John and Dave and the Temple of X'al'naa'thuthuthu

John Dies at the End #1.5

by David Wong (Narrator), Jason Pargin

The below tale of wonder and horror was written a couple of years ago as a "sequel" to my horror novel John Dies at the End. This unfinished adventure is not included in the print edition of JDatE that is coming out this fall, and right now is an online exclusive.

This was part of an early draft of David Wong's totally rad novel This Book Is Full Of Spiders.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Fantasy, Humor, Science Fiction, Comedy, Novels

102 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

David Wong is the pseudonym of Jason Pargin. He is the former Executive Editor of Cracked.com, author of the bestselling John Dies at the End series and the award-winning Zoey Ashe novels. Jason has a new Goodreads profile under his real name, you can follow it here:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Reviews

[Lucy Furr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gah! Fucking Shadow People! *shivers*

If you've read This Book Is Full of Spiders then you will find most of this story very familiar. If you haven't read it, then you might be spoiled a bit as this is the original origin of TBIFOS, which is, of course, the sequel to the truly awesome John Dies at the End. It has some scenes that aren't in TBIFOS, a couple of which are pretty spooky (shadow people!), and a couple others which are pretty damned funny. And that's how it usually goes with this series, horror and humor all rolled into one, which is what makes it so much fun to read.

[Adam Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dave's day has taken a turn for the worse. The shadowmen have returned ... And they're using his shower. Dealing with it the only way he knows how, Dave chooses to ignore it all and go on with his life. This works for awhile, but when evil bugs and dead cops start appearing in his house, he has no choice but to step up a face it head-on.

This story is the original draft of JDatE 2 and falls between the two official books as an unofficial prologue story. For awhile it was available on the official site, but has since been removed; however, the internet never forgets. As soon as I saw it listed as JDatE 1.5 on Goodreads I knew I had to find a copy.I don't know how much of this story's events survived into This Book is Full of Spiders, but it would be nice to see some of the more unique of this tale make an appearance; like the furgun.

Must read for fans of John Dies at the End.

[hotsake (André Troesch) · Rating 4 out of 5]

While reading this you can tell it was the prototype for the second novel. The book is shorter and in many, but not all ways, better than the finished 'This Book Is Full of Spiders' That being said I hope they bring back some of the loose threads from this story to the 3rd book because I want to know more about the tower.

[Stephanie Medeiros · Rating 3 out of 5]

Skip it if you plan on reading the sequel. It's just a draft anyway and it's entirely rehashed in Full of Spiders.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read John and Dave and the Temple of X'al'naa'thuthuthu after finishing John Dies at the End. I have not yet read This Book is Full of Spiders so I expect that it will rehash this story and add on to it.

I am impressed at the way that David Wong has grown as an author. This novella offers a full and complete story with foreshadowing and cyclical narration and small, cohesive details, rather than being broken up into a series of amusing anecdotes as was in John Dies at the End.

For the rest of my review, none could say it better than reviewer Adam Smith, who said:

Dave's day has taken a turn for the worse. The shadowmen have returned ... And they're using his shower. Dealing with it the only way he knows how, Dave chooses to ignore it all and go on with his life. This works for awhile, but when evil bugs and dead cops start appearing in his house, he has no choice but to step up a face it head-on.

[Brian Stubbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like this early version of TBiFoS, not better than the finished product, but it answers some questions about threads otherwise left dangling in the actual release (Monster Dave being a thing, explaining the invisible orb in Dave's shower [kind of], and the intentions of the shadow people, specifically the one in the hospital camera footage Dave sees on the news at work.)

Not much else to say, besides the Temple of X'al'naa'thuthuthu tower thing at the end of this draft seemed really freaking interesting, and to be honest the zombies/not zombies plot of TBiFoS is a little ham-fisted.

Here's hoping the scrapped content is going to rear its purposefully ugly head in the 3rd installment. Especially the gag where Dave runs out of his house in sweatpants, a leather jacket, and no shirt, commenting "All I needed was few heavy gold chains to complete the look". I dunno why, I thought that bit was hilarious.

[Keith Milstead · Rating 5 out of 5]

Again David Wong strikes gold with his John and Dave adventures. This is actually a prologue to THIS BOOK IS FULL OF SPIDERS which was a superb follow-up to JOHN DIES AT THE END so it is actually JDATE 1.5. Great bizarro fiction with furry guns, shadow men and cannibalistic mind control spiders. Read JDATE and then this one to prepare for SPIDERS. Jason Pargin (aka David Wong) is a fantastic writer for CRACKED.COM and his humor is outrageous. You just wanna sit down for a meal and let him spin yarn after yarn.

[Lilith's · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm enjoying these books way too much. This is sort of a cosmic horror story with some comedy flying around. The nonsense is massive and it makes it all make sense. And the pictures... Wow. I loved this.

[Ethan Hulbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be honest, I almost like Temple of X'al'naa'thuthuthu even better than Dies At The End! I think this story was a little tighter. Very good.

[David Sastre · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this novella - it carried the plot forward in an interesting way and was a bit more mature!

[Nico · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes.

[Darinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sequel to John Does at the End. Quick, humorous, and bizarre.

[Kevin Thomas James Atteridg · Rating 5 out of 5]

So happy that the internet was smart enough to save a version of this from the original whacky posting.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting look into what JDatE 2 might have been. Honestly, kind of better than what we got in the end

[Gaël Bartolini · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you would like to read TBIFOS again, just read this instead. Loved it

[gawdzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book seems like it was part of a draft for book 2. there are differences between the two, but probably not worth reading if you’re going to read book 2.

[Chelsea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super fun to read and spot the differences between this one and TBIFOS!

[Annabelle Pip · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a crazy ride of reading, intense, funny, bizarre.

[Ubiquitousbastard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yay for Goodreads having this for download, because I couldn't find it anywhere. It wasn't quite as good as the two actual books in the series, but it was worth reading. Definitely rougher and more in need of editing. I do prefer the lack of Amy POV here as compared to the adaption that is This Book is Full of Spiders, I also like how the series' mythos is more expanded here. While TBiFoS has a more cohesive plot, I think the direction taken here makes more sense overall, building on events and information from the first book while also explaining how the "spiders" appearance makes sense.

[Harold · Rating 4 out of 5]

This bizarre short story was part of the original draft of This Book is Full of Spiders, the sequel to the awesomely entertaining John Dies at the End. Not quite as great as the first installment, but still a fast-paced and funny little read. Now that the prologue is out of the way, I'm looking forward to seeing what John and Dave get up to in part 2.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was expecting this to be a book that fits between John dies at the end and this book is full of spiders, but instead it turns out that this is a short story that morphed into this book is full of....I really need to read what a book is about before I start it. haha

Anyways, this book is still fun to read, it gives you an insight of how the full novel came about. There are quite a few differences and I think the changes made to the full novel were all for the better.

You never get to find out how to pronounce X'al'naa'thuthuthu which is a shame.

Now I have the long long wait for book 3 to get published.

[Mike Meathook · Rating 4 out of 5]

any adventure of john, dave, and Amy is welcome in my book. definitely can tell it's a first draft, but different enough from the others to make it worthwhile. I want to know what happens in that tower, I hope we get that story. I think it's really cool that David Wong put this out as a free download, even if its not a finished book. I hope more people start doing it.

[Teague · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm fairly sure I read this a few years ago, before JDATE was published, when it was all up on his website. (It's since been taken down, I believe.)

[Johannes]

amazing