Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

John Dies at the End by David Wong

19 reviews

rkpaulson96's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

This book is a ton of fun, though the plot meanders quite a bit, making it seem like it drags on. Some of the writing also hasn’t aged well, such as the repeated use of the r-word and n-word. But the characters are lovable and the writing overall is funny and engaging. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

vixenreader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny lighthearted mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

It’s like if Thomas Pynch wrote a crass version of “Supernatural” set in the same universe as “Welcome to Night Vale,” with the occasional visits from Rick and Morty. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gun violence, Sexual content, Suicide, Cannibalism, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, and Cultural appropriation

Minor: Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Islamophobia, Medical content, and Death of parent

There is a variety of explicit subjects in this book, but be aware of exploding dogs, siblings dying, an obscene amount of flatulence, racial stereotypes, death having no consequence, reality being malleable, and frat boys using multiple slurs and politically incorrect phrases.

emilyrainsford's review against another edition

I enjoy this author's Tiktok videos and thought the title was funny and clever. I genuinely thought I would like this book. By the end of the prologue, I knew I was wrong. It was one of the stupidest things I've ever read. And I have a very immature sense of humour, but this just felt off in a way that's hard to put my finger on. The moment when the basement door handle turned into a penis which caused them to be locked in a dangerous situation because the protagonist was too much of a damn child to touch a peen was where it started to go downhill. Moments later, the basement was filling with literal shit for apparently no other reason than "hehe poopoo funny". Then a pile of frozen meat turned into an ambulatory creature and I knew this was all just way too stupid for me. And as I say, it's not that I have a high brow sense of humour. I thought Percy Jackson was hilarious and it's literally written for 12 year old boys. This just all felt like it was trying too hard. 

I decided to give it a chance and started on chapter one and was absolutely shocked by a casual and joking use of the N word with hard "r" for no good reason at all?? Then repeated paragraphs about the protagonist obsessing over the "Asian waitress"'s boobs.

I looked up reviews to see if it was going to get better, and learnt that apparently the R word is used later in the book, in reference to a girl the protagonist thought was autistic, and when it turns out she's actually "just" depressed, he decides he's attracted to her.

I am honestly shocked, I thought the author's Tiktoks were intelligent and insightful, and now I can't even watch them anymore, knowing the creator of them wrote this steaming pile of edgelord garbage.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Misogyny, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Gore, Homophobia, and Car accident

monsterelle's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Gore, Racial slurs, Excrement, Medical trauma, and Car accident

Moderate: Ableism

Minor: Drug use and Violence

unit25's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

Exactly my kind of book. I really enjoyed this. The whole time I was reading it I thought, "this would be good to make into a movie"... Then when I finished it, I looked it up, and found out that it has been made into a movie! Then I watched the trailer, and realized that I've already seen the movie! I never put the two together in my head, so I'm going to have to go and rewatch the movie again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

beltari's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Vomit, and Car accident

Minor: Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Dementia, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

the word "retarded" and conjugations of the same are used 16 times throughout the book as a synonym of "dumb"

turtleofhades's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I'd forgotten how early 00s this book was. Some of the language punted me back to a time of low rise flared jeans and layered polos; this is not a good thing.

It's still a good story with not quite unlikable main characters. I'm ready to continue on this series again as I just found out there's a fourth book (super excited since the author's writing has gotten so dang good with the Zoey Ashe series).

Definitely a must read for any time of year, but especially October. Who doesn't need a little existential dead and body horror every now and then? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Excrement, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Bullying, Drug use, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

schnaucl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

I felt through most of my the book that it just wasn't for me.  It wasn't bad, or badly written, I just didn't click with it.  I eventually warmed up to it, enough that I may seek out the next book in the series (though given my lengthy TBR pile, maybe not).  

It's very surreal and frantic.   Parts of it definitely remind me of a video game. 

A word of warning, there are a a couple slurs thrown around pretty regularly that were more socially acceptable (at least among boys of a certain age) back when the book was written but that are jarring to read now.

There's also some animal death.

I think part of what turned me around was realizing that while John may have spoken and sometimes acted more immaturely than David, he was perhaps kinder and definitely understood people better.   I think he was smarter, too.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Bullying, Drug use, Homophobia, and Car accident

em_chen's review against another edition

2.5

read this bc i was a cracked girl back in the day but forgot that my tolerance for bullshit used to be way higher. teen incel shock value vibes.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cursing, Racial slurs, Antisemitism, Car accident, and Alcohol

r-slur used frequently, n word and other slurs

seagullsaga's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

The only reason I finished this book is because I have a complex about DNFing books. 

It’s needlessly vulgar, racist, sexist, and full of slurs that serve no purpose. The occasionally actually funny joke does nothing to counter these or make the book anywhere near worth it. 

If you like this book you probably also think that Tyler Durden is a good role model. 

Every time I looked to see how much I had left of this book I was disappointed. It drags. There’s always more nonsensical toilet humor and psychedelic crap, and none of it does anything to tell a coherent story. I was wishing EVERY character died by the end. 

I don’t normally leave reviews, and especially not with text, but this book was so unpleasant that I had to get my feelings out somehow. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Excrement, Antisemitism, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Vomit, Car accident, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Death of parent