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A review by safekeeper
This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It by David Wong
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
5.0
Loved this book. It's one of those books I didn't truly enjoy and appreciate until I got near the end, but once I did, I couldn't stop listening. Holy ◊◊◊◊ what a read.
Zombie apocalypse outbreak stories aren't really my genre of choice, but it has some cool twists, like the source of the outbreak, and its method of spreading, really not being what you're expecting. It has the usual zombie story tropes, but also the usual Pargin observations about society and human nature, and it can suddenly get realistic in unexpected ways. For example, you run into the typical group of young men who have trained for years and years with guns and indulged in macho fantasies about how they'll be heroes when the ◊◊◊◊ hits the fan, but when the outbreak actually happens they cower in their RV with their guns, and Amy has to bully them into actually doing something. Pargin dryly describes their training with guns in the woods as the antics of a bunch of young men who have stubbornly decided to remain children until the age of 35.
Also, the fact that the protagonists David and John are just two bumbling young rednecks (granted there's also Amy, who appears to have her ◊◊◊◊ together to a much larger degree) who on the one hand seem to have ample experience with fighting the supernatural, but who also keep managing to mess things up and embarrass themselves is funny, too. The book also plays the 'protagonists in horror movies keep doing stupid things' trope completely straight, there's several moments in the book where things would've gone a lot better --or the day could've been saved-- had only the heroes not done something incredibly reckless and stupid.
Also, although it's obviously fiction, it's presented as a non-fiction book, with the author (under his pseudonym 'David Wong') also being a character in the book, and talking about the (I take it fictional) controversy and class action lawsuit against the first book in the foreword, in a little monologue about how you probably shouldn't even read the first book because it makes him come across as a horrible person.
The book also has little gems like this one throughout:
Zombie apocalypse outbreak stories aren't really my genre of choice, but it has some cool twists, like the source of the outbreak, and its method of spreading, really not being what you're expecting. It has the usual zombie story tropes, but also the usual Pargin observations about society and human nature, and it can suddenly get realistic in unexpected ways. For example, you run into the typical group of young men who have trained for years and years with guns and indulged in macho fantasies about how they'll be heroes when the ◊◊◊◊ hits the fan, but when the outbreak actually happens they cower in their RV with their guns, and Amy has to bully them into actually doing something. Pargin dryly describes their training with guns in the woods as the antics of a bunch of young men who have stubbornly decided to remain children until the age of 35.
Also, the fact that the protagonists David and John are just two bumbling young rednecks (granted there's also Amy, who appears to have her ◊◊◊◊ together to a much larger degree) who on the one hand seem to have ample experience with fighting the supernatural, but who also keep managing to mess things up and embarrass themselves is funny, too. The book also plays the 'protagonists in horror movies keep doing stupid things' trope completely straight, there's several moments in the book where things would've gone a lot better --or the day could've been saved-- had only the heroes not done something incredibly reckless and stupid.
Also, although it's obviously fiction, it's presented as a non-fiction book, with the author (under his pseudonym 'David Wong') also being a character in the book, and talking about the (I take it fictional) controversy and class action lawsuit against the first book in the foreword, in a little monologue about how you probably shouldn't even read the first book because it makes him come across as a horrible person.
The book also has little gems like this one throughout:
Note: Do not ask the author how the details of the following sequence of events was obtained. The explanation would only leave you more confused and dissatisfied than would any explanation that you could come up with with your own imagination.
Also, I love that it goes all out on the absurdity at the most unexpected of times:
The sauce is in a little silver container (...) When we find it, don't open it! Not only will the ◊◊◊◊ kill you if it gets on your skin, it will come after you!
Again, really loved this one. Got really emotional towards the end, too. Really good book, and I say that as someone who doesn't even really care for zombie stories.