Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

29 reviews

pershie13's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

I tore through this book in less than 24 hours and absolutely loved it. When I picked up this classic, all I knew was that it was anti-war and centered on the destruction of Dresden, which piqued my interest immediately. What I didn't know was that Kurt Vonnegut would use science fiction and time travel to drive his point home. This book is semi-autobiographical and draws off of his experiences as a real-life prisoner of war in Dresden during World War II, which was interesting to consider while reading this book. While the characters were not real, they were based on people he knew, and that made it all the more interesting to consider what happened in the book and the toll that war took on these characters. The Tralfamadorian philosophy in this book was interesting to consider and clashed with a lot of the ways I was thinking about the story, and considering that way of thinking can provide a numbing viewpoint to the concept of war, especially a large destruction like the one that occurred in Dresden near the end of the war. This book was challenging and got me thinking about the philosophy of war, free will, and death all at once. I now understand why this is such a popular novel and a classic that will live on for so long. I loved the writing style and both the humor and darkness behind the book. I appreciate Vonnegut writing this novel over two decades after his real experiences as a POW, and I was surprised to see the portrayal of PTSD symptoms in the post-war sections as well. It is difficult to discuss the book, as it occurred in a non-linear fashion and constantly tore me all across Billy Pilgrim's life, but as you travel throughout the decades, the main themes start to come out and portray the big picture that Vonnegut is portraying. This is one of my favorite classics that I have read, and it makes me want to consider dipping into science fiction more frequently. I was pleasantly surprised by my love for the book, and not for the reasons why I initially decided to read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Murder, and War

Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Deportation

Minor: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

lucyselim's review against another edition

challenging dark funny reflective sad slow-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? Yes

3.25

I think I enjoyed it. I'm a little confused and turning over the main themes of the book in my head still. I don't usually enjoy philosophical and vague stories, so I did not think this would be for me, but I'm glad for the experience. 

I spent most of the book assuming that it was the thoughts and ramblings of Billy's brain after his 'death'. The Tralfamadorian's philosophy that you don't really die made me think that perhaps after dying on earth you simply relive your life over and over in a time-travelling way. But then towards the end I felt the book hinting that this was really all in Billy's imagination. Either way, it doesn't really matter.

I do wish there had been more written about Billy's time on Tralfamadore and with Montana though.

Overall, this was definitely an interesting and thought provoking book that I think will always sit a little funny with me, but it was good for me to read outside of my comfort zone. 

So it goes.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Violence, Antisemitism, War, and Injury/Injury detail

megb64's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Grief, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Vomit, and Pregnancy

sarareadingpiles's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I was upset to be honest. It was upsetting, really dark and couldn't find a motive. Definitely not a bad one, but it's the type of book, where you think back to the time you've read it and you get a headache. From the perspective of Billy it seemed that nothing in his life had a point. He was just drifting with the tide. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

katsusho_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

- An interesting perspective on WWII. Somewhat humorous and absurd at times, yet somehow insightful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, and Antisemitism

cptnstphy's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.25

It took me a while to get into it, but I was pleased when it clicked for me. It went from “this is a bit too odd for me without enough reward to get over it” to “alright I see what Vonnegut is doing here! I’m on board” 
I found the main character Billy’s experience of time and space very interesting and worth contemplating, even if just to pull ourselves out of our always-linear understanding of time. I also enjoy some fantasy and worldbuilding, so his recollections of the alien planet were creative and well-received. 
I did also appreciate the moral undercurrent to things that he says that are expressed as casual but read as subtly poignant. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Genocide, Antisemitism, and War

Moderate: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pregnancy

taleofabibliophile's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, and War

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Blood, Antisemitism, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Infidelity, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Excrement, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Murder

ambercchen's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

4.25

a really intriguing depiction of ptsd and anti war that literally no one in my ap lang class talked abt! the motif of interconnection and “everything was beautiful and nothing hurt” is so lovely but i fear vonnegut fell into the trap of old men talking abt young women in a weird way :-/

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Grief, War, and Injury/Injury detail

allidone's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Genocide, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, Excrement, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexism, Sexual content, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Racial slurs, Transphobia, and Murder

dejaghoul's review against another edition

dark funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

"It was a movie about American bombers in World War II and the gallant men who flew them. Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this: American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.

The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans though and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody as good as new.

When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again.

The American fliers turned in their uniforms, became high school kids. And Hitler turned into a baby, Billy Pilgrim supposed. That wasn’t in the movie. Billy was extrapolating. Everybody turned into a baby, and all of humanity, without exception, conspired biologically to produce two perfect people named Adam and Eve, he supposed.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Alcoholism, Gun violence, and Mental illness