Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

John Dies at the End by David Wong

9 reviews

jkpiowa's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Gore, Animal cruelty, and Violence

Moderate: Mental illness, Homophobia, Racial slurs, and Ableism

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

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

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

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

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

Minor: Death of parent

vulcandropout's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal cruelty, Racism, Racial slurs, and Drug abuse

Minor: Ableism

caseyf's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Blood, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism

Minor: Racial slurs and Suicidal thoughts

cranedphoenix'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 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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Content Warnings

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

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

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

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

vsnuffles's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.0

I picked this up and didn't get super into it but my brain is like that sometimes. It's generally not an indicator of whether or not I like a book. But I got back into it and really loved it! Real life got in the way a bit but I finally finished it this morning.

This will date the review a bit but there is something deeply cathartic about reading cosmic horror when Omicron is rearing its ugly head and the powers-that-be in our own governments are failing us in sometimes minor and sometimes major ways. Just the huge complexity of these systems is a kind of cosmic horror. At least we aren't dealing with the (all-too-often literal) shit they have to in this book though.

Glad I read it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Excrement, Gore, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Car accident, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Medical content, Mental illness, Police brutality, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Torture, and War