Here's the thing with reviewing books (or anything else for that matter) - most times you are able to say "I really enjoyed it", "I disliked it" or maybe "Meh, it was okay". On finishing John Dies At The End the overlying thought I was left with was "What in the 17 holy hells have I just read!!!"
John Dies is not an easy book to review but I'll do my best. The general gist of the story is that our 'heroes' are two slacker types Dave and the titular John are in the middle of a whole world of weird. There are parallel universes, monsters made of joints of meat, a dog that dies and reappears again, horrific creatures that almost defy description and all is told in a mainly humorous style that leaves it seeming like it is Bill and Ted's Awesome B Movie . The horror is all at the top end of the gross out scale and there are a lot of poo and knob jokes that can become a bit trying after a while but if those are your 'thing' you'll probably enjoy it. Maybe I'm just not the audience age group it's aimed at.
For the story I would have given it 3 1/2 out of 5 stars but there were other issues.....
I read this on my kindle and, to be frank, found the text layout to be very poor in places. On one page alone, for instance, there was,
1) two el der ly (three separate words) security guards
2) En glish (two words!)
3) Notthe (one word)
4) house hold (two words)
You get the idea! This looks like it has not been proof read or, if it has, then whoever did it only did a half arsed job. There are similar occurrences all through the book and it really does detract from the narrative flow at times. Just because the kindle isn't seen as a 'real book' it doesn't mean there is any excuse for this poor level of presentation and for this I have to take an extra mark so .......
John Dies At The End - 2 1/2 out of 5
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