By EMILY CLANCE
A&E Editor

Among its four floors of academic literature, the Arrendale Library has a small section
dedicated solely to leisure books. From currently popular series to biographies, books on
pop culture and even graphic novels, this is the place to go when you want to read
something that’s not a textbook for a change.
With each issue of The Navigator, a different book will be put in the spotlight to give an
overview of what’s available to read for fun.
This week, the spotlight is on “John Dies at the End,” a science-fiction horror comedy
novel by Cracked.com editor David Wong.
With that tangle of genre labels, it might seem like “John Dies at the End” would be
equally tangled and needlessly complicated, but it’s actually a simple premise. The
narrator, Dave, and his best friend John are two slackers who are suddenly forced to
become heroes and save the world from a demonic entity called Korrok.
The duo discovers their world is in danger when John ingests a substance called “Soy
Sauce” and begins seeing things. Dave soon has his own run-in with the Soy Sauce and the
two find out that monsters and “shadow people” are invading and intent on killing them
and taking over the universe.
Joined by Amy, Dave’s high school classmate, and Molly, Amy’s dog with an unusual
connection to the supernatural, John and Dave have to find a way to stop Korrok and his
minions and save the world from certain doom, even though neither of them expect to be
successful and in all likelihood will die before the end of the book.
As an editor on Cracked.com, Wong is experienced in comedy and excels in the book’s
humorous moments. The horror aspects leave something to be desired, as everything
comes off as over-the-top ridiculous instead of genuinely scary, but as a whole the book is
entertaining. It’s a relentless, wild ride and worth a look if you’re looking for something a
little on the weird side.
A film adaptation of “John Dies at the End,” directed by Don Coscarelli and starring
Chase Williamson and Rob Mayes as John and Dave, was released in 2012 and is currently
available on Netflix.
The book’s sequel, “This Book Is Full Of Spiders (Seriously, Dude, Don’t Touch It)” was
published in 2012 and is also available in the Arrendale Library.