I recently read all three books in the series by David Wong, starting with John Dies at the End. I thoroughly enjoyed them, although I did like the second book (This Book is Full of Spiders) the most.
What are your opinions on the movie? I had not heard of it before I read the book, and haven't found anyone who has watched it! Reviews on IMDB are quite scattered. I realize some think it is low-budget, but I don't think that will bother me. Is John Dies at the End worth a watch, even if I am not a big fan of gorey horror movies? Is it scary? Does it hold up to the book?
Back again, reddit! The new book - the third in the John Dies at the End series - is titled What The Hell Did I Just Read: A Novel of Cosmic Horror and you can buy it in hardcover or ebook form at any of the places or devices where you normally buy books. There's a convenient list of order links here: http://www.jdate3.com
Proof: https://twitter.com/JohnDiesattheEn/status/908699200011022337
EDIT:
Links to people who have run the campaign, and their notes/suggestions for improvements. Highly recommend reading if anyone else wants to run this dungeon. I'm leaving the original post as is, for posterity.
My Run: https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/9bygke/john_dies_at_the_end_the_dungeon/e5icv8a/
Skullcandyhd90: https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/9bygke/john_dies_at_the_end_the_dungeon/e59bf1x/
#Original Post
Hey, weirdly specific question!
John Dies at the End is a book series by David Wong. This post contains spoilers for such.
JDATE is a psychological horror book, with most of the fear factor coming from the characters inability to trust their own senses. I thought this would be good inspiration for a one-shot dungeon. Below is my current concept, but I'm looking for any further things I could do or adjustments I should make. Advice welcome!
SETTING: The players are part of an adventuring party that has gone on adventures together in the past. They find themselves in a dungeon, on a quest to rescue a group of elves that had gone missing here.
Obstacles:
-
The layout of the dungeon is a random selection of rooms. The DM has a deck of room tiles and every time the characters move from one room to the next, a random one is placed down and the previous one picked up. Going backwards does not result in revisiting the same rooms.
While the characters might initially think that this is caused by shifting rooms, the reality is that their own memories are being twisted. This is the way they came, they just remember it incorrectly.
I expect the players to try things like marking the walls, leaving a trail of some sort, or making a map to better understand their environment. If they do so, the trail/map will accurately lead them backwards but the rooms are still unfamiliar (because the error is in their memory, not the setting). It will allow them to retrace and find specific locations they've already found though, as long as they are willing to rely on the physical world, and not their own memories.
If the players try to use a suitable method to find the way they came, they eventually come to #5 on this list, rather than an exit.
- The main monsters will be Spectators (relying heavily on their confusion ability), Gibbering Mouthers (relying heavily on their gibbering), Green Hags (relying heavily on their Mimicry to fool the players to come close), Dopplegangers (this one should be ob
Update: 5:45PM ET: Thanks to everyone in the Reddit community for the great questions. We enjoyed the opportunity to answer them.
You can check out JOHN DIES AT THE END Now on iTunes, Amazon and VOD and we'll be in theatres starting 1/25!
It was the first book in a long time that I actually sat down and couldn't stop reading it. It was definitely the most unique book that I have read in a long time, what with its adult oriented humor and its cosmic horror vibe.
John Dies at the End was the first book to make me laugh in a long time, even though it drops off from being humor based after the prologue, to being more serious, while still maintaining humor throughout the rest of the 400+ pages. Personally, the humor at the start and around the end in the complex were the funniest.
This was also my first ever "horror" type book that I have read, and it did creep me out a bit, but not enough to make me stop reading. It wasn't the gore that got me, it was the vibes that certain parts of the book gave off.
The characters of John and David were definitely some of the best that I have seen in a book in a while, what with John's more or less idiocy and David's rational thinking, the book really sucks you in. The way that it was written from David's point of view (since that he is telling the story to a reporter) really makes you feel like that you are experiencing what David is experiencing, every twist and turn and confusing moment included.
The end really gave me hope that the second book in the series (This Book is Full of Spiders; Seriously Dude, Don't Touch It) is going to be as good as John Dies at the End, if not better. If any of you have read this I would really like to hear your thoughts on it. I personally thought that it was definitely one of the best books that I have read in my lifetime.
Of all the books I've read in my life, there's something pants-shittingly insane and stupid that makes me love the works of David Wong. I know that's a pseudonym, and that his name is Jason Something, but I can't remember how to spell his actual last name.
His works are Lovecraftian. He brings the terror and horror and fear, and the existential dread that makes you want to take a shower, and he does it well. At the same time it's like he's writing his books specifically for poor white trash underachievers. His protagonists aren't people you'd want to be. They aren't heroes.
