So, I just finished John dies at the end by David Wong. My expectations were high for this one, seeing as that I am a big fan of Cracked.com, the famous humour website of which David is an editor. His articles have always really appealed to me. In fact, in my opinion he has some of the best written, informative and funny articles on the entire site. Because of this, I didn't have to think twice to purchase this book when some of my fellow BFB forum members recommended this novel.
Sadly though, the book couldn't live up to my expectations. In fact, in my opinion it is a steaming pile of cow dung. It's by far the worst book I've read this year. The story is virtually non-existant. Where after the first chapters I still gave it some leeway by placing it under the 'magical realism' category, it quickly became apparent that the story is only there to set up the many jokes in this book. If these would have been funny this would be fine, but they're not. Whereas dick and poop jokes work well in the articles on Cracked.com, they quickly lose their appeal in this book. The "humorous" aphorisms don't make a lot of sense (I don't mean that in a good way). Non sequiturs and randomness for the sake of being random starts to bore quite quickly. Furthermore, the characters became obnoxious after only a couple of chapters worth of reading. The character of John is meant as a goofy oddball, but he comes across as forced. And don't even get me started on the puns... Terrible.
Maybe I am not the target audience anymore. Perhaps my 18 year old self would have liked this book better. I doubt this though. I still love the articles on Cracked, juvenile jokes and all, but it just didn't fly in this book.
Where you would expect awesomeness like the movie Super Bad, you instead get Meet the Spartans. Where you wanted Shaun of the Dead you get Disaster Movie. Where you hoped for the Hangover you get the Hangover 2 (or God forbid 3). I think you catch my drift.
The irony is that Wong sometimes shows his analytical brilliance and skills as a writer. Some of his observations are spot on. However, these nuggets of awesome are obscured by the general shittiness of the rest of the content. The fact that my favourite Cracked editor sometimes shines through sours my disposition after reading this all the the more.
This book is trying too hard to explain funny and it therefore fails miserably. In comparison with authors like Adams or Pratchett (who actually do write funny books) Wong falls far short in my opinion.
Still, the dude made a lot of money by selling his book and the rights to the movie. And for all indie authors; the way he got his book published is very inspirational. You might want to check out his website on how he pulled it off. Perhaps the structure and plot (or the lack thereof) in this book are a result of how the book was conceived (go read up on that on Wong's website. It's quite interesting really). This is not an excuse though in my book; I paid good money for this paperback.
Anyway, I hate writing negative reviews, but for me there are not many redeeming qualities in this novel. I therefore can't sugarcoat it and have to give this book a rating of 4/10 (**2 GoodReads Stars).
Sadly though, the book couldn't live up to my expectations. In fact, in my opinion it is a steaming pile of cow dung. It's by far the worst book I've read this year. The story is virtually non-existant. Where after the first chapters I still gave it some leeway by placing it under the 'magical realism' category, it quickly became apparent that the story is only there to set up the many jokes in this book. If these would have been funny this would be fine, but they're not. Whereas dick and poop jokes work well in the articles on Cracked.com, they quickly lose their appeal in this book. The "humorous" aphorisms don't make a lot of sense (I don't mean that in a good way). Non sequiturs and randomness for the sake of being random starts to bore quite quickly. Furthermore, the characters became obnoxious after only a couple of chapters worth of reading. The character of John is meant as a goofy oddball, but he comes across as forced. And don't even get me started on the puns... Terrible.
Maybe I am not the target audience anymore. Perhaps my 18 year old self would have liked this book better. I doubt this though. I still love the articles on Cracked, juvenile jokes and all, but it just didn't fly in this book.
Where you would expect awesomeness like the movie Super Bad, you instead get Meet the Spartans. Where you wanted Shaun of the Dead you get Disaster Movie. Where you hoped for the Hangover you get the Hangover 2 (or God forbid 3). I think you catch my drift.
The irony is that Wong sometimes shows his analytical brilliance and skills as a writer. Some of his observations are spot on. However, these nuggets of awesome are obscured by the general shittiness of the rest of the content. The fact that my favourite Cracked editor sometimes shines through sours my disposition after reading this all the the more.
This book is trying too hard to explain funny and it therefore fails miserably. In comparison with authors like Adams or Pratchett (who actually do write funny books) Wong falls far short in my opinion.
Still, the dude made a lot of money by selling his book and the rights to the movie. And for all indie authors; the way he got his book published is very inspirational. You might want to check out his website on how he pulled it off. Perhaps the structure and plot (or the lack thereof) in this book are a result of how the book was conceived (go read up on that on Wong's website. It's quite interesting really). This is not an excuse though in my book; I paid good money for this paperback.
Anyway, I hate writing negative reviews, but for me there are not many redeeming qualities in this novel. I therefore can't sugarcoat it and have to give this book a rating of 4/10 (**2 GoodReads Stars).
