One of the biggest indications of “weird” are the elaborate
rules of the world, meaning nothing works the way we expect it to. Through an
artists careful crafting we can enjoy a suspension of disbelief and emotionally
engage with very odd characters and circumstances.
I’ve read all the books in Patricia Brigg’s Mercy Thompson
series. The bulk of the characters being werewolves and vampires actually
ground the books away from “weird.” The rules for both are so familiar. Even on
the surface, Mercy being able to shift into a coyote is so similar to werewolf
it doesn’t seem a big deal until you get her background story. The skin-walking
half-human offspring of a pseudo-deity, Coyote, does put her in the weird
category. The fae in the series are fun because that branch of supernatural
doesn’t seem as prevalent as the vampires and werewolves. The walking stick
that follows her around is a very fun “weird” element. The big weird in the
books are the different creatures/monsters she has to engage. The book River Marked has a good monster living
in the river. The latest Night Broken
has Mercy connecting with another of Coyote’s offspring who is always in and
out of jail and has premonitions. At one point the two travel with Coyote
breaking conventional rules of time and location. The monster in the book is a
volcano god who keeps humans in the form of giant presa canario dogs as his
guards. The series definitely has its weird elements.
However, John
Dies at the End has few elements that aren’t weird. Inter-dimensional
travel and psychic powers are its banal elements in comparison to the
hallucinogenic way characters and the world shift in the story. There is really
just too much weird to even try to explain…soy sauce is the hallucinogenic drug
that bestows the inter-dimensional travel and psychic powers, a tv infomercial
psychic is the good guy and ultimate monster destroyer. My favorite was Bark
Lee, the dog more aware and highly connected to the inner workings of the
universe than the human heroes in the story.