Dave's torture and despair are real. For all his supernatural exploits, for all the other-wordly horror he's experienced, it's really just normal life that hurts him the most. Alcoholism, depression, problems with his weight, a life of dead-end jobs; Dave is really at his best when he and John are fighting to stop the end of the world. Dave lives in a dying, decaying world, and it's grinding him down and shredding him as a human being. But he rises to the occasion when Satan is knocking at the door and trying to lay a shit of parasitic maggots all over humanity's Persian rug. He's eerily relatable.
John is basically Dave's polar opposite. That shitty dead end life? When the supernatural interrupts that life, Dave wishes it would just go away so he could go back to things as usual. John? John loves this peril in his own weird way. John is a joyous hedonist, who likes to piss on monsters and beat them with a folding chair. John is basically the one special creature in the universe that Darwin made an exemption for. John is good when it counts, terrible when it doesn't, and an engine of chaos and stupidity so dense it flabbergasts the forces of evil.
John can't get enough of the supernatural weirdness. You know what he calls a supernatural abduction that cannot be explained in ways mortals would understand it? He calls that 'A Screaming Clown Dick'. Nuff said.
And the writing? Just in general? Lovecraft can write things that fill you with a cold and existential sort of dread. David Wong can do that, in a way that would make Lovecraft puke with so much force that the contents of his colon wind up splattered on the walls.
If you haven't read this series, I'd recommend it. If you have any doubts, form a single file line and I'll punch you in the balls and tell you how you are going to die. Nah, just kidding. I won't punch you in the balls.
Something thatβll screw with my head.
Is there a book with a powerful drug that when taken maybe makes you smarter or better, kinda a βlimitlessβ kinda deal?
Ummm asking for a friend
John Dies at the End is one of my favorite series and I've been trying to find something else similar to it for a while now. The closest I've been able to get is Gil's All Fright Diner (enjoyable but the descriptions of female characters are extremely obviously written by a man if that makes sense, I wasn't as attached to the characters as I am with the John Dies gang) or One Bloody Thing After Another (it was too short to be that enjoyable and I think I liked the idea of the book more than the book itself).
Recently I introduced my sister to JDatE, and has enjoyed it very much. I was kind of worried that my constant talk about the the series in general would knock her off, but the soy sauce got her, so good for all.
The thing is, we were talking about the book after she finished it, and she commented that indeed John does not die at the end. I told her that or is a joke title or is because in the blog previous to the book David Wong ended it just when John dies. And then she say: "Could it be that he hasn't ended the first soy sauce trip?". I asked to explain herself. "Well, the resurrection he had was because the soy sauce of first time he try it. Could he still be on soy sauce all the time and when the trip finally ends he gets transported back to the commissary and he dies. He is just experiencing the events in an wrong order. He still does at the end, and the end of the trip. At the end of his story."
I remained silent for a while. "What the fuck" was the only I could say.
Is it possible? There is something in the books that prove it wrong? And we can't rely on the supposed soy sauce effects for what we know. I can't stop thinking about it
Iβm listening to it on audiobook and itβs amazing. Highly recommend, though dont read it if youβre offended by vulgarity and non-PC jokes, also lots of gore thatβs described well.
Itβs super funny and very Lovecraftian. It fits into the Cthulhu mythos well. The dialogue is flowing and feels natural. The descriptions are in depth but it doesnβt drag on. Sometimes the vulgarity feels unnecessary, but thatβs kind of what the writer is doing with the Livecraft universe because I guess monsters from another realm would say really offensive stuff if they knew it was offending to us. Great Halloween read
The movie is pretty true to the book, but leaves out half of he stuff due to time. It would be a great tv series, but would need a big budget
Have any of you read it? How did you like it? How do you feel it helps or hinders Lovecraft mythos? How did you like the movie compared to the book? I just love it and wanna talk about it with people and hear their ideas. Seriously, itβs so underrated.
Are the branded replicas only loyal if they're possessed, like the Molly replica? The clone did kill the original and, what, the stress of it just deprogrammed him and he reverted to the original's memories?
Not sure if this might be answered more clearly in the movie, or if the movie was plotted differently; I haven't watched it in any case. And maybe the book did explain it clearly and I am too dumb to remember or put two and two together.
Essentially, the riddle at the beginning of the film appears to be the Ship of Theseus paradox. However, there is a flaw in the paradox which gives the riddle a solution, and it's quite simple:
The re-animated corpse says, "That's the ax that slayed me." And David asks, "Is he right?"
The first part of my theory is: No, he's not right. Because he was killed by a gunshot. I quote:
> "... you use said ax to behead a man. Donβt worry, the man was already dead. Or maybe you should worry, because youβre the one who shot him."
