John Dies At the End starts out like a Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas for a new generation. Instead of a Samoan lawyer, David Wong (who, by the way, is Caucasian) sets out with his Chinese druggy friend on a road trip to Hell. The story has drugs, hallucinations, lusty babes, violence, and everything irreverent you might expect.

Unfortunately, the novelty wears out before the drugs do and the episodic nature of the book starts to drag on. By the end of the book, jokes that sounded funny a few hundred pages earlier go unnoticed.

First you meet a very inventive meat monster and the story is fun.

Then the novel becomes framed as David, the protagonist, tells his story to a skeptical reporter. The book still feels fresh and fun at this point. David tells the reporter about "soy sauce," his name for a mystery drug the enables him to read minds, see underworld emissaries, and predict the future... only a lot of these powers vanish as the story continues.

A few inconsistencies arise such as John, the protagonist's best friend, going from a beer-drinking, video game-addicted, unemployable loser to a guy with a job, a Cadillac, and the ability to attract all the best babes in town with no real explanation.

Overall, David Wong is a good writer and this is a good book.