Review: This Book is Full of Spiders

This Book is Full of Spiders:Seriously Dude, Don't Touch It by David Wong 

October 2, 2013 by St. Martin's Press

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Summary:

"WARNING: You may have a huge, invisible spider living in your skull. THIS IS NOT A METAPHOR.

You will dismiss this as ridiculous fearmongering. Dismissing things as ridiculous fearmongering is, in fact, the first symptom of parasitic spider infection-the creature secretes a chemical into the brain to stimulate skepticism, in order to prevent you from seeking a cure. That's just as well, since the "cure" involves learning what a chain saw tastes like.

You can't feel the spider, because it controls your nerve endings. You can't see it, because it decides what you see. You won't even feel it when it breeds. And it will breed. So what happens when your family, friends, and neighbors get mind-controlling skull spiders? We're all about to find out.

Just stay calm, and remember that telling you about the spider situation is not the same as having caused it. I'm just the messenger. Even if I did sort of cause it.

Either way, I won't hold it against you if you're upset. I know that's just the spider talking."

Review:

Okay, so my last real post was about the movie/book comparison of John Dies at the End, which I genuinely enjoyed -- it was fun! This provoked me to actually buckle down and read This Book is Full of Spiders (finally) and get back to whatever shenanigans John and Dave would be up to.

At the beginning of the book, the narrator, author and protagonist, David Wong introduces himself and tells us straight-up that you didn't need to read the previous book to understand this particular story. It's true, you don't, but I think you should read it anyways. Not because you'll understand the references made but more so because it was a fun read.

Anyways.

What did I think of Spiders? It was the enjoyable clusterfuck of "what the hell did I just read?" that I felt about John Dies. That's right, I said enjoyable and clusterfuck consecutively after the other. That's pretty much the best description I have. On another hand, this book is full of some intelligent ideas, and thought-provoking, heavy subject matter that makes it's way through the chaos and jokes about human excrement (or excrement in general.) Obviously, this is a book for a much more mature audience who's into some…darker humour. Any strong social commentary will give you a moment of thought before being replaced by an image of eyeball-spiders. I'm just saying.

Something I really liked in John Dies was the constant action but I really felt that Spiders moved at a slower pace for several reasons. Firstly, the characters in the story find themselves stuck in places, barricaded and with stuff like that, there seems to just be a lot of…waiting. Secondly, the narration constantly changes from first person to third person and goes back and forth in time. I'll even admit that I didn't find Spiders to be quite as funny as John Dies however, I did feel that it was a lot more refined and polished. I admit that I kind of miss the juvenile toilet humour of John Dies.

So although this book was good, I didn't find it as enjoyable as I found it's previous counterpart. Would I still recommend it? If you're into zombie outbreaks mixed with paranormal, inter-dimensial invasions, and government conspiracy theories, I definitely suggest this for a casual read.

Rating: 3.5/5 Bookworms