Product Description

It's a drug that promises an out-of-body experience with each hit. On the street they call it Soy Sauce, and users drift across time and dimensions. But some who come back are no longer human. Suddenly, a silent otherworldly invasion is underway, and mankind needs a hero. What it gets instead is John and David, a pair of college dropouts who can barely hold down jobs. Can these two stop the oncoming horror in time to save humanity? No. No, they can't. "John Dies at the End" has been described as a 'Horrortacular', an epic of 'spectacular' horror that combines the laugh out loud humor of the best R-rated comedy, with the darkest terror of H.P. Lovecraft. Hilarious, terrifying, engaging and wrenching, "John Dies at the End" takes us for a wild ride with two slackers from the Midwest who really have better things to do with their time than prevent the apocalypse.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27648 in Books
• Published on: 2009-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

Customer Reviews

A Review
As soon as you see the title you pretty much know you're not about to read an average horror tale. John Dies At The End is as funny as it is scary, and vice versa, skipping effortlessly from talking hot dogs and magic healing kittens to disturbing passages about what the narrator thinks Hell might be like, and the idea of never having existed. Straight back to John's special demon-killing weapon- a baseball bat with a Bible taped to it. The story itself seems to unfold as a series of episodes (it was, after all, originally written in instalments) bound together by the author's "present day" interview with a skeptical journalist. Every character is well-written, believable and likeable, but the strength of the story really is the way it's written- the humour and horror often overlap but never feel jarring or uncomfortable together. In that sense, it reminds me less of classic horror authors like King and Koontz, and classic comedy authors like Douglas Adams, than it reminds me of Brit zombie movie Shaun Of The Dead. Both that film and this book manage this balance of gags and real, honest horror, and if you liked Shaun you'll love John and Dave.

book good: tight-fisted man reaches for wallet
JDatE is a genuinely deft blend of great humour, scabrous vulgarity and actual, proper horror. The story benefits from being a-bristle with the unconventional ideas and enthusiasm inherent in a writer's first "proper" book, whilst being coupled to writing skills honed over a ton of fiercely intelligent and funny web articles on pointlesswasteoftime.

Watch out for Bill Paxton's cameo as a small pile of rocks.

I'm buying it despite having already read it twice online, and I'm legendarily tight-fisted. It gets one thumbs up, my highest rating.

A rare treat
David Wong's first novel is a rare treat: a comedy horror that is both genuinely funny and genuinely horrifying. Written in the first person, the novel relates the adventures of the author and his friend John, whose ordinary small town existence comes to an end when they are exposed to the drug known as "soy sauce". Now they can see the true nature of the world they live in: where demons can alter reality, anyone can be erased from history, and nobody is who, or what, they seem.

The novel was originally written as a series of episodes for the author's web site, and this origin still shows in the printed version. The tone of the story ranges from slapstick comedy to metaphysical horror, which will leave you wondering if you yourself might end up like the unfortunate woodchuck.