Customer Reviews

Supernatural: John Winchester's Journal

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

I am a hardcore Supernatural fan. I wasn't impressed because of this: I have the first three seasons on DVD and I watch them all at least twice a month each. I have sat down with pen and paper and I have made note of every instance from the DVD that mentions something about "dad's journal". I have re-read the book with these notes and have found very little in the book that corresponds with these notes. It's not a bad book at all... just frustrating when you know the show in detail and then they don't match.

The one fantastic thing about it is the "source" material for the demons, rituals, supernatural things that John writes about. That's pretty interesting.

John's part of the journal? It sucks. This is the biggest character assassination of him yet. Lately it seems fans of the show are supposed to go from believing he was a strong, brave, driven man to a weak, whining, shell of a human that couldn't do anything but run from his past.

His parts of the journal can be summarized in a few words: Mary's still dead, he and the boys are moving yet one more time, and that he is unable to get a grip on anything in his world.

There is no strength of character as portrayed in the show. Instead, he's whining and weak. There's no sense of him being any kind of father. Instead, he focuses almost solely on whining about how what he can't do for them. There's no cool, collected stregnth as a hunter either. Instead, he constantly says how he doesn't believe in demons.

What?

There is no mythology explained, no how the hunters were formed, how they communicate, are they even a group? He says he kills some of them. Why? How? Where? What for? We never find out. A bunch more die. Why? How? Where? From what? We don't know!

And if you think it's going to give you any more information on the Yellow-Eyed Demon that killed Mary and started all of this? WRONG. Because, remember, John doesn't believe in demons. YED is mentioned once as the launch from the journal to the show.

The book almost totally ignores Dean. It makes him into this non-entity. This machine that means nothing more to John than Sam's bodyguard. He obsesses on Sam, which makes me believe the book was only written to further Sam's storyline, his mythology, for this last season (4).

I felt like the writer only had one goal in mind - to butcher the character of John Winchester. They've been doing it on the show, too, and I don't like either of that.

The journal is a wasted opportunity.

We could have gotten some backstory about how John felt about Mary being a hunter. Did he believe in what she did? What about her being a hunter with kids? Did she stop? How did they stay safe for all of that time?

Who did John trust within the community? Had this happened to anyone else with a family? What was his goal besides the droning "I'll find who did this to you, Mary!" Why didn't he go all out to find out why Sam was "special"? Why wasn't more of the focus on YED?

I couldn't have been more disappointed if John had found out the kids weren't his.

This really should have been written as a novel and titled, "John's Story". At least then it could have stood on its own as an interesting prequel. The author seems to be really out of touch with fans of Supernatural for purporting it be John Winchester's Journal, as it's not even close to being the journal from the show. He should have at least gotten a hold of the pages we've seen in the show and included them, and added a blurb from John at the end saying something along the lines of "I'm going to rip out the personal stuff and just give the boys the resource pages". Also, they shouldn't have bothered with the font changes -- that just made some of the sections of the book harder to read. Unfortunately, the publication of this book probably means we'll never get the "real" deal.

I received this book as a gift, and never put it down once for a week until I'd read every single word within. It is phenomenally written, and gives a lot of background that is either only hinted at or never addressed in the show. It provides an interesting contrast to fans of Sam and Dean, since we have learned both their points of view but have never gotten to hear John's side of the story. Also, some of the creature/demon information, new and known, is fascinating to read (but maybe I'm just a geek like Sammy ^^)

I only have a few complaints, and most of them are mundane at best:

1. We spend most of the show staring at John's journal: locked, leather-bound, loose-leaf pages held together by binder rings; but we get this shiny hardcover with pics of Jeff, Jensen, and Jared on the cover. While gorgeous (and sturdy), this is just one of those silly things from which no fangirl will ever recover.

2. The pages are photocopied to look dirty and folded, but have immaculately printed words on them - and when the printing isn't in Times New Roman, it's in some faux-handwriting font. I understand that it needs to be legible, but some consistency would be nice!

3. Most of the pictures inside the journal, while interesting and helpful, are obviously illustrations by some well-trained artist - they are not even disguised to look like they were drawn by John Winchester's hand. And if they were meant to be photographs, they should have just BEEN photographs.

