John Dies At The End - David Wong

 

“Fred said, “Man, I think he’s gonna make a fuckin’ suit of human skin, using the best parts from each of us.”
“Holy crap,” said John. “He’ll be gorgeous.”

 

Do you like Cabin in the Woods?   Keep reading - someone besides Joss Whedon GETS it.

 

So.  I finished school for the summer - didn't opt in to do the whole soul-killing experience known as summer school this time around, so I guess I'll be, you know, sort of, kind of, doing what I actually enjoy doing, which is reading, writing and playing video games again.

 

Yay.

 

Anyway, while I was trying to make my body less Blob-like by working out at the gym, I found that my sweaty, unforgivably pale hands felt bereft of, I don't know, somethng.  I cured that by looking probably quite odd by being the only person sweating on a machine while reading a book - not an e-reader device, a paper book.  And, I mean, not on a treadmill - I feel as though I get enough cardio outside of the gym, so all I usually do when I go is the strength machines.  What this means is that while I'm pressing some weighted bar in some manner with my body, if my arms are not in active use, I have started bringing a book to read while I sweat.

 

To the point - I learned just how much time I have to read while I work out when I started reading this and I mostly read this thing while sweating.  Well, re-read; this is actually a long-time favorite of mine, and this is the first time that I have re-read this.

 

Well, what can I say - something like this certainly deserves to be re-read.

 

To whit - it's a very funny, very grotesque, strangely touching story that exemplifies what I see as what I am, on a very specific level, looking for when I read fiction.  The narrator is very much aware of the reader's preseance and the whole thing feels like a show put on for the audience.  A gonzo, ADHD-influenced burst of biting, imaginative goodness forms the heart of a strange tale told from the point of view of a straight man (I use this to mean not that David is, you know, straight, although he is, but in the comedy sense of the term)  in a maelstrom of craziness. 

 

Well, what else?

 

Ride along with this book by the seat of your pants and don't get attached to anything.  It's a rollercoaster ride, a haunted house attraction and an extremely funny action movie all put together with the vesitgal limbs of all of these genres thrashing about feriously.  This is not a bad thing.

 

Between a clone sideplot that reminds me of the episode of Rick and Morty where they took the place of another Rick and Morty following them turning their world into ConenbergWorld and a character arc that is mostly there and delivers more than a few surprises in the form of the realization that the protagonist is actually probably somewhat of a sociopath on top of being a Korrok clone version of himself that killed the REAL David Wong, this book has a lot more to it than shock value or frat boy comedy.

 

The best moments in the book include any John heavy moments, who provides the perfect oppositional energy to David's low key, borderline heartless mindset.    The worst parts of the book are when John is not in the story - thankfully, 75% of the book has John actively in the story. However - there is a period in the story in which there is a year where NOTHING, and I do mean NOTHING - happens, and John's activity in these chapter(s) is light.  It reads a lot like John Dies @ the End lite, and it's a damn shame.

 

The best part of the book, in my opinion - and this is rough to pick, because I guarantee that most readers of this book will pick other parts of the book out instead and would gladly argue this point with me - is the Jellyfish interrogation scene.  Trust me, denying a lot of what John says/does - or, hell, what Molly the Truck Driving Dog does - is hard, but I think I laugh the hardest at the more absurd and well written parts and to me the Jellyfish interrogation is just the best example of the whole thing becaue, dammit, that Jellyfish certainly was hiding something.

(show spoiler)

Not the mostly tightly written/plotted thing in existence, that is not neccesarily a bad thing, but it is evident by reading it that sometimes things just happen and you and Pargin are just rolling through it, no matter the injuries you will sustain along the way.

 

Enough of the criticism shit - I know what you all want - hell, it's all that I want -

 

CAMEL HOLOCAUST