommy Taffy and I'll be reading the novel of the Third Parent soon, his short story Feed the Pig is incredible (can't wait to dive into the Black Farm!) And I really love his short story Tall Dog. He has such an interesting way with words and weaving imagery in such a beautiful and at times horrifying way. And the way he uses very visceral imagrey to convey interesting themes is incredible. And I can safely add this to stories I love by him that do that.
It's dark, twisted, violent and can be very brutal. Rowan is a young man and is often dealt a bad hand. He is bullied, gets in trouble for it and its very unfair to him because it aeems like no one listens to him outside of his absolute saint of a mother, Rose. He soon meets a man named Sawyer who is his new neighbor and has a care free attitude and is seemingly very nice. So he finds himself being tugged between a more reserved upbringing and Sawyers care free demeanor. His father who is very strict, and while he has good intentions it does come across as kinda selfish. As if only concerned about how his family is viewed even if it means treating him unfairly.
For example Rowan comes across a rabid dog who is fighting an innocent dog and kills it, then it targets him and gets attacked by that same dog (some nice subtle foreshadowing of what Sawyer will soon become. The equivalent of a rabid dog) and Rowan has to unfortunately kill the dog. It's either him or the dog. And when Rowans dad sees the state he's in, beaten up, bloodied and traumatized he just fixated on the fact he had to kill a rabid dog. Seemingly uncaring of the state he's in.
And slowly Sawyers true colors comes to light as he becomes unpredictable, dark, twisted, unhinged and out of control. And it all comes to a head at the end where Sawyer is beating up his wife Gayle, who is also a saint and undeserving of his wrath and unwarranted aggression. Rowans dad George hears whats going on next door and comes in and starts trying to help save Gayle and Rowan. During a struggle between George and Sawyer, Rowan had to shoot him to get him off his dad. And to protect those around him George delievers the final blows and takes out Sawyer.
There's a beautiful moment between George and Rowan after everything happens where George finally sees how he's been acting and they have an exchange that has so much heart it made me teary eyed.
Honestly I love the way the book ended. I totally get why some wouldn't get satisfaction with it. George tells Rowan to tell the police he shot Sawyer. So Rowan reluctantly agrees and his father gets brought in for questioning. Personally it gave me enough to latch onto to have a very satisfying ending. It gives George a nice bit of growth which I loved. In my mind I was screaming GET HIM GEORGE!!!! And to have him do what he did was just the perfect way to sell that he actually does love his son, but was going about showing him how to be a good person in not the best way. Rowan in turn wants to help his dad and set this whole story straight once he's out of the hospital. There's also a beautiful and wonderfully earned moment between him and his crush, Brenda at the end of the last chapter and it's a great way to end the story.
Sure I wish there was an epilog of sorts giving us full closure knowing how George gets out of trouble. But personally everything that happens at the end points to a very apparent self defense case. Maybe made complicated if Rowan does want to come forward and say hes the ine who shot Sawyer. So I fully believe it works out. But it would be nice to see that written out. But that's just a nitpick honestly. I love this story! Elias Witherow does it again. :3 A brutal but in other ways beautiful tale about family, finding your place in this world, some smatterings of toxic traits some men can be raised in (not crying, just put your head down, work and conform to traditional ideals), and just navigating the confusion of growing up.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 31, 2021
That's the ending?
I am really disappointed in this ending. I mean do they tell? Are we going to get a 2nd book. I am so lost.
I am really disappointed in this ending. I mean do they tell? Are we going to get a 2nd book. I am so lost.
April 11, 2024
The ending was pretty dissapointing, + overall not a very interesting read. This author has many other books that are worth checking out, though!!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews