John Dies at the End

John Dies at the End
By: David Wong
Copyright: 2009
Thomas Dunne Books

3 Bookmarks out of 5

I received this book for my birthday this past year after requesting it from a recommendation from some former co-workers - the same co-workers that recommended House of Leaves, actually. After reading House of Leaves, it probably shouldn't have surprised me how dark this book ended up being. I thought it would be more along the lines of a conspiracy book that met with science-fiction. Instead, this book ended up being more along the lines of horror and gore. I was also pleasantly surprised to find out how humorous it was. I definitely love when books don't take themselves too seriously - especially considering how dark this book could have turned out to be.

This book is about a drug that is called 'soy sauce' on the streets. This drug lets you see into a different dimension which over-laps with our own. What you see, though, is not necessarily good. It lets you see the things that could definitely be classified under the category of 'evil.' This sauce was overwhelmingly my favorite part of the book. I loved how David (the main character) tried to adjust to the effects of the sauce and how it drove the plot along. I also disliked how the sauce was brought up in the beginning and then was never really used at the end again. It was also disappointing to not really know where the sauce came from and who created it.

The book thrives on the mantra 'things are not always as they seem.' Now, you all might know by now that I'm not a huge fan of suspense. However, for this book there was no suspense because I didn't realize things were happening until after they actually happened. I promise this will make sense if you read it - I'm afraid of giving away too much of the plot because some things are extremely enjoyable with the way they roll out. Even though some reviews of this book tout it as ground-breaking, it really just reminded me of psychological thrillers like The Sixth Sense.

What I think ultimately turned me off to the book was that the overall plot seemed very disjointed. There appears to be three separate stories - each with different characters coming and going. There were some points in the plot that the author seemed more concerned with inserting witty comments over writing that propelled the plot or tried to link anything together for the reader's sake. The author (whose real name is Jason Pargin) seemed to start off just jotting things down about him and his best friend getting into weird situations and then tried to link them all together to create one, single story.

This book is a must read for those who enjoy stories about alternate dimensions and are okay with suspending disbelief. If you're not a fan of books which raise more questions than are adequately answered, then I would steer clear of this book. If you love humor, then I would recommend this book despite its sometimes gory scenes. I found myself laughing out loud at certain parts (which was sort of awkward since I started reading this on a train back from Boston). I really did enjoy reading this book and I hope that the sequel does well to answer some of the questions that were brought up.