John Dies At End
I bought and read John Dies At The End because I saw the recent trailer for the forthcoming film adaptation and thought it seemed like something right up my street. Written by "David Wong", David Wong is in fact the protagonist of the novel, and this is his memoir. A style somewhat like Lemony Snicket (real name : Daniel Handler) the author of John Dies At The End is in fact Jason Pargin who is heavily involved in the running of massively popular website Cracked.com
David Wong (that isn't his real name either) and his friend John (also not his real name) live in an Undisclosed location in the Midwest of America. They have a gained a reputation as experts in dealing in supernatural phenomena after becoming caught up in a series of crazy situations some years before. David has agreed to meet with a journalist named Arnie who is known for his articles on unexplained phenomena and those who believe in them. David first recounts the most recent job he and John attended making them seem very much like ghostbusters, to Arnie's healthy scepticism before telling Arnie where it all began.
The thing with this book is that it brings the crazy, it really brings the crazy. David is an unreliable narrator anyway, John is also unreliable as a witness as they both freely admit to having taken psychotropic drug "Soy Sauce" but to enjoy this novel you have to suspend all your disbelief and go with the fact that everything is happening in this story just as David tells Arnie it did.
I am very much into "world isn't everything it seems" stories anyway, but if persistent occurrences like dogs driving cars and speaking like people and hot dogs turning into mobile phones, the phenomenon by which is never explained doesn't sound like your thing don't read it. I for one, just went with it. Though at times I was frustrated by the leap from one incident to the next often neither explained nor resolved, I really enjoyed this book and entering into this warped reality experienced by David and John. It was a thrilling journey. I imagine this book will have devoted fans and people who utterly hate it and very little in between though. Personally I look forward to both the movie and forthcoming sequel "This Book Is Full Of Spiders" 9/10
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