3 out of 5

You did it! You read the book. Or you’re planning on reading the book. And I’m going to guess that, like me, you wound up here because of the movie directed and written by Don Coscarelli, and so in case you haven’t tracked this down through wikipedia or absorbed through other sources: this is the first of a series of books; and this entry started out serialized and distributed for free on the web. As you start sifting through the novel’s free-wheeling nonsense, either in preparation for or in comparison to the movie, it’s good to bear those two pieces of info in mind – the latter for how this thing moves in fits and spurts; and the former for how it feels like it shifts into a different shape as it shudders through its 400+ pages.

The shortest summary of JDatE’s story and tone is: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as written by someone coming of age during the internet era and who’s watched a fair amount of South Park. That works on a macro level for the Galaxy series, which gained more focus and emotion as Douglas Adams zeroed in on where it was all going over the course of five books – Wong (aka Jason Pargin) starts out heavily nonsensical, then eventually settles in to more “recognizable” aspects of the world he’s created – and also works on a micro level for the actual first Hitchhiker’s book, which was very much a runner of gags loosely tied together by a concept. That’s mostly the deal here as well, except Wong does have some touchpoints he remembers to keep returning the story to, which greatly helps it maintain momentum.

It also works a bit more specifically in terms of what the book is “about,” if we keep it at the level of things outside of our control exerting control, and in ways that are laughable but also followed blindly by those inclined to do so. I’m kinda remaining vague to keep the comparison going, but also because much of JDatE relies on finding out why much of its nonsense is happening, so I’m aiming not to spoil that.

…At the same time, I’d set expectations that this isn’t really a book to spoil: there are some good twists, but its big plus and minus is that a lot of its internal workings don’t ultimately matter. Once you know the general shape of the Why, it doesn’t really clarify a lot of what’s already occurred, which is kind of the point. The plus to that is that if you’ve enjoyed the ride, it’s pretty rereadable, and it also goes pretty quickly. The minus – still assuming you’ve enjoyed it – is that you can tell, even before the explainers, that a lot of this stuff isn’t going to matter. For the most part, the serialization and the outright goofiness and crassness makes it fun, but there are very clear detours for jokes sometimes, and then oppositely sections that would have so much more impact if they did matter.

Which mostly summarizes my read. JDatE is one of those books that, joyfully, is never a chore: Wong / Pargin finds a good balance between presenting the absurd as-is and calling out that it’s absurd, and you’re never too far away from some new absurdity. It’s also a book that never demands much of you, though, or really provides much reason for investment – the narrative kind of resets periodically – up until maybe its last 100 pages or so. But I’d also say those 100 pages are very much worth the journey.

As a warning: I mentioned South Park – the humor is very of its early 00s time.

The Thomas Dunne edition I read includes some forewords by Jason and Don Coscarelli, both of which provide fun background / context for how this all came to be.