John Dies at the End

Soooo I had this book recommended to me by a friend a couple months ago. As I googled the premise of the book I found out David Wong is actually a pseudonym used by Jason Pargin, a former editor for Cracked.com, and a man I've been following for years now on tiktok. He tends to talk about interesting topics and his tiktok reposts are also great. I knew about his history of writing articles for cracked, but I never knew he was an author, somehow that totally passed me by despite him mentioning it frequently lmao. Anyway, because I really like what he has to say usually, I had pretty high expectations for this book, but I was left a little bit disappointed and surprised (even though I shouldn't have been really, considering his background). First of all, this books greatest flaw or its greatest strength depending on how you look at it - is that it's peak early millennial. I can't emphasize enough how millennial this book is. The humor, the references, the casual sexism, the lol so randumb moments, the frequent usage of the word retarded, the early 2000s edge and dick jokes. This book is like a time capsule. In a way it's actually kind of endearing, but it has also made me read the book at a snails pace because it got tiring sometimes. Honestly, seeing how Jason expresses himself now, as a 50 year old, I could never tell he wrote that book. I honestly just forgot how cracked... was, as a site, and as a perfect representation of this type of pre buzzfeed era millennial zeitgeist. Yes I know both sites came into existence around the same time, but I think cracked became popular a lot earlier than buzzfeed did - and both of them had a different target audience. Who am I kidding they're totally different, it's just that I'm compartmentalizing internet funny/interesting website people are obsessed with between years 2008-2014 into cracked and buzzfeed eras lmao. Anyway, this book really brought back the memories full force.

The premise is the following - 2 friends, through crazy circumstances, acquire a substance that gives them supernatural powers. The most notable one being that they can see ghosts, demons, apparitions etc., all things supernatural. Hijinks ensue, they save the world, they fuck things up, there's a girl the main character falls in love with... it's pretty typical really. The monsters are very lovecraftian to the nth degree, often times humorously so. Action scenes are incredibly ridiculous and wacky, and so is the dialogue. The main source of this wackiness is the titular character, John. But honestly he's just... there, more or less as just background noise. He's not actually the main character and narrator, that would be David Wong, the "author" of the book. David was my biggest problem in the book. He's so brooding and emotionless, he totes doesn't care about anyone, except for this one pretty girl he's with... or wait the petite redhead he fell in love with later. He loves her so much all he can fantasize about is her leaving him and finding someone else for her own safety... YAAAAAAAAAWN. I hate this sort of "I'm so apathetic and indifferent" type of protagonists, especially when they're... not hahah. He's just an average dude. Either make him a freak, or don't.

The pacing and progression of the story would be its most unique feature I'd say. The book itself is a retelling, Dave is writing a book in which he's retelling his backstory to a journalist but also after that there's two more short stories... It's structured really weirdly, but I suppose that's done on purpose to illustrate how "the sauce" works, and how hectic (but also not) Dave's life is. It's not really confusing or anything, but it's definitely uncommon.

All in all, not sure if I'll read the sequel. This is just too lighthearted for me, and the type of humor doesn't really intrigue me. The story itself was a decently fun enough ride for me to finish the book, but that's about it...