Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

John Dies at the End by David Wong

42 reviews

magpienicky's review against another edition

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism and Racial slurs

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

gawdz0rz's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny fast-paced

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

3.5

the book was pretty funny. the story was weird but interesting. will probably read the next book. 

very obviously written in 2007, especially with its usage of ableist and homophobic slurs and how edgy the characters were. also feels like the author just really wanted to use the n-slur and found excuses to do so??

does dude have a thing for farting? he talks about it so much. like, way too much. 

the columbine comparison was off because the columbine kids were not bullied, they were the bullies. 

not great to have the alien language compared to hebrew!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, and Excrement

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Suicide, Xenophobia, Vomit, Antisemitism, and Islamophobia

tons of bugs. roaches and spiders.

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

mnemosyne139's review against another edition

adventurous funny medium-paced

1.75

The rating I gave this book is purely due to my enjoyment of the plot. And I actually wish o could bring myself to continue the series. But I CANNOT get behind the author's repeated use of the R and N (with a hard r) words (and to a lesser extent, but still very noticeable and not addressed, homophobic slurs). They didn't add anything to the story, and they could have been edited out. There's even an addendum in the special edition where he states the language is the most common piece of negative feedback he has received, but for some reason only addresses traditional cursing and not the actually offensive words. And even then he just says it's a product of the time and he's not going to change it. In no time were these terms NOT offensive, so I honestly see that response as total BS. I'm really sad that I won't be able to continue the series because I actually enjoy the story, but the author definitely "gives me the ick" and I will not be reading anything else from him.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Homophobia, and Racism

deltaupright's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

I enjoyed this book, and I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone. Listing all of the content warnings this book needs would be nearly as long as the book itself, so the broad strokes are:

The main character is not a good person. He isn't meant to be, but it can be kind of tough hearing it in the first person. Imagine an early 20s white dude with working a dead end job in a middle of nowhere town in the early 2000s, and you've probably got a good idea. At one point early in the story he's complaining about his town and saying that they've got "too many jokes containing the n-word" except, you know. He just says the n-word, and that feels like a good way to sum up what kind of person the main character is.

In a weird twist of fate, if you're not sure this book is for you, I'd recommend watching the movie first. A lot of the bigotry has been toned down, but the absurdity, gore, and body horror remain for the most part the same, and it's honestly a very faithful adaptation. If you like the movie, the book is that, dialed up to 11. If you hate the movie, the book will probably make you want to scream.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Gore, Homophobia, Racism, and Violence

misterkel's review against another edition

Author avatar uses racial slurs in his thoughts to himself, and multiple characters using "ret**d" in incredibly juvenile, unnecessary, unrealistic ways. Very much feels like "old man writing youths" and missing the mark.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism

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"