Reviews tagging 'Death'

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

128 reviews

ssoha's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Animal cruelty, Genocide, Medical trauma, Sexual harassment, Death, Grief, Violence, Gore, Blood, Cursing, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Murder, Rape, and War

library_kb's review against another edition

dark medium-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? No

2.0

I went into this not excited about it....and it was simultaneously easier to read than I expected and less easy to read. I read this because it was part of the Upper School's summer reading options, which I wanted to have read all of...I would be curious to see if/which students pick this option and what they take from it. The style of jumping around from time period to time period was not super easy to follow. The nice thing is that there was a lot of page breaks which made the book read pretty quickly (plus it isn't super long, which was its saving grace). I don't know why you need a story like this to tell you war is awful and pointless, but there you have it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, and Death

Minor: Sexual content

josieruby1's review against another edition

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Animal death, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal cruelty, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content, Alcohol, Death, Medical content, and Medical trauma

maeve_simone's review against another edition

dark funny reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Death

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

quitegood's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny sad medium-paced

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

4.0

A very singular book for a very singular author. The way that truly horrible atrocities are described so frankly and matter-of-factly is simply chilling, or to use the book's vernacular, Tralfamadorian. Its a book to start a conversation on the nature of life, death, and this strange sequence of energy exchange we call the universe. And while Vonnegut's view fall into the realms of bleak, you can't exactly blame him. A must read for anyone who has thought about life and if it has a 'purpose'.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, and Fatphobia

paulwesterberg's review against another edition

dark funny hopeful reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Sexual content and Death

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

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

kingcrookback's review against another edition

dark funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

I knew very little about Slaughterhouse-Five before actually picking it up, so I wasn't expecting it to be so humorous. Or, to maybe put it more accurately, I wasn't expecting humor to play a role in how Vonnegut portrays the grief, trauma, and absurdity of war specifically and life in general. I can't say this novel's heavy, but I do think it's striking, in the way Vonnegut depicts the relationship between time and pain. Is it a consolation or a tragedy that everything bad and everything good in the world has already happened, is always happening, will always be happening?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, and Death

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Pregnancy

knik's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, War, Genocide, Antisemitism, and Death