Bloodtype Online

John Dies At The End  

David Wong 

Permuted Press 

(2007) 
 
 “There’s something I don’t trust about the way she exploded and then came back from the dead like that.”

I was expecting another solid entry from Permuted Press when I got my copy of John Dies at the End (JDatE) by David Wong, but I have to admit, I was not expecting this.  I was blown away.  This is one of the best books I have read in a while, let alone one of the best horror stories to make its way into print.  (Yes, JDatE enjoyed a life on the Internet first)

JDatE is unpredictable from the very beginning.  After a brief, humorous ghost-hunter prologue, we meet the main characters, John and David, at an uneventful woods party.  John stays to try a new drug from a shady (possibly fake) Jamaican and David goes home because he has work the next day.  John is apparently the king of bad drug/dumb ass behavior, so when he calls Dave freaking out, it’s all expected.  But, John has taken the bad drug to end all bad drugs—Soy Sauce.  Side effects include a false of well being, hallucinations, the ability to see and communicate with monsters, time and multi-dimensional travel, vulnerability to parasitical worms, bringing about the end of the world and exploding.

That’s all accurate, but it doesn’t come close to telling you that this book manages to be darkly humorous and scary while pulling off some very difficult plot twists without making you doubt what you’re reading.  There are layers of original and unexpected storytelling filled with turns you will not anticipate.  Not only can this author create hilarious dialogue and terrifying descriptions, he also knows how to mess with time, place and perception without screwing it up.  Lesser writers cannot do this. 

Let me put it this way: we’ll accept that there can be a drug that severely messes with our perception of the world, but only a good writer can make us accept a talking sausage.  The sheer freakiness of it all becomes acceptable because of the way the characters react to it.  And it doesn’t stop there…the narrator might be nuts, a total lying bastard, but he’s likable enough, so you want him to be telling the truth.  Of course, if he’s telling the truth, then things really suck because this is not one of those stories that you read where the only discomfort comes from the fact that the right words appear in the sentences. There’s blood (so much blood), guts, monsters—truly nightmarish realities and loads of them. 

So, while you can check out some of John Dies at the End online, just buy the damn book.  You won’t regret it. 

Rating - ****

- Jennie Milojevic