Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

John Dies at the End by David Wong

20 reviews

simplythegirl's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

Definitely  hasn't  aged well. The racist slurs are really off putting I know it was a different  time back in 2007 but it's still uncomfortable especially  since I listened to the audiobook. The book is really tense and the descriptions are great. I do wish there were more female characters it's  pretty lame the women get shafted. I really love the funny moments but I think the characters are overdone and stereotypical. Is that the point? The characters are like stereotypical white guys. It's also off putting that the african american people get shafted too. Not to mention the only presumanly latina character is hypersexualized

and thrown away never to be seen again when romance with a main character doesn't work out.

. Robert one of the few African American characters is the stereotypical drug dealer type and

who is involved with ending the world and "Morgan Freeman" an African American detective/cop of course dies early on.  Then a journalist dies. The only survivors are the white characters obviously.  Yes lots of characters die in general but not even one survivor is a person of color? Come on

One of the characters was in the special education  class and casually called the r word repeatedly. Her health is made fun of too. Women are higly sexualized with little to no personality. 
The representation in this book is terrible. Some good things in the book but it is definitely annoying and gross.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Cursing, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Murder

brassnbooks's review against another edition

Got like 30% of the book read and dropped it
Didn't think I'd want to drop a book and yet here we are
I swore I liked the movie but maybe I'm misremembering
The book is honestly nonsensical trash and that's saying something as someone who like the tv show 12 oz mouse
Just every -ism in a book and unlikeable characters I wasn't about to force myself to finish

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

pinkmalady's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Laugh out loud funny, psychologically horrifying, and gut-wrenchingly volatile... This is the exact kind of thing I will be thinking about for a long time. The way it handles mental illness and trauma targeted me specifically in such a deeply visceral way... The narration perfectly captures how it feels to lose your mind.

I adored the characters and their relationships. While I went into this mostly blind, I knew prior that

Amy and Dave would end up together. I'm honestly surprised at how well their relationship and their respective traumas relative to their relationship were fleshed out. It absolutely makes you feel for these two. Especially when Amy's life is on the line.

This book stressed and stresses me out. I'm afraid that if I think too hard about it I'll start spiraling... Going in, I had the feeling this book would rearrange my brain chemistry, and I believe it didn't fail. It's utterly chilling, and I don't usually spook easily when it comes to horror.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Xenophobia, Vomit, Car accident, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Antisemitism

jaydoncornell's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Outing, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Racism, Abandonment, and Alcohol

kiotejayne's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

2.75

If HP Lovecraft, Hunter S Thompson, and the literal personification of internet culture circa 2009 had a child and that child was a mediocre author, they would write this book. It's fine. It's even funny at times. But it's cringey as all get out and it tries so damn hard. It's not a hard read and even moves along at a good pace. It's easy to read but the reading doesn't really get you anywhere. There's no point in reading this book. It brings nothing to the table. It's a lot like falling into an afternoon of reading cracked.com articles. You haven't improved your life any, you've been mildly entertained, and you probably ought to have been doing something else. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

laserdiscreader's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

An enjoyable read that was maybe made less enjoyable by some of the dated language. This was written in the '00s and it shows in the relatively frequent use of various slurs. The writing itself is very fast-paced; I found myself often rereading sections because I lost how things progressed so quickly. I'm not surprised this became a movie (haven't seen it yet) because of the pacing as well as the graphic descriptions of all the demonic happenings that, well, happen. One very bright part of the book is how well the author writes in the tone of the narrator. Probably one of the best examples I've seen for embodying a first person narrative with a certifiably wild story to tell. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

jstatt's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book is simultaneously hilarious and scary. Before reading this I didn't think that someone could mix Lovecraftian Horror and comedy and it come out good, but hey, it works. I highly recommend this if you enjoy a bit of laughs with your horror. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Racial slurs and Dysphoria

kassidyrose_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I think the premise of the book was quite hard to get into, however, once I got into it, it was hard to put it down (possibly due to the fact that there was so much happening you had to keep reading it in order to understand what was happening). The main character was a bit hard to like, i love character flaws and all, but he was hard to love. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism

Minor: Racism

kell's review against another edition

adventurous funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Gore, Violence, Blood, Excrement, and Vomit

Moderate: Ableism and Sexism

Minor: Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

ohkmurr's review against another edition

dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

I was immediately hooked in the prologue, but I quickly fell out of it, and by the end I was not into it at all. It's like a Supernatural spoof trying to be Fight Club and Donnie Darko at the same time. I warn you: this book is not for the weak stomached either—I had the creepy-crawls the entire time and was generally grossed out for a lot of it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Car accident, and Murder

Lots of creepy-crawly content—mostly bug-related.