Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

John Dies @ the End by David Wong

30 reviews

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.

---

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

juledebaum2'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism, Mental illness, Racial slurs, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Homophobia, Sexism, and Antisemitism

cheetah26's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Racial slurs, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Mental illness and Excrement

Minor: Homophobia and Suicidal thoughts

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. 

---

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

scottnap's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, and Blood

Minor: Animal death

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

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Ableism

Minor: Racial slurs and Suicidal thoughts

bubblescotch'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

3.75

Fascinating in theory, frustrating in execution. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Violence, and Excrement

Moderate: Ableism, Racial slurs, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Racism

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.

---

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

virgilsinferno's review against another edition

dark funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

violetturtledove's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious 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

5.0

This was just fun all the way through. It's told in such a lively style with so many odd little details... Yes it's not high literature. Yes it's a bit disjointed. Yes it's clearly taken inspiration from every horror trope going. But I had a brilliant time reading it, the book equivalent of a film that may not be subtle or highbrow but has energy and a good soundtrack.
If i make one big criticism of it, it would be over-use of the R slur. Yes it's used by the flawed, first person narrator which gives it some leeway, but considering the narrator is pretty the author, I just kind of hope they outgrow that in subsequent books.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Repeated use of the R slur. Technically it's by the flawed narrator, but it's a fine line