Summary: David, our narrator, and his friend John are pulled into a world of demons, doppelgangers, and alternate dimensions after taking a mystery drug at a party. Once the high wears off, nothing will ever be the same, and these two are the only people in the world who can see danger coming.


There is only one word that can accurately describe this book: "Weird."

No, I take that back. "Fucked up" would also do quite nicely. And would be more in keeping with the writing style.

Also, apparently this book was a huge underground phenomenon for a while before it was picked up to be published. I missed out!

The story is told in first person by David, who has changed his name for privacy. He's at a concert with his crazy friend John, and John samples a drug called "soy sauce" that supposedly gives the users inhuman powers. And it does, until the people who took it start dying in unexplained and horrible ways. John calls David for help, and things spiral out of control from there.

The structure of this book is not what I expected. It was originally published online in segments (see the website for more details), and reads more as a series of novellas than one single story. Part of that is the frame story: David is telling everything to a reporter, trying to convince him to believe. Since this has been going on for a few years, he skips over the boring parts and just goes in for individual "adventures" that support his claim to have a window into Hell. There's roughly three stories here, and while they're all good, I think the last one is the best, if only because it's the most outrageous.

But what really sells this is the tone and the characters. The writing style is akin to something by Chuck Palaniuk (I haven't read Fight Club yet, because I suck, but I have read Haunted, and it's a pretty close match), while parts of the plot structure are similar to House of Leaves. What's great is that the book can almost seamlessly move between pants-wettingly scary and absolutely hilarious in the matter of a few lines. Part of that is the characters of Dave and John. They're both your average guys: 23, working at a video store, and playing video games and drinking beer on a typical Saturday night. Even after they gain the ability to see the unseen, John's solution to finding out the world is going to end is to play a few days' worth of NHL on the Playstation. They're guys that I would very much like to hang out with. Then, of course, there's the supporting cast: a dog who seems to have her own share of supernatural powers, a one-armed girl, and others who move in and out of the story at will.

All in all, I loved this book, and can't wait for the sequel or the movie. I highly, highly recommend this, with the caveat of it taking a bit to get used to the writing style. Stick with it. It's worth it. Also, this book doesn't balk away from gore and profanity, so don't read it while eating (I usually get most of my reading done on lunch breaks, and this book was a stretch for that).


Readalikes: Like I said, the things I was thinking of as I read this were Haunted, by Chuck Palaniuk, or House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.