John Dies at the End is the only book I have ever read that was able to be both laugh-out-loud funny and genuinely scary, often within the span of just a few pages. It is a completely ridiculous novel, the images from which never seem quite willing to leave your head after you’ve put the novel down for the night to go to sleep. There are monsters both ludicrous and horrifying in this book, and more than a few sentient beings who at some point over the course of the story explode into a mist of blood and viscera. Don’t worry, though: As often as not, they seem to come back.

There have not been too many novels that have made me laugh out loud, and I – at least for the moment – can’t think of a single other horror novel that has done so. Maybe it’s not fair to call John Dies at the End a horror novel, but I can’t think of any other appropriate genre. It reads like Lovecraft, if Lovecraft had been a young adult in the mid-2000’s and were really into movies like Office Space. If you’re not sure how appealing that sounds to you, the novel’s opening lines are probably a pretty good litmus test as to whether this is the book for you:

Solving the following riddle will reveal the awful secret behind the universe, assuming you do not go utterly mad in the attempt. If you already happen to know the awful secret behind the universe, feel free to skip ahead.

Did that make you smile? If it did, I think you’re going to like this novel. If not, the book only gets more jokey from there. For me, it was the beginning of a 466-page joyride through an amusement park that seemed to have been constructed for my own personal amusement. I loved nearly every moment of the book, and though I’ll confess its length probably could have been trimmed somewhat, I refuse to dock any points because the fact is it kept me entertained right up to the very end.

The plot of John Dies at the End is completely insane. This, as you can imagine, makes it pretty hard to summarize. Boiled down, though, I think it’s safe to say it goes something like this: David Wong and his friend John are accidentally exposed to a weird drug called soy sauce. The drug gives them heightened sensory perception and psychic abilities, but it also lets them see otherworldly creatures who seem to be creeping into our world with increasing frequency. These creatures are often disgusting mash-ups of animals or insects you might see on earth. Sometimes, though, they take over the bodies of ordinary humans and use those humans as vessels to carry out their will. It’s not clear what these creatures are up to, but it’s certainly nothing good. And in addition to giving them the ability to see the creatures, ingesting the soy sauce brings the attention of these creatures squarely onto Dave and John.

That plot description doesn’t even come close to doing the story justice, but it’ll have to do. The story is silly and often borderline nonsensical, but at the same time it is somehow engaging and exciting and, yes, at times it is quite scary.

Another draw to the book, for me, was how much it reminded me of my own experience of growing up and being a smart-ass in high school and beyond. I had my own friend named John (ok, it was spelled Jon) and we made many of the same stupid types of jokes that the characters in this book make unceasingly, and we too were endlessly amused by our own hilarity. These moments made me laugh because they were funny, but also, because for me they seemed so real. So much of the dumbest stuff in this book rang so true for me. At one point in the novel, the narrator is driving down the road when he suddenly realizes that someone is in the car’s backseat. The stranger drops a strange sluglike creature with huge sharp teeth down the narrator’s shirt…

“Keep driving,” said a soft voice in my ear. “She will not bite if you keep driving.”

Fuck that. Fuck that idea like the fucking Captain of the Thai Fuck Team fucking at the fucking Tour de Fuck.

It’s so dumb, but it’s the sort of thing that either Jon or I might have said in high school, and it would have immediately caused the both of us to crack up uncontrollably. Does liking this book mean I haven’t grown up? You know what, in some ways I really hope so. It’s nice to be able to have fun like this.

When I was about halfway through this book, I went on Amazon and I ordered a copy of the book for my friend Jon. He has ADD and is also an idiot, so I don’t know if he’ll ever read it. If he does, though, I’m guessing he’ll enjoy it as much as I did.