Reviews tagging 'Murder'

John Dies @ the End by David Wong

10 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

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"

aidualc_clau's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, and Murder

espea's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

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

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

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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

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.

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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

ohkmurr's review against another edition

dark funny medium-paced

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

2.0

I was immediately hooked in the prologue, but I quickly fell out of it, and by the end I was not into it at all. It's like a Supernatural spoof trying to be Fight Club and Donnie Darko at the same time. I warn you: this book is not for the weak stomached either—I had the creepy-crawls the entire time and was generally grossed out for a lot of it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Car accident, and Murder

Lots of creepy-crawly content—mostly bug-related.