Member Reviews

I already like his comic series, "Jake Likes Onions" and I have some friends who follow him on social media. His darkly, absurd humor just easily makes me laugh. When I saw his book on Netgalley, I got so excited. The book is perfect for quick reading and it finished instantly. *sad face here* I absolutely loved it and I highly recommend.

Was this review helpful?

I saw some of the comics on internet. I really liked author's darkly humour. Maybe it is not a good idea to read everything at once but i really enjoyed it.

Was this review helpful?

I found these comics on Tumblr maybe a year ago, and they are absolutely batshit insane.

I'm serious.

But the thing is, they're hilarious. This is the kind of humor that makes you laugh even when you can't figure out why you're laughing. It's dark, and often morbid, but if you have just the right twisted humor, these are absolutely the comic for you.

I mean, he's not wrong about the cry crying part. Some of them are a little too true.

And for fans of his online artwork, I'm happy to report that there are a ton of comics he's not featured online, more than enough to justify the book.

Was this review helpful?

4 panel strips with surprising, humorous and often dark endings. The illustrations style is detailed and adds to the humor of the strips.

Was this review helpful?

Who does not love a book which can make one laugh from the very starting of the book. In this case, I meant the dedication of the book is so funny that it hints the humour inside of the book.

I chose this book seeing the cover and always have a knack for comics but did not expect such funny (weirdly and wackily funny) stripes to be there. The book contains no onions to make one cry rather than has some dark humorous comics to make the readers laugh. Jake Thompson did some outrageous and brilliant work.

You will be surprised how the only four gags per page can make you laugh so hard. Even the intro started with a funny note.

It's an unputdownable and perfect waiting room read for everybody. Very much eager to read 'Jake likes Onions' cartoon series by the same author after finishing this. If you are in a reading slump, this funny book can pull you out for sure.

ratings: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ (one less star because the book is short...I want a huge volume of those humour.)

Was this review helpful?

What a hilarious, cynical comic! My full review appears on Weekend Notes. Thanks very much to the publishers for sharing this ARC.

Was this review helpful?

At times, severely eye-roll inducing and others tragically relatable, The Book of Onions is comic meme-ography come to life. I don't know that I'm the target audience for this type of humor but the dry macabre pages were surely my favorite and I could have done less with the more clichéd jokes. This would make a great gift for any teenaged guy in your life.

Was this review helpful?

This short, twisted, sardonic, and humorous book of comics is based on the web comic “Jake Likes Onions.” The short four panel comics are about the eccentricities of life, single life, and more. Some of the comics tend towards the dark and violent and some of them will hit home. Adults will enjoy a quick laugh when they find the ones that they relate to most.

Was this review helpful?

Another collection of small-paneled no-continuation comic strips, usually featuring a round head in a suit. The artwork makes you laugh, and then the caption cranks it up another notch.
Right off the bat, the first page, “A Love Story for the Ages,” made me laugh. Good start.
Other faves:
Jogging! I’m on the side of the animals.
Revenge!
What do guitars have to do with capital punishment? Find out here!
“Tell me I’m beautiful.” That’s the second Mirror Mirror on the Wall joke I’ve read this month, and both were awesome.
Kleenex and gun-toting pandas, back to back.
So many more I could have mentioned, but had to draw the blurry line somewhere. Just go check it out for yourself.

Was this review helpful?

I struggled to find humor in this. The jokes were flat, not particularly clever, and depressing. I don't think this will have wide appeal.

Was this review helpful?

I didn't enjoy this book as much as I expected to. The art style is a mixture of stick figures and overly complex line drawings which I didn't get on with. Some of the comic strips are funny, but more in an amusing way than a laugh-out-loud way.

Was this review helpful?

When I was a kid, my dad had a couple of volumes of collections of The Far Side Gallery comics, and I... well, to be honest, when I first read them I was much too young to understand more than one in thirty of them, but eventually, I loved them. I was so envious of Gary Larson, and his ability to both draw and be funny at the same time, that I spent a significant amount of time in middle school pretending that I also had both those talents. (I very much did not.)
Fortunately for us, there are still some people who DO have both a quirky (some might say downright weird) sense of humor, and the skill to easily communicate it through a few well drawn panels and a short supply of words. One of those people is Jake Thompson, and his The Book of Onions, which is not, he assures readers from the first page, a cookbook or a story about actual vegetables, but is, instead, a modern day collection of off the wall comics, that echo the Galleries of my childhood in both style and substance.
I hadn't actually heard of Jake Likes Onions (the site the comics were originally published at), but, in reading the book, I realized I'd seen quite a few of the comics in other Interwebby places over the last few years. I had in fact saved this astonishing realistic portrait of me to my computer quite some time ago:
(Except I shower this hot even in the summer. Always hot showers. Always.)
It's a great collection of entertaining strips, and I'm gonna leave you with a couple more to prove my point.





Once again, my copy was supplied by NetGalley, in exchange for a review. Although, hey, here's an idea for NetGalley: Maybe make images sharable, if you want people to write reviews about books that have lots of pictures? I mean it wasn't too hard to figure out for webcomics, but it makes reviewing picture books a tad difficult sometimes.

Was this review helpful?

Thompson has a great sense of humor and his drawings are fun. I just wish he didn't resort to the cheap throwing-an-F-word-in-there-makes-it-even-funnier gimmick.
I would've read it many times over and recommended it to my friends. Even the graphic violence could've been toned down and made more cartoony. Then it would've been appropriate for teens. But this, this is appropriate for bathroom stalls. Bad form, Jake.

Was this review helpful?

The Book of Onions is grim and attempts to make light and some of our worst emotions. There are several times the comic succeeds; I laughed at the comic as it reminded me of my own times of loneliness. On a personal front, more struggled than landed. I was mostly amused but there were a few godo laughs.

Was this review helpful?

A suitably dark, sarcastic and snide collection of four-panel comic yucks, and one that really works. They're not exactly quotable, as a lot of them are a very competent mixture of image and text, so you can't really cite them in a written review. But trust me they're a heck of a lot better than many other books that purport to offer single-page strip jokes. It's very child-unfriendly too, in that it's almost NSFW at times. But I'm certainly feeling friendly to it. Four and a half stars, for being clearly superior to many other alternatives.

Was this review helpful?

Can't go wrong with dark comedy. I actually laughed out loud a few times. I have seen a few of these comics posted on the internet. Four stars. Would definitely recommend to friends with equally dark senses of humor.

Was this review helpful?

I hadn't heard of the Jake Likes Onions cartoons until I read this book. Entertained, though maybe not as much as regular fans. It was a little simplistic in my opinion. Good, but not great.

Was this review helpful?

There is no onion in this book. I do not understand why onion is the title but it is okay, this is the reason why I chose to read it. The comic strips are funny, it's in a dark humor category. But, I enjoyed reading it.

Was this review helpful?

I am seated next to a friend enduring chemo and we are both laughing like crazy. That tells you how amazing this book is.

Was this review helpful?

A very funny, entertaining collection of cartoons. Simple, to the point, and sometimes just brilliant; Guaranteed to bring a smile (and some loud laughs too).

I received a copy through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Was this review helpful?