Hmmm.... Looking back, I'm not sure what spurred me to pick up this book. The green-painted fingernails of the hand on the cover? The faux amateur artwork/graffiti adorning the cover? Certainly not the back cover, which is sort of a gruesome continuation of the front. The whole package seemed a little fey and kitschy; but what the heck, if it wasn't my cup of tea, I'd just take it back to the library.
David Wong is the 'pen name' (do we say 'keyboard name' now?) of the author, who's credentials include a stint as editor at Cracked.com. As a young teen boy, I always thought "Cracked" was a second-rate version of "Mad" magazine, so there wasn't a huge amount of expectation on my part that this book was going to win any literary awards.
One thing I can say for sure is that describing the arc of the narrative or the plot components in any manner that would remain coherent is almost impossible. This is not to say that the book is bad. Rather, the twists and loop-the-loops of the story are so far out there that if you tried to tell someone, they'd probably start urging you to get your head examined, or at least tell you to call when you're back in contact with reality.
If you can imagine a mix of Stephen King, James P. Blaylock, and Caitlin Keirnan on 'shrooms, you might be getting close to the action of this novel. It contains elements of satire, bloody gruesomeness, slapstick comedy, and philosophical musings.
The two main characters, the "John" of the title, and "David" of the authorial reference, are two pals that bear a twisted resemblance to the duo in "Wayne's World", but with more smarts and some old fashioned courage. There's a struggle between good and evil, hope and despair, the ridiculous and the sublime, and heaping belly laughs at 'modern culture', all taking place in "Undisclosed". As far as I've been able to ascertain, "Undisclosed" is supposed to be in the Midwest somewhere a bit south of Chicago... mm--maybe.
There's really no way to describe the various fast left turns, and violent jump-cuts that fling the reader back and forth, and into various strange worlds and realities populated by a cast of bizarre and creepy beings. And that's just in "Undisclosed"!! There's a whole other universe that the main narrator pops in and out of throughout the book as well. This will never be a mainstream success in the publishing world, but for a certain type of reader with some familiarity with the authors I mentioned earlier, this one is a must read and will keep you entertained thru a cold winter's night or two. Don't blame me if you have some weird dreams while you're perusing it, or if ordinary reality suddenly doesn't seem quite so 'real' anymore.
Based on the 'afterword', it sounds like there will be more stories featuring David and John. I think that because, well, unless I missed it, "John" didn't die at the end of this one. Enjoy this one, but don't fool yourself into thinking you'll be able to describe it to your friends.
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