"John Dies at the End" by David Wong Book Review

It took me forever to finish this one.
Overall, this was a disappointment. There is good in this book, and there's definitively plenty that is unique in it, too. But overall it doesn't fully work for me.
What works? First of all, the narration. I was interested in reading David's novel due to his work on cracked.com and let me say that his style for comedic prose is really good. He has good timing and at times I could find myself just laughing loudly at the new insane description he came up with, which is RARE with a comedic book.
Second, the characters are pretty good. Surprisingly good. They have their oddities and its sometimes falls on the whole "Oh we are such freaks" schtick that if kinda cliché by now, but the main characters are just really likeable. The narrator, David, is one of the few cases I've seen of the whole "caustic, sarcastic POV" working out. Definitively helped by the author being an actual comedian. You feel the main character's personality and his way of seeing the world is enjoyed rather than something that feels forced. John is an AMAZING character. The author manages to make a borderline cartoonish character and exagerating just the right stuff and leaving just the right amount of actual humanity that he feels existable while being an absolute RIOT to be read. I really cannot emphasize how annoying a character like John could be on almost anything, but here it works. I even liked Amy, the love interest. The romantic sub-plot was a bit rushed, yes, but I liked her personality and oddities and she felt with slimmer of reality in her. Even a lot of the secondary characters were really cool.
I would have loved this book if it had been some character drama or a normal comedy because, as I've said, Wong is actually pretty good with characterization. Sadly, it is not. It's horror-comedy, a thought-as-nails sell. And Wong...doesnt quite make it. It's funny, alright. At times it's original. But for me the actual story was the worst thing in the book and to keep advancing was just a complete drag. I understand that it was initially written as a serial, which definitively explains the often episodic feel of several parts of the book. I could see that it worked as "arcs" all of them separate movements in the bigger sci-fi plot. The result was not quick to read and really not rewarding on itself to compensate for the bad rythm. The horror felt cliché, the situations Hollywoodesque and uninspired. The humourous narration, easily the best part of the book, often just killed the tension. The book had this NaNoWriMo quality in that, while its climax and resolution was structurally correct it just felt...liveless. Like Wong wanted to end big so he did it and that's all. The ending, while funny on paper, was also totally lifeless. 
There were actually some neat sci-fi ideas on the plot (I thought the Monster Dave thing was pretty cool, Shit Narnia was actually a cool concept even if it did had a waaaaaay too quick resolution) but they weren't really developed. Heck, the whole book just felt rushed, like we were going through the events by-the-by. This then that and that and that. It wasted the comedy and totally killed any horror or interest in the plot it had.
Overall, this one was just disappointing. I think I'll give it two stars (but I might change my mind...) mainly because the comedy did work, and I think not everyone can make comedic prose work, and because the characters were much more memorable than what you'd have the right to expect. But overall, I don't think I will ever read any stories by David ever again, even if his articles are still pretty good.