Reviews with content warning for Racism - John Dies at the End

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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seagullsaga's review against another edition

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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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elatedbooks's review

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This is very Shawn of the dead humour & whilst I did find a lot of it funny it’s also unnecessarily racist & anti-semitic & just generally a bit outdated.

Plus the plot’s not super compelling it more feels like a series of mini stories than a whole novel (although maybe it all comes together at the end or something)

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vulcandropout's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring lighthearted mysterious 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

2.0

This series did a number on me. It is one of the only novels I have actually been able to read and I enjoyed it so much I overlooked so many things it did not prepare me for when I recently rented an audiobook of it. Jason Pargin uses slurs ALOT. For fun. Racist carcicatures also. This was my favorite book for so long I followed closely for less than a year. Coming across his article complaining about the lack of racial slurs in bioshock infinite ruining the expierence. His reasoning being that it was important for the time period. I dont see the excuse for what he did in this book. I also have only finished this one and the second book a long time ago in which every brown person dies or is dead already. What was the resson? WHt WAS THE REASON? BItch? I have been unphased about his alias choice forawhile but knowing that his alias is how he found out racism exists along with everything else. I have struggled to find any book that could have me react the way I did for so long and somehow my brain not even registering the bad things so I could let it make me happy for a brief period of time. Im just reallly sad and exhausted I was so excited to finally get a copy of this again just to now not have a favorite book.

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bubblescotch's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny medium-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

3.75

Fascinating in theory, frustrating in execution.

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simplythegirl's review against another edition

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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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cranedphoenix's review against another edition

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Got like 30% of the book read and dropped it
Didn't think I'd want to drop a book after forcing myself to finish Jane Eyre 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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finbun's review against another edition

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This book made me so upset because it would have been such a good read if the author didn't feel the need to fill every other page with either slurs or the weirdest things to say about women. "But its the main characters thoughts!! that's part of his characterization blah blah-" We literally understand the characters mindset pretty early on from the rest of the heavy-handed context clues offered. It just wasn't needed and made it pretty unenjoyable, and I was so ready to love this book :/ just disappointing

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