Reviews - Kolíbka | The StoryGraph

5.74k reviews for:

Kolíbka

Kurt Vonnegut

4.04 AVERAGE

bifurcateduvula's review against another edition

4.0

dark funny reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

loieveee's review against another edition

4.0

No damn cat. No damn cradle.

Scientific advancement and religious zealotry without empathy or ethics are merely weapons.

Wish the women in this book did more than just exist! But overall, I had a fun time with this one. So many good one-liners.

astampede's review against another edition

3.0

In my opinion, this story lacked a clear direction. The main character is a writer who wants to research one of the main creators of the atom bomb. Okay, sure. He contacts his children and learns a bit more, eventually goes to where he used to work, and learns about a substance called "ice-nine" that can immediately freeze whatever it comes in contact with. Then he decides to travel to some island called San Lorenzo for an interview and comes across Frank Hoenikker, one of the scientist's sons. His siblings had even been on the plane with him, how convenient. This nobody writer becomes the new president of this nation because Frank doesn't feel like it, and then oops, the whole world freezes over during a celebration because a plane crashed and spilled "ice-nine". That's pretty much all that happened.

So what was this writer's true intention? He already knew about Bokonon, the made up religion in this book that makes up a much larger percentage of the story than it really should have, and he had an interest in writing this book... I don't know, to me it seemed a bit lacking. The characters were pretty weak and uninteresting overall too, especially Mona. She was just eye candy to the main character and after meeting her, she lacked any interesting thoughts. Once she was told this writer would be president, she was like "ok, I love you." with no hesitation. Seemed like talking to a wall, very boring person. The only time she really showed emotion was when she saw everyone die from "ice-nine", laughed, then killed herself with "ice-nine" too.

Anyways, this story was fairly interesting to read and I'm glad I did. I like Vonnegut's writing style, and I'd say it was stronger early on but never really went anywhere. "Ice-nine" didn't even seem important early on, or at least until it was confirmed to exist in this world, so I was a bit disappointed that it took so long to actually be used. The idea of a rural island setting of San Lorenzo was interesting though, but again, it could've been explored better. Fairly weak characters and a story that lacked focus, but had potential, are why I would rate this book 3 stars.

craigmcg's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark funny fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

cfragment's review against another edition

2.5

slow-paced

jadeeeee's review against another edition

Yeah, I liked it! Went through it quickly. I do like satire, satire and silliness and sadness. It doesn't call to me with a soul connection but maybe if they were all women or something it would. I should read more.....