This Book Is Full of Spiders
John Dies at the End • Book 2
by David Wong, Jason Pargin
Why You'll Love This
A zombie outbreak, a quarantine zone, and two completely unqualified idiots are the only thing standing between your town and total annihilation — played terrifyingly straight.
- Great if you want: horror that makes you laugh out loud, then genuinely unnerves you
- The experience: fast, chaotic, and gleefully escalating — barely a dull page
- The writing: Pargin hides sharp social commentary inside absurdist gross-out horror
- Skip if: body horror and visceral imagery push you past your comfort zone
About This Book
What would happen if a monster outbreak began in your small town and nobody believed you — not because they were stupid, but because something was actively preventing them from seeing the truth? That's the terrifying engine driving this second installment featuring the spectacularly unqualified duo of David and John, two deeply ordinary guys repeatedly drafted into saving the world against their better judgment. The stakes escalate into full-blown quarantine-and-conspiracy territory, but the emotional core stays surprisingly grounded: friendship under impossible pressure, the horror of being disbelieved, and the particular dread of watching a crisis spiral while institutions fail in completely recognizable ways.
What sets this book apart as a reading experience is how relentlessly Jason Pargin (writing as David Wong) weaponizes the reader's own rationalism against them. The prose is sharp, fast, and genuinely funny — the humor doesn't soften the horror so much as make it land harder. The structure plays clever games with perspective and unreliable information, trusting readers to piece together what's real alongside characters who aren't sure themselves. It's the rare book that manages to be laugh-out-loud funny and genuinely unsettling within the same paragraph.