This Book is Full of Spiders

By David Wong

Due to reading the 1.5 John and Dave and the Temple of X’al’naa’thuthuthu, I found it overlaps early on in the book, but also again near the end. Despite that, it's entertaining and it was easy to skim a page or so to where it continues with the story. It begins with an Introduction, so readers don't have to necessarily start with the first, but if one does start with this one, some of the jokes would be passed by without a titter. Also, Wong sets up an Epiprologue, which if one reads 1.5, does give an edge to the reading.

When finally up-to-date, Dave is having to go to court-appointed therapy because of a violent act which would be easily misconstrued as murderous intent if one doesn't know the character's personality one finds so amusing in this series. When reaching the descriptions of the hostile alien takeover, I was also reminded of The Watch, where aliens crash-land and use human skin to disguise themselves among us; hilarious in the same way as well, along with the blood. Plus, anyone who enjoys references to their favorite "nerd" films, like The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter will enjoy the one-liners and quotes which pop up throughout. I find so much glee in reading this sequel it's starting to become a favorite I will have to revisit someday.

There's also a scene which reminds me of every zombie movie where there's a shaky camera and zombies swarm the hell out of everywhere to attack everyone. This also is where some introductions of new characters are made, with who one isn't sure whether they're "just dumb zombie-gamers" or naive, yet heroic young adults. I also liken it to Kick Ass, regarding the awesome scene with Hit Girl taking out everyone in her dark-view goggles.*Sigh* Epic. Not to mention Wong has an uncanny talent of whipping out a nice little reference to some cult classic or another, like The Princess Bride.

Then there's a character introduced inside the quarantined hospital who's got such a racist mouth on him I could see Kevin Smith or Quentin Tarantino producing a sequel worthy of laughing and cringing in disgust. It becomes thrilling and disturbing and reads like one is watching it on TV. It's hard to find authors who have the fantasy style of Neil Gaiman and the hilarity genome of Christopher Moore; two of my favorite authors. I'll be keeping an eye out for more of these gems. 

This book also reminds us the amount of people one can tolerate before becoming assholes, so watch out for that little trove. There are also plenty of countdown sections to this book; All being thrilling and cinematic. And then I realize this is kind of similar to Under the Dome by Stephen King. Granted there's no dome, but one does get zombies which is a fair trade for a dome, I think. 

It becomes more sweet again when a little girl is introduced who we aren't sure is a ghost or something else and becomes another funny little side-story. We then also learn more about the infection which spread through the town. When they reach the point where they learn what's happening with REPER's control over the town, the annihilation involved was being said with such pure, genuine interest it made me giggle how someone can take themselves out of a situation regardless how far away it is from themselves. What's also great is how they don't let any "villain" get away with the "old tricks"; they hang the lantern with the perfect smart-ass responses.

Even when they find small victories they are only able to accomplish them by doing the most basic of penis-jokes. Which on the page, is much funnier than anything attempted on any kind of screen. We even, finally get to learn more about what's going on inside the heads of the shadow men (or more like a translation). There's also an epic death scenario which made me laugh-out-loud a few times and imagining the possibility of it being made into a film; that, I'd watch.

What's best is the joke ending on a book deal for Wong (who's made known to being a frequent user of exaggeration, if not a complete liar when recounting stories) and this book being the result, which leaves it to end on a South Park-like joke. Although the true ending of the book should remind us of our place in this big, stupid world, and perhaps hopefully will remind readers to err on the side of more introspection and being subjective about their surroundings?... Or it's my hope. I'm looking forward to more by David Wong; I'm hooked.