Title: End Times
Author: Anna Schumacher
Series: Seems to be a series, no name yet
Genre: Pre-Apocolypic YA
Format: Hardcover, 352 pages
Release Date: May 20th 2014
Publisher: Razorbill
Source: ARC received by publisher in exchange for an honest review

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Carbon County, Wyoming is like a current running through Daphne’s heart.

When life gets too tough to bear in Detroit, Daphne flees to her Uncle Floyd’s home, where she believes she’ll find solace in the silent hills of her childhood summers. But Daphne’s Greyhound bus pulls over in downtown Carbon County and it’s not silence that welcomes her. It’s the sound of trumpets.

Daphne’s desire to start again in simple country comfort is instantly dashed as the townsfolk declare that the End Times are here. And incredible occurrences soon support their belief. Daphne does all she can to keep her head down and ignore the signs. She works a job at the local oil rig, helps around the house, hangs out with her pregnant cousin Janie and gets to know Owen, a mysterious motocross racer and fellow roustabout at the rig. But soon a startling discovery shatters her resolve and calls into question all her doubts and fears.
              
Daphne landed in Carbon County for a reason. She only has to read the signs—and believe.
 

End Times was a very interesting book for many reasons, but I will let you know that this book will not be for everyone. It is a little quirky, and a little strange at times, and I will admit that I raised my eyebrows at times wondering what the author was up to because the characters were just that strange and the circumstances were just that weird. But overall End Times is a book like none other, it combines realistic fiction with that of a dystopian, and it does it with ease.

The mystery surrounding the small town of Carbon County, Wyoming was the large part of why I kept reading this book. I wanted to know what was going on in this town and what was ultimately going to happen. First a young girl arrives (Daphne) and everything begins to change. Strange things begin to happen and they all revolved around her. Then she meets Owen, who seems to be the only person who understand her and what she is feeling. I really liked Owen, he was a great character to read, I thought he was very different then a lot of the other character that we met, especially since he is an outsider like Daphne to this small town.

This book has many different POVs and although I usually criticize a book for having many characters speaking about the same things, this book was different. It seemed to work really well for the story and I found myself wanting to see different point of view because I wanted a full understanding of the town and the different perspectives of that town and what was happening. But I will admit that some of the characters made me grind my teeth because they just seemed useless to me. Like Daphne's cousin. Although we figure out what he purpose t at the end of the book, her character was infuriating because she was so stupid! I wanted to scream at her all the times because it was like she didn't care about her own life, she just wanted everyone else to think it was perfect when really it was far from it. It was scenarios like that that caused me to lower my rating because I did not like all of the characters and disliking some of them dampened my enjoyment of the book.

I also thought that the story itself was a little far fetched. All of the events were very conveniently placed and based on the bible and plagues etc. I am not a religious person in the least and when a book shoves a religion in my face I tend to not like it as much, and I feel like that happened here a bit. I felt overwhelmed by religion because it was on every page. And I understand that it was what the story was based on and kept it going but for me, it was very overwhelming.

Overall End Times was a very interesting book and I did enjoy reading it overall. I disliked some of the characters and some of the religious aspects of the book, but the mystery of what was happening in the town and how Daphne was involved was very intriguing. A good read for those that are looking for something along the lines of a Dystopian but with a twist.