Quote from: Slurpee;1934840it was OK.
I think Wong was trying to avoid the sophomore slump by avoiding retreading any of the territory covered in his first book, John Dies at the End. TBiFoS is more of a zombie outbreak scenario set in the same universe as JDatE.
the thing is, I really liked JDatE, and from the promotional materials was thinking this would be an interesting new scenario to be tackled with the same approach as the events of the first book, and I think he could have done that while putting across a fresh thematic take, but instead the scope is widened pretty far back. it has less playful toying with supernatural stuff, and more what is extremely clearly a senior editor at Cracked.com tackling issues of miscommunication in crisis situations, and this thing about Dunbar's Number that he's been laboring since he was on pointlesswasteoftime.com. it's a little heavy-handed, and Wong repeats this annoying trick where the protagonist just forgets X amount of time with no explanation, and he has to be reacquainted, which is basically just a narrative excuse to skip ahead a bit and add some lazy intrigue. things also just kind of peter out at the end. there's a pretty clear climax, but I'm not sure how much was resolved. I don't know. I guess it was just a little underwhelming. for all the chagnes from the first book, I still didn't get much new out of it.
i'm sorry that was the case. i know what you mean about the selective amnesia and I agree with you. The technique always makes me think of this scene
except without the self-awareness
