Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

105 reviews

tarines316's review

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challenging emotional funny informative reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • 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

The book is very confusing to follow at times, but it uniquely depicts the consequences of war on individuals and societies

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agw622's review

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

1.5

It's weird. It's so odd, and I find Billy such an unappealing unreliable narrator. It jumps so much that you never really get a good pace of reading. I personally am not a big fan of an unreliable narrator, and I also dislike spastic time jumping. This made it an unpleasant read for me. Although I appreciate what it is conveying, I don't think I will reread it nor recommend it in good faith.

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frogpants's review

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dark funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75


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deannamartin113's review against another edition

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emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
*I have Thoughts*

1. This is a PRIME example why books should NOT be banned. When a book is banned, we create the ‘Streisand Effect’ surrounding it, which encourages people to want to read it. These folks expect to find, and then elevate, what they think are profound expositions in it. 
2. Kurt Vonnegut was a troubled soul. No doubt the war did it to him. He wrote the book simply to be offensive for the sake of being offensive.
3. This is NOT a classic. It’s a CULT classic. There’s a huge difference. Think of it as a classic for the kind of people who get duped by the likes of Charles Manson. (I’m pulling no punches here). This book is awful, imo.
4. I looked up the essays from ‘explaining’ Slaughterhouse 5 and those essays that actually claim that you can ‘find the gospel’ in it. I find it particularly offensive that Christians feel the need to read this, much less buy into the notion that they find Truth in it. 
5. There is no Truth here. There is no Goodness here. There is nothing of VALUE here. 
6. I made the mistake of believing it was a ‘classic’ and allowing my teen daughter to read this. I’m convinced this affected how she sees the gospel today. 
7. The impropriety of his ‘jokes’ about other people groups would be a reason for the Woke crowd to demand this book be pulled from library shelves today; but, because it fits within their narrative, it’s okay to call Down’s Syndrome kids ‘idiots’ and make all the Polish jokes you want. 🤯 
8. There is transgender theory in here. It is not masked in anyway. It is also handed to young minds as from the ‘higher power’ & much more intelligent minds of the Tralfamadorians. Because, of course, aliens who can see four dimensions and never go to war, are much more moral and better than us stupid humans who believe in a God. It’s much more sensible to believe in little green men who abduct us in the middle of the night, put us in a human zoo on their planet to watch humans have sex, and control our whole environment by putting us in and out of the timeline of our life as they please. 

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dlsmk's review against another edition

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dark emotional fast-paced

3.25


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readyfordeath151's review

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adventurous dark emotional sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Honestly I enjoyed this book but I don't think I'm at a point in my life where I could get a lot out of this book which was sad for me. I'll definitely read this again in the future but as of right now it's 2 stars.

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cptnstphy's review

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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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taleofabibliophile's review against another edition

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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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ambercchen's review

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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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marnash's review

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adventurous challenging dark sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This one was at the top of my to-read list and my physical bookshelf for a good few years. It always seemed unapproachable to me, like something you keep saying you'll read but don't, like Catch 22 (for me). But after having read two Kafka books in December, it felt doable, so it was done. I liked the writting, but for some reason I feel like I missed some things. Maybe it's my lack of historical knowledge or the fact that I read it over a span of two weeks. Either way, like Kafka, I'll be looking up what I was supposed to understand from it from ThugNotes or some other video explanation. But it was enjoyable enough as is, despite the heavy topic. Things kept changing and shifting, there were multiple different settings and different years, and it kept me intrigued. 

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