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| | Supernatural: John Winchester's Journal | | | Music Style : | | General | | Record Label : | | It Books | | Release Date : | | 2009-02-03 | | Store Price : | | $21.99 | | Artistopia's Price: $15.83 | | Usually ships in 24 hours | | |
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Customer Reviews of This Album/CD |
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 John Winchester's Journal
Submitted on: 2009-10-11 |
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| It was well written and believable as far as being the voice of John Winchester, but it could have been a lot better. When this book came out I was excited to read it as I am a huge fan of the show. It started off good enough, but the farther into it that you read it becomes less like a journal about the trials of surviving in a life submerged in a supernatural world and more like a course book on mythology. As you read the anecdotes about the three Winchester men begins to diminish and it's just his difficult to follow notes on different beings and the folklore behind the stories. I can assure you it is not any where as interesting as the show. I was pretty disappointed. |
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 John Winchester's Journel
Submitted on: 2009-10-08 |
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| The book provides a good background for understanding the reasons behind what the boys had to grow up with and gives an interesting insight to things 'SUPERNATURAL' If you love the series as I do,the book is a worthwhile purchase,especially while we are waiting for the new series to come over here. |
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 not worth the money
Submitted on: 2009-08-30 |
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| The book does not agree with facts said on the show. It is not true Supernatural. |
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Not a bad read, just not truthful to the series
Submitted on: 2009-07-11 |
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I was pretty excited to read my copy of JWJ. I'd heard good things about it and I'm a huge fan of storylines that have to do with John and the Winchester brothers back when they were kids. JWJ seemed like it would a great way to get some backstory.
Unfortunately, it seems that the author got a bit ahead of himself when plotting out that backstory and ignored some crucial bits of characterization as a result. There are several bits of canon that are left out (part of this I can't blame him for; there are things he might not have known about because they hadn't been released yet) but more than once what he writes directly contradicts what's displayed in the show. This is displayed right from the very first paragraph: "I went to Missouri and learned the truth. And from her..." Points to Irvine for remembering the line from Home; unfortunately, he should have remembered that there was NO description of Missouri as a person, hence the surprise on Dean's part when it came to actually meeting her.
Another thing that got me was just how clearly John's affection, love and worry for his boys came out. As someone who likes a bit of fluff, that's always a pleasure to read but as a canon fan, I've got to raise the unfortunate issue that neither Sam nor Dean were EVER certain of John's feelings towards them and had they written proof of the truth, neither would have displayed the level of filial angst we see in the show itself. In a story written from John's perspective, the proof of his emotions towards his sons would have been fantastic but it just doesn't work in a book purporting to be the same journal that Sam and Dean take with them on their own journey.
There are several other details that don't make too much sense to me, but I'll let readers discover those on their own, rather than pointing them all out. Also, the book has some interesting factoids on the cases that John worked on and I did enjoy the gradual demonstration of his increasing skills (and general coldness, even the slight distraction from his focus on getting vengeance for Mary's murder as he got more caught up in the hunt itself) as time progressed. If the book had focused more on that instead of on the emotional vulnerabilities, I'd have very easily seen it as John's journal. As it was, those tidbits were definitely a distraction, especially as we see in canon that John's journal was extremely succinct and often entries were drilled down to one or two sentences and ALWAYS were focused on the case, not on his own emotional state or those of his sons.
I'd love to see the author actually write a book from John's perspective, especially if he got someone to work with him on some of the canon details. I think at some point he mentions buying a Mac for Sam, for instance; canon!John would have had NO desire to do this. Apples are expensive and unnecessary for the sort of work they were doing, given that it was in the 96-97 timeframe. A laptop at the time would have been an extreme luxury; paying for a Mac unnecessarily is just too much for me to believe, even on false credit cards, when we have canon proof that money was an issue.
All in all, it's a decent read. It's well written, occasionally intriguing, but it does not fit the basic requirements necessary to actually be John Winchester's Journal. |
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Good for Casual Fans
Submitted on: 2009-06-29 |
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If you're a casual fan of Supernatural, if you, say, watch it when it airs once a week and maybe have the DVDs, but have only watched them once or twice - this is a good book for you. It's entertaining, it has some good back-story moments, and it's well written.
If, however, you're a Supernatural-fanatic and have watched the DVDs more times then you can count, read fanfic and the tie-in novels, and were uber-excited to hear about this release because you'd get to read what Dean and Sam have read on the show? You're not going to like it. I knew that within the first two pages - there's just too many inconsistencies. Others have listed them in detail, so I'll just name the first one: Missouri.
It starts off exactly like Dean said it did in "Home": "I went to Missouri and I learned the truth." However, if the author had continued *watching* "Home" he'd know that Dean's next statement was, "I always thought he meant the state." He never knew Missouri was a person. John, however, goes into detail in his journal about their conversation, making it very clear that Missouri's a psychic.
Like I said, though, if you're a casual viewer and don't mind some inconsistencies, you'll probably enjoy this. But don't think you're going to be reading something you can imagine as the *actual* journal of John Winchester - it's not even close. |
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