In the afterword to his latest novel, writer, comedian and internet personality Jason Pargin, who you may know by his now-defunct pseudonym David Wong, presents a brief yet fascinating retrospective on his work within the John, Amy and Dave series. In-universe, the fan-favorite characters are still technically young adults trying to find their way in a hostile town that occasionally gets invaded by supernatural abominations.
In the real world, however, each of these five novels was deeply influenced by the time during which they were written, with Pargin bringing up the edgy cynicism of the ’90s Clinton era which informed John Dies at the End and the post-9/11 paranoia from the first sequel.
This willingness to engage with the current zeitgeist may result in some interesting continuity issues when you consider that these characters have remained more or less static for nearly three decades at this point, but it also means that each novel in the series has something unique to say about the state of the world despite a consistent core of dick jokes and Lovecraftian terror. I bring this up because I honestly thought that, after five completely unique books (featuring situations ranging from apocalyptic zombie outbreaks to perception-altering parasites), there couldn’t possibly be any more interesting ideas left for Pargin to explore in the strange town of Undisclosed.
That’s why I was so surprised when There Are No Giant Crabs in This Novel: A Novel of Giant Crabs turned out to be such a fresh genre-bending romp even if it can’t help but revisit some familiar concepts from the series’ past.
In Pargin’s latest cheekily titled story, we once again follow Dave, his girlfriend Amy and their best friend John as they become embroiled in an interdimensional mystery. This time, a “log” of compressed human body parts inexplicably materializes on the snowy front lawn of an Undisclosed resident during a particularly bad winter, leading the cops to call in the local paranormal “experts” for help. It doesn’t take long for things to escalate as opposing forces in an interdimensional war attempt to fight over our main characters’ attention in a gnarly conflict involving mind control, genetic predestination and, unsurprisingly, gigantic crabs.
As is usually the case with Pargin’s books, the supernatural part of the story is merely an over-the-top setup meant to ease you into a discussion about real-world issues and the occasional instance of potty humor. While I won’t spoil the deeper themes behind the interdimensional shenanigans here, suffice to say that the series once again hits the nail on the head when it comes to getting to the bottom of current societal issues while still feeling like a legitimately interesting cosmic horror yarn.
The narrative never gets bogged down with ham-fisted messaging or soap-box monologue moments (something that Pargin has struggled with in some of his other book series), as our main characters are well-developed enough to feel more like real people instead of avatars meant to parrot a certain point of view. Not only that, but the story itself is still genuinely entertaining even if you remove the social commentary motivating it, especially since it’s only during the latter half of the book that the mechanical assassins and dystopian alternate universes start to make sense.
The jokes also remain delightfully crude as they’ve always been, though I appreciate how many of the gags tie back to established character traits and how our characters see the world. For instance, the entire subplot about how a mutant lizard creature may or may not be one of our main characters in disguise manages to explore Dave’s codependency issues without ever feeling like a downer therapy session. In fact, the jumping between different points of view is one of the novel’s most consistent sources of humor, especially when John’s sections feel like they came from a completely different style of book – though the excerpts from Dr. Marconi’s publications remain the most fascinating segments of the story.
One strange aspect of the reading experience comes from how Pargin deals with callbacks to the rest of the series. For instance, while I’m aware that each of these books is meant to be a standalone adventure that can be read without knowing anything about the other novels, it feels a little strange that the characters don’t seem to notice how the mechanism through which one of the main villains is purifying his reality seems eerily similar to a plot point from the original John Dies at the End.
That being said, most of these inconsistencies can be excused due to the fact that the characters themselves admit to playing fast and loose with continuity in order to avoid legal trouble. I also appreciate existing references to the other books like how the group occasionally alludes to Dave’s hilarious double life as the local BATMANTIS??? cryptid, an idea that was introduced nearly a decade ago in What the Hell Did I Just Read?.
As I mentioned earlier in this review, I had already reached a point where I was unsure about where Pargin could take this story next if he chooses to continue the John, Dave and Amy series. And while I thoroughly enjoyed this new entry in the long-running franchise, it was only when I reached the final pages of the latest release that it dawned on me how the standalone nature of each novel, combined with the excellent character work that has been there from the very beginning, make each new book feel less like an additional chapter in an over-arching story and more like simply catching up with good friends that you haven’t seen in a while.
There Are No Giant Crabs in This Novel occasionally stumbles, with the narrative recycling some of the interdimensional and interpersonal drama from previous books and having less to say about the nature of American poverty due to the crew’s newfound stable employment, but there’s more than enough heart behind this eldritch horror-comedy to keep you coming back for more absurdist humor and over-the-top gore page after page.
That’s why I’m of the opinion that Pargin can keep this series going for as long as he wants. Or at least for as long as he can before the human race inevitably evolves into monstrous crustaceans.
There Are No Giant Crabs in This Novel is available now for pre-order and will be hitting store shelves on November 3, 2026.
