John Dies at the End
The John Dies at the End series, Book 1
David Wong
St. Martin's Griffin
Fiction, Horror/Humor
Themes: Aliens, Canids, Clones, Cross-Genre, Hidden Wonders, Portal Adventures, Weirdness
***+
Description
David Wong (not his real name) used to be an ordinary twentysomething Midwestern loser, still stuck in a dead-end video store in "Undisclosed"
(not a real city) and hanging out with other stuck losers like his best friend John (not a real name - or a real friend, in some ways, given what
he gets David into.) That was before they took their first hit of soy sauce (not a real sauce), a mysterious drug that wakes them to the invisible
forces around them that are often written off as hallucinations or supernatural nonsense. Suddenly, Undisclosed looks a lot less boring than is
used to, with shadow people (not really just shadows) and impossible monsters lurking around every corner, many of which have an irritating way of
trying to maim, terrorize, or simply kill the boys. David just wants to walk away and return to his ordinary, boring life (not a real life), but
John won't stop investigating - and before they know it, they're both in way over their heads, facing an imminent invasion by a force that makes
the Devil himself look quaintly charming.
(Note: in newer editions, the author is listed as Jason Pargin.)
Review
The title promises a fun, somewhat dark story, and that's more or less what it delivers. David's a deeply flawed protagonist, saddled with one of those friends who keeps making his life miserable, yet who is still somehow the most devoted companion a man could ask for, so he can't just walk away no matter how insane or outright annoying John can get. Their adventures are by turns absurd, surreal, grotesque, and horrific, overlaid with an almost desperate (by narrator David) sheen of existential levity in the face of seemingly certain doom and (literal) damnation. Descriptions could be crude, but vividly evoked the sense of twisted unreality David and John have been plunged into. It's certainly an original story, though I found myself growing irrated as it unwound; David goes out of his way to avoid engaging or advancing the main plot, deliberately veering off into tangents that didn't always pay off, and there was a bait-and-switch feel to the way several events played out. As a result, the book feels overlong. (There's also an unsubtle sexism underlaying the characterizations, another issue that grated on me the longer I read.) There are some great ideas and fun moments, particularly when it tweaks genre tropes, and it's definitely one of the most memorable stories I've read in some time, but this just isn't my cup of cocoa.