John Dies at The End by Jason Pargin (David Wong)
Because I failed to properly call for an organize nominations and voting for October Book Club selection, we will forgo a formal vote and read John Dies at The End, as it had the most interest in the nomination post and it’s a good fit for a spooky season read. We’ll do better and be more organized in the lead up to a November selection.
This is definitely a self paced discussion, but please try to finish and post your thoughts before the end of the month if possible. This is an easy read and likely an entertaining one.
Thank you so much for participating! I am excited to hear your thoughts.
Love this book, excited to reread.
Reserved for pickup at my library 👀
I love this book! I first read it, I don’t know, maybe 20 years ago, back when Pargrin (he went by David Wong then) posted one chapter of it at a time on his website. A few years after he got it published, Don Coscarelli (director; does mostly indie movies including the “Phantasm” series) read the book, flipped out about it, and decided to buy the rights to the story and make it into a movie. It’s a pretty great adaptation, too! I’d rate it as mostly faithful to the source material. It’s got Paul Giamatti, Clancy Brown, and Doug Jones in it.
Anyway, if you like JDATE, you should check out Coscarelli’s movie of the same name. And also read the rest of the books in the series (book 4 was published about a year ago). And if you like the movie, you should also check out another Coscarelli classic, “Bubba Ho-Tep”, starring Bruce Campbell as Elvis.
I read this in the last year and really enjoyed the writing style of it. Unfortunately, I feel like the word choice was often edgy for the sake of being edgy in the mid 2000s way that makes it very hard to recommend to people now. I hope everyone that reads it enjoys the wild ride that is this book!
Nail on the head with word choice. I actually listened to a good portion of the audiobook and that actually made it stand out even more. I had to switch back to reading because it bothered me less. Fun story though.
So the author used to hang out on a forum I used to frequent back in the day. I really enjoyed reading it as he released it and then the movie was ok. Just kind of a fun coincidence.
I read it a while ago (still had David Wong listed as the author), and really enjoyed it. Fun read with some good ideas. However, about halfway in I started getting exhausted. The author just throws so much at you, both in content (ideas) and form (language), and the pacing is always hectic, and I just found it too tiring. I have yet to pick up the second book in the series.
I will say that each book gets better. It is very clear that JDATE was Pargin’s first book. It may still not be for you, but I have enjoyed the later books much more. I do think it’s important to start at the beginning though to get to know the characters.
This has been one of my favorite book series for many years. It has been a while since I read the first one. I will say that the language hasn’t aged all that well, but the story is still imaginitive and a fun read, with a hint of proper existential dread. I do think that the books that follow it in the series are better.
