John Dies at the End
John Dies at the End is a genre-bending, humorous account of two college drop-outs inadvertently charged with saving their small town—and the world—from a host of supernatural and paranormal invasions.
This updated special edition includes commentary from the characters and the author!
"[Jason Pargin] has updated the Lovecraft tradition and infused it with humor that rather than lessening the horror, increases it dramatically. Every time I set the book down, I was wary that something really was afoot, that there were creatures I couldn't see, and that because I suspected this, I was next. Engaging, comic, and terrifying." —Joe Garden, Features Editor, The Onion
"[Pargin] is like a mash-up of Douglas Adams and Stephen King... 'page-turner' is an understatement." —Don Coscarelli, director, Phantasm I-V, Bubba Ho-tep
STOP. You should not have touched this book with your bare hands. NO, don't put it down. It's too late. They're watching you. My name is David. My best friend is John. Those names are fake. You might want to change yours. You may not want to know about the things you'll read on these pages, about the sauce, about Korrok, about the invasion, and the future. But it's too late. You touched the book. You're in the game. You're under the eye. The only defense is knowledge. You need to read this book, to the end. Even the part with the bratwurst. Why? You just have to trust me.
The important thing is this: The sauce is a drug, and it gives users a window into another dimension. John and I never had the chance to say no. You still do.
Unfortunately for us, if you make the right choice, we'll have a much harder time explaining how to fight off the otherworldly invasion currently threatening to enslave humanity.
I'm sorry to have involved you in this, I really am. But as you read about these terrible events and the very dark epoch the world is about to enter as a result, it is crucial you keep one thing in mind: None of this was my fault.
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
John Dies at the End wasn't a bad book. It wasn't fantastically written and has a narrator that is the equivalent of 15 year old boy trapped in a 32 year old man's body. There is a ton of chaos and enough creativity in the story to keep the intrigue and to keep readers guessing but by no means does this book offer much in the way of deeper insight to .... anything. The story is told in a subtle dark humor tone similar to how someone having a mental break down gets the crazy giggles. Wong loads us up with fart jokes and real life dating insecurities and puts us on a fast track to face Zuul... i mean Korrok and otherworldly monsters in this silly epic adventure. Not a bad read but it wasn't for my tastes personally.
John Dies at the End was a surprisingly frustrating reading experience because I could see exactly why people love it. Jason Pargin builds an inventive blend of paranormal mystery, science fiction, cosmic horror, and absurd comedy around David and John. These are two spectacularly unqualified men who become humanity’s defense against things that should not exist. The supernatural mysteries are creative, the plot has plenty happening, and some of the humor made me laugh. I still found myself avoiding the audiobook because spending time with David became exhausting.
David was my biggest problem. His personality reminded me of a Ryan Reynolds character such as Deadpool or Van Wilder. Except the charm never arrived to balance the immaturity. He talks endlessly about his penis, other men’s penises, sex, and whatever crude observation happens to enter his brain. The humor felt relentlessly male-centric. David also reads like a male fantasy of the nerdy and inappropriate guy. The same guy who somehow remains irresistible to women despite giving them very little reason to find him appealing.
The sexual encounters reinforced that feeling. Women repeatedly seem eager to undress for David, amazed by sexual skills that receive little meaningful description, and perfectly satisfied while he continues talking about himself afterward. Their pleasure exists mostly to confirm David’s desirability rather than give the women much interiority of their own. I enjoy raunchy humor and sexual content, but these scenes felt more like male wish fulfillment than encounters between developed characters.
The framing narrative with Arnie also left me irritated. David’s racist language near the conclusion is jarring, including his use of the N-word. Arnie then learns that he has died under horrifying circumstances connected to men using that same slur against him. The implications barely receive attention before the narrative returns to David proving that his paranormal claims are real. Arnie deserved more humanity than being reduced to another piece of evidence in David’s bizarre account.
Stephen Thorne’s narration complicated my reaction further. His performance gave David a strong fedora-wearing internet nice-guy energy. Complete with a recurring laugh that made me cringe every time I heard it. I cannot decide how much of that came from Thorne’s interpretation and how much came directly from David’s characterization. The result worked against my enjoyment either way.
The frustrating part is that the actual paranormal adventure is imaginative. Soy Sauce opening human perception to monsters, alternate dimensions, Shadow People, supernatural investigations, and reality-bending threats creates a fascinating playground. Pargin clearly knows how to construct a strange and ambitious horror-comedy. I am just not someone who has a good time with crude humor, geek culture, cosmic horror, ridiculous supernatural adventures, and immature male protagonists. I simply could not spend another minute listening to David talk about his penis.
I first read this book about 15 years ago, this is my 3 readthrough of it. The first time I read it, I loved it, hands down, everything about it. I ate up the ides of multiple universes, non-linear time, and the pure badassery of it.
Now years later, while I still love this book, I'm looking at it through the lens of how times change. About a year ago I scoffed at friends who said they didn't like this book because of the misogyny and racist language in it and having last read it about 10 years ago didn't remember it being that bad. While I disagree with the book being misogynistic and racist (it's obviously satiric and shock art), I can now understand how some people might be made uncomfortable by it.
All that aside, the thing that surprised me the most about this re-read is how clearly it highlighted my own mental atrophy. More than a decade after the first time I read this book (in 2 days), I struggled to grasp some of the concepts in it that were so fluid to me when I was younger. I also feel like I looked at it from a completely different prospective than I did before. When I was younger, I liked David, I cheered him on and kind of dismissed John as an idiot who was there for comic relief. This time I really didn't like David much, and came to the realization that John was a much more important and empathetic character than I had previously perceived him to be. John is the one who knows everyone's names and stories, who checks in on people, who corrects David's callousness when it comes out even though he is still also obviously the comic relief as well.
All of my personal feelings aside, this book is still a great absurdist/horror/sci-fi adventure with a decidedly Lovecraftian flair that is way deeper than it appears to be on the surface. It might just get you contemplating the meaning of universe and an questioning how everything works.
B
Review: John Dies at the End by David Wong John Dies at the End is one of those books that when asked to explain the plot, you can hardly do it justice. You’ll either sound crazy or….well, you’re just going to sound crazy. See, let me try. It’s about two friends named John and David who take this drug called Soy Sauce. It makes them see things but it really just opens up another world to them. Or let’s try this. Things you will read about in this book: Soy Sauce, Morgan Freeman, and a bratwurst telephone. See? None of that makes sense and would probably just put people off from reading it. But please, don’t be afraid.If you’ve only seen the movie, then you’re sorely missing out. While there were some awesome moments from the book, there was so much more to the story that couldn’t fit in the timeframe of a movie. The movie was like someone had pulled out a handful of pages from the beginning, middle, and end of the book and tried to tie it all together as quickly as possible.The humor may be juvenile at times, but the story is so imaginative and off the wall that it more than makes up for it (if you don’t like that sort of thing). This book goes off the deep end and keeps swimming. But it’s good. Crazy good.It does get a little long after a while and I did find myself dragging my feet at the 400 page mark. It felt that after reading pages and pages about aliens, exploding bodies, talking dogs, and spiders that my brain could only hold so much. If it wasn’t for David Wong’s writing, I don’t think I would have ever finished a book like this.Basically, If you haven’t read this book, you’re already behind. Pick it up. Read it. And prepare yourself for the craziest ride you’ll ever experience.(For more, check out: The Short Read)
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