John Dies at the End

By: David Wong

Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne

Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

John Dies at the End is a genre-bending, humorous account of two college drop-outs inadvertently charged with saving their small town—and the world—from a host of supernatural and paranormal invasions.

Stop.

You should not have touched this flyer with your bare hands.

No, don’t put it down. It’s too late. They’re watching you.

My name is David Wong. My best friend is John. Those names are fake. You might want to change yours. You may not want to know about the things you’ll read on these pages, about the sauce, about Korrok, about the invasion, and the future. But it’s too late. You touched the book. You’re in the game. You’re under the eye.

The only defense is knowledge. You need to read this book, to the end. Even the part with the bratwurst. Why? You just have to trust me.

The important thing is this: the drug is called Soy Sauce, and it gives users a window into another dimension. John and I never had the chance to say no. You still do.

I’m sorry to have involved you in this, I really am. But as you read about these terrible events and the very dark epoch the world is about to enter as a result, it is crucial you keep one thing in mind: none of this was my fault.

©2007 David Wong and Permuted Press. All rights reserved. (P)2011 BBC Audiobooks America

Unlike any other book I've ever read

Would you listen to John Dies at the End again? Why?

I've read this book about 10 times now, I'm downloading the audiobook, so I can share it with others. I plan on listening to it many times

What other book might you compare John Dies at the End to and why?

Only anything written by David Wong. No other book is comparable to this one.

Which scene was your favorite?

That's a hard one. Probably when all the dismembered body parts were making their way to the pile of other dismembered body parts and started fusing themselves together creating what was described as "Satan's lego kit". That or the Chapter "Shit Narnia"

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The part when you finally find out what's in the shed...

Any additional comments?

I recommend this book to everyone. It is unlike anything you'll ever read. It's such a fantastical story but it feels so damn real. It'll make you believe those things you see out of the corner of your eye are real, very, very real.

Kinda weird? Don't know what to read? Try this!

The narrator is great! I'm a fan of nightvale too so I appreciated the strangeness.

Something totally Different

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The book was very different And I would leave it that way.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The fantasy trip it took you down.

Could you see John Dies at the End being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

It was made into a movie, but it was a very bad movie.

awesome

the book made me laugh out loud and was truly entertaining. I enjoyed the hell out of it

craziest book ever, but AMAZING

I had watched the film and thought it was a great blend of horror and comedy. but the book is even better than I imagined. insanely clever and dark, I absolutely loved the way the story was told and the narrator did such a great job. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is bored of books

Off in a good way

Everything about it was so good I was sitting in my car after the drive just to hear what happend! I cant wait for the sequel.

The stupidest inventive horror story ever

Way back in 2004, when social media was still finding its modern voice and we still treated our blogs like diaries, I stumbled upon a website called Pointless Waste of Time. The owner of this blog, who called himself David Wong, uploaded funny, intelligent and very orginal content on a regular basis...sadly not something that many would-be Internet authors did then or now. His style gained him reverence among a certain type of underemployed insomniac, and he had quite a cult-following.

Soon, I discovered that Mr. Wong had done something that completely blew my (barely out of) teenaged brain. Having found himself with a captive audience and wanting to keep them entertained, he fleshed out some silly stories he wrote about the adventures himself and his best friend "John" into an entire novel and -- here's the amazing part -- published said novel for free view on his website. Not only was it the first time that I had heard of an author doing something like this, but the novel was actually good. It was silly and hilarious and horrible with moments of stunning philosophical clarity thrown in for good measure, a work almost on par with great fantasy/satirists like Terry Pratchett. I stared at my old CRT monitor for days straight, enduring the ensuing migraine to finish the novel. I laughed and cried and drank endless cans of cola, and felt generally proud to be a part of what felt to me like the kind of cultural paradigm shift that only the Internet could have made possible. Then I told everyone I knew that they absolutely had to read it, too.

