First of all, it must be said that one should know what they are getting into with this book. I don't understand why people would buy it only to complain about the content afterward. The title "Bad Luck" is still quite general, but right under the blinking skull symbol on the cover, there should be no misunderstandings, as it states "600 Mishaps with Fatal Consequences." The author Cynthia Ceilán has collected cases in the style of the Darwin Awards, where particularly unfortunate individuals meet their demise in creative ways or are sometimes even brought to their end by others.
So, if you don't find any pleasure in watching Otto Mayer get his skull crushed by a falling flower pot, being run over by a road roller while lying in the street, and having his bloody remains ultimately pecked at by pigeons, you should definitely steer clear of this work. However, as we know from the terrible accidents involving seriously injured people and families burning together in cars on the highway, it is a fundamental human need to pause for a moment and want to observe the spectacle up close.
For those who can handle the topic, this book offers short reports on the unnatural deaths of sometimes more well-known, but mostly completely unknown beings from today and the past. It actually sheds light on more historical deaths, and to be precise, a few even come away with a black eye. Therefore, one should not weigh the subtitle too heavily and expect to count exactly 600 corpses. In fact, the number could even be exceeded, as entire hordes are sometimes swept away. The reports are roughly categorized into different themes across several chapters, but one should not expect any connections between them.
Personally, I often wished for more detailed explanations of the individual cases. It would have been nice to skip a few obvious fillers. This is not a joke book; it mostly does not contain the really funny knee-slappers, but rather the oddities that make you want to scratch your head repeatedly. Sympathy for some of the unfortunate souls, for whom one hopes in vain for a happy ending, usually does not arise; otherwise, the entertainment value would not be very high either.
All in all, "Bad Luck" presents an interesting collection that is quite good for picking up briefly from time to time, if one can somewhat handle the topic. However, one should not expect much more informational content than what is found in the short news of the local newspaper.
