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

[Goodreads][Amazon][Chapters Indigo]

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

Movie Mondays: John Dies At The End

Movie Monday is a new segment that I'll be introducing every other Monday henceforth. This is going to be an analytic review and comparison of movies and their book counterparts. I also realize that I describe myself, and this blog as being a little sassy and I've yet to really fully express my sassiness and have thus decided that this is an excellent opportunity to rip something apart. I'll try to keep the language to a minimal (but that's not a promise.)

For my first comparison, I decided to go with John Dies at the End [IMDb] which, if you've been following since the beginning (AKA a month ago) then you'll know I actually quite enjoyed reading the book. I apparently had no idea at the time of reading the book that it was actually made into film last year. Because I didn't have any clue that this was already a movie, I thought about how the book would be awesome to see on screen as it read in a way that would have made the transition quite smoothly on film and after a quick post-read wiki search , I was pleasantly surprised to find that my thoughts had already been made true.

So it kind of took me a month to actually get down to finding and watching it and I was… pretty happy with the movie adaptation. Sure, many adaptations will cut parts of the book out for length and pacing, but I thought that in this case, it was done tastefully so. Considering the book itself is a clusterfuck of a weird, chaotic mess, there was actually bits in the book that didn't contribute to the main story at all and pulling them out from the movie adaptation made a lot of sense, especially to keep things moving forward. The main premise of the story was told in less than 2 hours and honestly, if all the parts of the book were involved it probably would have taken ages. That being said, there were some parts that I missed dearly from the novel that were left out of the book, the main one being the Vegas conference. Oh well. I also wanted the characters to share the scene where they talk about their last requests and Fred Chu's character talks about how he wants rumours to be spread about him haunting the city as a ghost.

Speaking of Fred Chu, something I really liked about this movie? Well, firstly, I love the fact that Fred isn't portrayed as a stereotypical Asian who knows kung-fu or whatever. I'm greatly annoyed at the fact that there isn't a better number of Asian characters in traditional media who aren't karate-chopping people (or presented as super-nerds) considering that a large chunk of the human population is Asian. I would hardly think that calling us a 'minority' isn't quite right, either. The media and entertainment industry is just silly, sometimes. Second thing I liked about Fred Chu is that he's portrayed by Jimmy Wong. If you watch as much YouTube as much as I do, you'd be pretty happy about that too. That dude is rad.

Since we're talking about casting too, I quite liked the portrayal of the characters even if they didn't really match up with who I had thought of in my head… well, except for Arnie. I did picture him that way. The environments were also-spot on with how I envisioned them and my only other complaint is the fact that Molly, the dog, was never really referred to by her actual name and her prominence in the book held a much larger significance than in the movie. 

Overall, the movie was…not bad. I admit it was a lot easier to follow than some things in the book and there were some things left to be desired but for the bulk of the movie, and for the things that weren't cut from the book, it stayed spot-on and dedicated. I also want to mention that seeing as how the book is a bit campy, the cheesy special effects were totally appropriate and I totally approve. Michael Bay, you got cool explosions and stuff but there is a fondness in my heart for awkward green screening.

Review: John Dies At The End

Lo and behold, my first review!

Let's start off the synopsis, shall we?:

"STOP. You should not have touched this flyer with your bare hands. NO, don't put it down. It's too late. They're watching you. My name is David Wong. My best friend is John. Those names are fake. You might want to change yours. You may not want to know about the things you'll read on these pages, about the sauce, about Korrok, about the invasion, and the future. But it's too late. You touched the book. You're in the game. You're under the eye. The only defense is knowledge. You need to read this book, to the end. Even the part with the bratwurst. Why? You just have to trust me.

The important thing is this: The drug is called Soy Sauce and it gives users a window into another dimension. John and I never had the chance to say no. You still do. I'm sorry to have involved you in this, I really am. But as you read about these terrible events and the very dark epoch the world is about to enter as a result, it is crucial you keep one thing in mind: None of this was my fault."

And now for the review:

This is a very strange book with strange things and strange people. I loved this book for being so strange and so absolutely vulgar. I guess in the world of a comic horror, no subject is really taboo. Considering horror is monsters and gore and comedy is...well, have you seen stand-up comedians? Anything is game.

This book is written by Cracked.com's Senior Editor, Jason Pargin who writes this under the pseudonym David Wong. David Wong is not only the writer but also the protagonist and narrator; a Jack of All Trades, he is. Dave brings us into an adventure with his friend John that's mortifying, delightful and fantastical that's made up of weird little wig-creatures and confusing questions.

If there's anything I have to say about this book it's that it's damn fun. Like watching a Michael Bay movie - not because the movie is good but because your brain wants to see things explode and because Megan Fox is pretty easy on the eyes. Fortunately books aren't like movies where you need visual effects to keep you happy. Books need be actually good for you even to have fun reading it. It may not be a creative masterpiece. There isn't metaphor or symbolism for you to decipher or a deep meaning that you need to carry with you. This book isn't going to change your life and that's the beauty of this book. It's simply fun and sometimes you just want something ridiculous to read and this is that book. It's so fun in fact that I had issues trying to put it down and over the course of two days, it took me about five hours to read. John Dies is full of unexpected things, hilarious characters, vulgarity, and goes great with a pint of beer.

I can't wait to get my hands on This Book is Full of Spiders.

Rating: 4/5 Bookworms