Will I love John Dies at the End?

Jason Pargin’s short insightful and entertaining videos began appearing in my social media feed this year, only later in this year did I come to realize he was a fiction author as well as an online personality. And so I read his break-out novel John Dies at the End, and I was not disappointed! It is a wild combination of horror, surreal comedy, and existential dread, but beneath the absurdity is a thoughtful exploration of friendship, fear, mortality, and the terrifying possibility that reality itself may not be what we think it is. John Dies at the End is a… show more.

My second love in literature is unreliable narrators, and from word one, it’s clear the protagonist in John Dies at the End is the worst offender.

There are few likable characters to be found in this book, and none of them are the protagonist. I fell in love with the main character’s sarcastic and often salacious take on monsters, zombies, and everything in between. Every scene feels like a joke to the narrator despite the death and carnage that seems to follow in his wake.

More than any of that, this book felt completely unique. I’ve never read anything quite… show more.

Possibly the most famous book on this list, this book was included not for its fame, but for the author’s ability to handle the Eldritch/Cosmic horror trope and make it hilarious. A wonderful mix of horror and comedy, the pseudonymous Wong is also the main character in the book. His first-person narration paired with other details paints this book as an actual series of events that he is risking his life and all of reality by telling you these bizarre events. An homage to the Lovecraftian style and several real-world paranormal mysteries will surely entertain readers, however for writers, it… show more.