Some thugs are driving to an apartment building to get something from someone for some reason. But what they don’t know is that the building is fulla weirdos - what’s gonna happen? Oh, right: the title.
I’m not sure how many times I’ve seen Pulp Fiction but I think even if I’d seen it just the once, I’d still recognise someone blatantly ripping it off, just because it’s that memorable a film.
So I instantly clocked that the opening couple chapters of this book are just doing a crappier retelling of Pulp Fiction’s opening act: some crooks are driving somewhere and having a chat (ie. Vincent and Jules talking about European fast food), before rocking up to an apartment where a crime couple (like Pumpkin and Honey Bunny in the diner) are plotting their next crime. Then the crooks enter and it’s like the … And you will know my name is the Lord, etc. scene when Vincent and Jules do what they do to get Marsellus’ briefcase back. Even the format of the book - intersecting storylines - apes Pulp Fiction!
Noticing these things immediately put me on the back foot with Tobias Aeschbacher. Maybe he didn’t know he was being this derivative, or maybe he thought, like Tarantino “pays homage” to other works in his films, that he was doing the same thing as him - but he’s not doing it in a way that’s entertaining or better than what went before him, and that’s why the rip-off reads like shit. The dialogue is garbage - what the thugs talk about in the car isn’t a smidge on the Royale with cheese dialogue.
The art is very poor, although I will give Aeschbacher that he knows how to tell a story sequentially. The Hitman and Old Couple chapters were mildly intriguing, but ultimately the story is a pointless one. In the end, In The End We All Die is a boring Tarantino wannabe comic.
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