And now my real complaints:

1. The book was published in 2009, meaning the wrier/compiler had all the information the show had to offer up to season 4, when John shouldn't have even had most of season 1. Evidence of this oversight is in John's casual mention and subsequent dismissal of angels and his inclusion of Lilith as one of the succubi, as well as some other minor things.

2. More disconcerting are continuity errors which, assuming Sam and Dean read the whole thing cover-to-cover several times once they found it, would have led certain episodes (if not the whole show) in a different direction. Cetain examples include (but are not limited to): "Everybody Loves a Clown" introduces Ellen and Jo Harvelle to the boys, who claim John never said NOR wrote in his journal anything about them, when John tells the whole story of Jo's father's death in an early entry; John talks often and at some length about how he feels about Sam, about visiting Sam at Stanford, and how proud he is of Dean in the journal, but the boys in the show claim to have no knowledge of any of this; one of the later entries lists the contents of John's storage, of which the boys claim no knowledge; the second to last entry identifies Azazel; and so on.

So overall, as I said before and will emphatically repeat, this is a fantastic book to read - just don't read too far into it, or you may find yourself rather homicidal toward it. Just try to enjoy the ride and don't think too much.

And keep an eye out for Supernatural's (final!) season premiere: Thursday, Sept. 10, at 9/8c on the CW!!

Let's face it...if you're a Supernatural fan, no review is going to make the decision to get this book or not for you, you need it!

While I did like it a lot I want to mention some minor aesthetic nitpicks.
* The cover. I was really hoping it would look more like a journal replica than a media tie-in book. The Indiana Jones diary, while not getting it entirely right either, did a good job at trying to look like it was someone's journal, something you'd find in the character's house and not on a store shelf.
* The fonts. Sometimes the entries are in a handwriting font which is great! Other times it's in a type font. Did John put the journal in a typewriter? Maybe there's a reason for this but if so, it escapes me.

There's plenty of strange info within, including the full excorism and bits of folklore and legends from around the country. I was surprised to find a mention of Dighton Rock in MA which is in the area I grew up in, it's one of those things you wouldn't expect anyone to know about unless they lived there.
One of the other things I really liked was they included references to the events in the Supernatural comics.

If you love Supernatural, you will love this book. It's very interesting and gives some backstory you don't get to see on the show. I sat and read it from cover to cover in one sitting!!

Since the beginning of this TV series, I've been mystified and fascinated with John Winchester's battered leather-bound journal and the occult contents of it: notes on dozens of creatures, spells and rituals and even (as they appeared on the CW's official SPN site) a few bits about what sent him on his hunt in the first place. So when this book was first announced, my hands started itching to get this book.

And I am far, *FAR* from disappointed in this. The small illustrations are clearly recognizable to people who've watched the show closely (like me!) and many bits and pieces of the text are clearly bits that the Winchester brothers have quoted as they've delved into their dad's notes when they found themselves dealing with a beastie they hadn't faced up before. And there's lots of odd bits written in some kind of mysterious code that's bound to mystify the reader and send them digging around to find the means to crack the code. There's a lot we've seen and a lot that's bound to be a surprise, and perhaps a hint of things to come in the show itself. I've only got one carp, and that is that it isn't bound in faux leather to simulate the actual journal, but I might do the crafty-geek thing and find a way to rig it up that way.

As a dedicated Supernatural fan [...], this was a great book! I looked forward to the release for months and I'm happy to say that it didn't disappoint. I was constantly finding details that were consistant with the show, such as the first line, "I went to Missouri and I learned the truth," and references to Cassie Robinson (the girl that Dean fell for and dumped him), and getting dates, places, and names accurately. Of course, scouring my memory for details of the show that they noted in the book, and there were really very few errors. This was great, especially because The Supernatural Book of Monsters, Ghosts, Demons and Ghouls disappointed me because of the numerous errors, not to mention the fact that it didn't seem to be able to make up its mind on who was narrating the book. The John Winchester Journal also had many accurate references to real-life occurances, such as Joseph Figlock and quotes and sections from many well-known grimoires. This one is definitely five stars!

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.