David clearly states that the man was dead BEFORE the ax ever touched him, it was only after he was dead that you chopped his head off with the ax. If the reanimated corpse said "that's the ax that beheaded me," then you'd have Theseus's Paradox.
So, I suppose my theory is: David Wong intentionally left this thread to be pulled, unraveling the entire paradox. But the thread is hidden: no one ever thinks about the gunshot, because it occurs BEFORE the narrative begins. We remember the ax.
And I didn't even go mad.
Edit: Thank you for all of the recommendations!
I loved this book - the horror was genuinely chilling, and I felt the humour and horror synergised and heightened each other surprisingly well. I'd never read anything in this vein. I'd love to read more like it.
I'm not hugely acquainted with contemporary horror, but I generally prefer the sort of things that are scarier when you think about them later, rather than shock and gore. I'd love some recommendations!
I'm curious if anyone else has read this book. I just started the second book in the series and while the story keeps me hooked, I'm just remembering the almost nauseous feeling I got while reading the first book.
The reason I'm asking if anyone else has read these though, is while reading the first one I was graced with frequent synchronicity. Not even just here and there it was almost every turn of event in the book would trigger multiple experiences of the SSS. Even if you haven't read the books has anyone else had other media produce similar results?
I am reading the 3rd book right now (4rth if you count the Temple of X'al'naa'thuthuthu) and it's pretty great.
For those unaware it's a comedy/horror about David and his friend John who live in a [undisclosed] town where a lot of weird and unexplained things happen, like
-the "shadow people" only seen in the corner of your eyes.
-a regular banana that works as a phone
-bugs that make people explode by multiplying rapidly inside them.
-a portrait of a clown that very slowly moves it's mouth, trying to say something.
-a woman that looks normal and everything, but after a while you notice that she is just a jumpled mess of snakes in a shirt
There is a movie about the first book, it's pretty bad so try avoiding it
I have a lot of affection for the tone and plotting of the book, and the vibe of PtbP is just similar enough that it's scratching that itch. I haven't seen the Don Coscarelli movie adaptation yet but I suppose I ought to sometime.
When I first read the book, I wasn't super familiar with Lovecraft, other than CoC. As I've gone deeper into the abyss, I constantly come up with different scenes from JDatE that seem to be pulled straight out of Lovecraft's brain.
The most obvious, of course is Korrok being like a great old one. Another that comes to mind is the masks in Shit Narnia. In The Dark Brotherhood, the Poes have waxy faces and there is kind of a body-copying thing going on. I am thinking that this is all about the fright inherent is not being able to see what exactly is going on with people's faces. There is also that part of the book where Wong inspects his foot and comes to a horrifying realization. Very Lovecraft.
But more than anything just dealing with the themes of realizing that the world is far more nightmarish than originally thought. It's the idea of peaking beyond the veil, then living in that world partially seeing it how it is and partially being mad.
Other examples escape me at the moment. What parts of the book strike you as Lovecraftian?
By David Wong, it's described by Wikipedia as a dark fantasy science fiction comedy horror novel. Great book in my opinion, I highly recommend it...and it's made even better by one of the aliens giving a speech that ends up being pro-vegan.
.
"You blobs, you sit there, chillin' in this room and I can smell the rot of dead animals soaking in the acid of your guts. You suck the life from the innocent creatures of this world just so you can clock another day. You're machines that run on the terror and pain and mutilation of other lives."
.
That last line really stayed with me. Just wanted to share...
https://preview.redd.it/79rwu75titm31.png?width=673&format=png&auto=webp&s=12401d2d29b51a9ac5f4ba18aad15de2eb9162cc
You can read what I've got so far here, expect updates every few days or so.
I just finished John Dies at the End (recommended by this subβthanks!) and enjoyed it. Itβs certainly... unique. π I liked the parts that had more plot better than the parts that were more a sequence of random weirdness with no point.
Question: should I read books two and three? Do they have more plot or more randomness compared to book one?
So I just finished John Dies at the End.
One part of the book, in particular, hit me very hard.
Toward the end,
Dave remembers that
Spoilers about John Dies at the End
John mentions that he'll take care of it, he was headed there anyway. Dave says, 'You go out there? Why?', and John just shrugs and the story goes on without commenting further. What an incredibly powerful piece of writing.
John, who has been comic relief for the overwhelming majority of the book and comes off as the brash insensitive type Spoilers about John Dies at the End
For some reason I've been thinking about that piece and what it means about John and Dave's relationship ever since I read that.
Is anyone else as excited as I am? It looks like a good time too. The popularity of Stephen King's It seems to have sparked or resparked an interest in the horror genre for a lot of people.
I know the series is more horror comedy than straight horror, but the first two books managed to hit all of the right existential dread buttons for me, even if they don't take themselves seriously.
But it was all part of his plan.
