I thoroughly enjoyed John Dies at the End, the first book by author "David Wong" (a pseudonym for Jason Pargin); with its collection of absolute insanity, pure nightmarish horror, and gleefully twisted humor, it was a fantastic horror novel, and one that I enjoyed despite its somewhat cobbled-together feel. But that odd feel - a result, no doubt, of the book's origins as an episode blog series - made me all the more eager to check out This Book is Full of Spiders, to see if Wong could create something more cohesive and structured. Man, does he ever. This Book is Full of Spiders is every bit as funny as John Dies at the End, but in creating a more solid throughline, the sequel feels far darker, more disturbing, and far more of a true horror novel, dark comedy and all. The plotting still remains as complex and bizarre as it did in John Dies at the End - this is a book that involves murderous invisible spiders, shadow men, a secret government organization, magical doors that transport you across town, and a mysterious green package guarded by GI Joe toys, and that's just for starters - but it all feels far more linear and more coherent than John did. More than that, Wong's pacing allows him to build up to some absolutely knockout setpieces, including a climax that's equal parts thrilling and horrifying and keeps you reading long after you should have quit. I have no idea if there will be more books in the series; after all, given the bizarre nature of the reality in the town of Undisclosed, who knows what nightmares might emerge next? But if this is the end of the set, Wong delivers one hell of a book to do it, combining a slew of laugh-out-loud moments with some truly scary, unsettling elements and tying it into something that manages to be both surprisingly character driven and gleefully splattery. Whether Wong writes more John books or something new (and the excerpt in the back here certainly appears to be something new), he's made a fan out of me - his writing is insane, funny, scary, and just plain great, and I'll be eager to get whatever else he writes.
- Josh Mauthe
- Josh Mauthe