“John Dies at the End” by Jason Pargin (David Wong) – Heaven or Hell?

John Dies at the End by David Wong (Book cover)
It has been a while since an author has really tried to break down what we consider to be conventional and venture into unknown territory where the craziest things can happen.

Well, actually, you can scratch that as Cracked.com editor Jason Pargin (David Wong) wrote a genuinely twisted story with John Dies at the End.

The whole plot of the book is centred around a substance called soy sauce, and of course, video store clerk David Wong and his friend try it.

As they believe it, the soy sauce allows them to tap into some kind of higher level of consciousness… or perhaps the soy sauce is hell taking over the Earth.

For starters, what’s special about the story is that you don’t know what’s real and what isn't. Over the course, it’s up to you try and decipher as to whether or not the dudes are just tripping balls, or if there are actual wig-wearing scorpions and wingless flies that burrow into human skin.

Has the soy sauce given these two dumb-asses the ability to see what life is truly like?

Are they simply the first witnesses of what happens when Hell comes to Earth?

Are they actually going to do anything about any of it?

Will there be a multidimensional battle?

Does John really die at the end?

That’s for you to find out… while it sounds ridiculous, you’ll see for yourself that the more you get into the story, the more the above-described things will seem normal to you.

Another aspect about the book which I absolutely adored was the way in which Wong managed to mix horror with humor. Certain parts of it are simply laugh-out-loud funny, whether it’s dark humor or good old-fashioned slapstick. However, other parts of it are downright terrifying, making you forget that you laughed non-stop just a few minutes ago.

This is a story which can be genuinely scary if you let yourself get absorbed by it. Also, I have to add that I tremendously appreciated the myriad of clichés from pop culture that the characters battle their way through, ranging from stuff you’d see in video games all the way to fantasy films.

John Dies at the End by David Wong (Book cover)
All in all, there’s way too many things going on in this book to talk about all of them without writing a giant essay about it, but rest assured that they all blend seamlessly into that crazy world David Wong created.

It has just the right amount of laughs, scares, soy sauce, and time paradoxes… it’s definitely something most people are going to enjoy, regardless of race, age, gender or species.


David Wong (Jason Pargin (January 10, 1975))

Jason Pargin (David Wong)


Jason Pargin is best-known by the pen name of David Wong, which he used so far to write two novels, John Dies at the End and This Book is Full of Spiders, as well as a number of articles on the website Cracked.com.

It should be mentioned that the former of the two books mentioned was adapted into a major motion picture in 2012.

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