Now, the rest of story you might know: with his doting fans urging him on, "Mr. Wong" self-published a print run of John Dies at the End (JDate), the sell-out of which prompted a publishing company to print their own much larger run of (a slightly better-edited) JDate. David Wong was given the job of editor at Cracked, the website version of a humor magazine that predates Mad. And a couple years ago, JDate caught the attention of Don Coscarelli, director of cult hits Phantasm and Bubbha Ho Tep, who made the story into a movie that will be released (to my unbearable joy) in January of 2013.

Things have gone well for Mr. Wong and his friend John, and deservedly so. The release of JDate in audio format is just another example of a great story being recognized for what it is because it inspired people to talk about it. Best of all, I discovered that I enjoyed listening to John Dies at the End as much as I did reading it...and that is high praise, indeed.

Makes you think ...

I loved it after I was finished I wanted to start over and hear it again , it maybe goofy and childish at times but overall fantastic . Defiantly recommend this to everyone.

Intelligently funny with a side order of crass

If David Lynch and George Carlin teamed up to tell a twistedly humorous apocalyptic tale very loosely based on "A wrinkle in time" then this would be that love-child. Demons, zombies, a stupid dog, possession, aliens, shot guns, and a one armed girl, all beautifully visualized through the eyes of a unique video store clerk and his slacker friend.

Incredible imagery Batshit crazy Brutal Hilarious

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, but it would have to be a select kind of friend.
Although I may rave about how absurdly funny this book is, and just how batshit crazy it is... i think there's only 1 or 2 of my friends that would appreciate it.
The book IS vulgar, it IS absurd, it IS brutal... and the characters embellish things, talk out of their arse, and just generally don't give a shit in the face of horror. It's incredibly well written, but if you can't take all of the above, then you won't be able to appreciate that.
So unfortunately i'll only be truly recommending this to 2 of my friends, because i KNOW they'll enjoy it. And the rest, if they try to read it, will negatively judge me, because of the craziness of the book.

Who was your favorite character and why?

John. Although David is the main character, much of his thoughts are kind of segmented because it sounds like he blacks-out a few times.. so its a bit all over the place.
Plus there's a couple of times that he has the potential to get answers to the whole messed up situation, and he's too busy not giving a f***, and so you miss potential goodies from the story.
John is just all the time funny, embellishes all the stories, to the point you're laughing hysterically at the absurdity of everything.
Some of the lines that guy has...what the hell? "I don't know Dave, but before we make the bomb, I have to shave half the dog" ....this is the kind of stuff you have to look forward to.

What does Stephen R. Thorne bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I wouldn't have just read the book full stop. This is a long arse book, and I don't think i would have had the patience to stick with it.
But audio book form, he really does bring the characters to life, both characters seems to give absolutely zero shits about why they're in this situation... there's no wondering... they just go along for the ride... and all the way through are utter dicks. Stephen R. Thorne truly brings these 2 characters alive, you can hear it in the way he does each of their voices.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No. It's way too long for that, and way too completely crazy. I had to pause the book several times to listen to some of the lines again, even write the quote down, and just sit down and reflect on the magnitude of craziness of some of these lines.
There's so many amazing descriptions, depictions, lines...and most of them are laugh out loud funny... that you can't just go through it in one sitting. You really have to reflect on al of these.

Any additional comments?

It's a book that seems to be written in a way of 2 immature but intelligent people with huge imaginations making random stuff up. Where 1 person will write something and then ask ... "and then what happens?" and the 2nd person will fill it in with something bizarre, and then hand it over to the 1st person again. ..And they just run with it and it just continues for 14 hours.

It's difficult to relate to these characters, but thats not the point of the book i think. You enjoy it by how much they just don't give a shit, in spite of this incredibly weird situation they've found themselves in. Which... makes it funny.
At 1 point Dave recommends the movie Mulholland drive to a cop and his young kid, just because he doesn't care.

There is weird quotes like "A kitten put a paw on my foot... I punted it across the room"

I would recommend this book for sure, but don't forget it is immature, completely crazy, brutal in its descriptions, and funny...but in a completely absurd way.
If you don't think you can take all of this, then i doubt you'll be able to appreciate this book or how well it's written.