Westlake Soul

by Rio Youers

"All superheroes get their powers from somewhere. A radioactive spider bite. A science experiment gone awry. I got mine from a surfing accident in Tofino. The ultimate wipeout. I woke up with the most powerful mind on the planet, but a body like a wet paper bag . . . ."

Meet Westlake Soul, a twenty-three-year-old former surfing champion. A loving son and brother. But if you think he’s just a regular dude, think again; Westlake is in a permanent vegetative state. He can’t move, has no response to stimuli, and can only communicate with Hub, the faithful family dog. And like all superheroes, Westlake has an archenemy: Dr. Quietus—a nightmarish embodiment of Death itself. Westlake dreams of a normal life—of surfing and loving again. But time is running out; Dr. Quietus is getting closer, and stronger. Can Westlake use his superbrain to recover . . . to slip his enemy’s cold embrace before it’s too late?

Reviews - What's Being Said About Rio Youers & Westlake Soul

In this wry, heartbreaking fantasy, Youers (Dark Dreams, Pale Horses) explores the dark landscape of a healthy mind trapped in an unresponsive body... deftly captur[ing] the voice and raw emotion of a young man struggling to delay the inevitable
–Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Rio Youers is one of the most vital, most exciting young talents to come along in this decade . . . [He] writes beautiful phrases and sentences, and he has an instinctive feel for horror’s flash points, those moments in a novel when its author must demonstrate that he can keep his head while his readers are cheerfully losing theirs.
–Peter Straub

Westlake Soul is a novel of astonishing beauty and skill. In every generation there are writers who can reveal the souls of the characters that live inside their stories while simultaneously laying bare the secrets of the reader’s own heart, if only to them. Rio Youers is such a writer, and Westlake Soul—with all its pain, terror, beauty, wonder, and redemption—is such a novel: a classic in the making by an unforgettable, major new voice in speculative fiction.
–Michael Rowe, author of Enter, Night

With Westlake Soul, Youers has established himself not only as one of the very best voices in speculative fiction, but as one of the best and most important voices in all fiction . . . [It] is a masterpiece. It's the type of novel that will be read and re-read for years, a novel that writers will point to as the book that made them want to write or taught them how. It's that good. I could continue to pile on the praise, but I don't think that'll do this review or the book any justice. Just read it, and you'll understand.
–FearNet

If a single word can be used to describe a book, then Westlake Soul can only be described as transcendent . . . . This novel transcends genre. Youers’ lyrical prose transcends literary convention. Westlake himself transcends the page and lives in hearts of all who encounter him. Anyone who finishes this book and does not carry a bit of Westlake with them literally has no soul.
–Shroud Magazine

With thematic similarities to Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun, this imaginative mix of fantasy and reality combines highly dramatic subject matter with a narrative touch that is surprisingly light and funny. The ending, though, is haunting and more than a little emotionally charged. A daring and completely successful book.
–David Pitt, Booklist

Rio Youers is one of the reasons why I’m incredibly excited about, and optimistic for, the future of horror fiction. If you haven’t read his work before then start right here! Westlake Soul is a novel about the very essence of what it is to be human. Numinous, poignant and achingly emotional, it is both deeply tragic and soaringly life- affirming.
–Mark Morris

There are writers who are so talented that they can make you see the external manifestations of horror in all their full-blown Technicolor ghastliness. And then there are even more talented writers who make you feel horror’s heartrending internal effects. Rio Youers falls squarely into the latter category.
–Dark Scribe Magazine

Rio Youers’ storytelling is so charming, so affable, so apparently effortless, that you’re still grinning like an idiot when the sheer horror of his imagination leaps up and suckerpunches you in the gut.
–Robert Shearman

Sometimes—it happens very rarely-but sometimes you are privileged enough to read a book that touches your soul. A book that makes you feel blessed to have experienced it. A book that makes you look at life in a completely different way. Westlake Soul is one of these books.
–Just a Girl Geek