John Dies at the End - David Wong

 

This is the last of the books that I picked up at the Founder's Club Book Fair earlier this year (thanks Christy!) and it was another impulse buy. I'm sure that I had heard the title from the film that was made although I knew nothing about the storyline but was intrigued, regardless. 

It turns out that it is a very surreal sci-fi/horror tale that involves a (possibly alien) drug called "soy sauce" that basically allows the user to time travel, but also experience extremely terrifying and disorienting situations that are almost indescribable, but David Wong (not his real name, actually) does his best to describe anyway.

As the story unfolds, there are more'n'more surreal episodes, with reality'n'fantasy blurring, and hallucinations being as "real" as anything else, with fantastical creatures, alternative dimensions, time lapses, beings dying'n'returning (no matter how gruesome the death), and all the while John and David (the narrator uses the nom de plume of the author) do their best to keep the world from being overrun by....something that they're never quite sure of....

The book is long - well over 400 pages - and numerous times you think that the tale has to be ending but then there will be a new twist and off we go! There are definitely plenty of surprises and unexpected tangents and somehow, apparently, there is a sequel, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to go there just yet. Besides being a bit disturbing and disorienting, much of the story is quite depressing (although there is plenty of humor, often juvenile, as well) and there is much awkwardness in the characters that is all too relatable as is the "I remember this thing/person/event although it now has no evidence of it ever occurring" (at least I relate to that). 

So definitely offbeat - to say the least - but captivating in its surreal way. Not sure whether to recommend it or not....