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smileyjayna's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, and Alcohol
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment
a_reader_of_book's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
medium-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
3.75
This book was weird. But in a good way? I really don't know how else to describe it. I went in thinking this was just about experiences during WWII, but there was so much more. For example, I didn't expect aliens. So that was surprising! I feel like this book was about a lot of things while also being about almost nothing in terms of the apathetic life led by Billy Pilgrim. It's very unconventional, and I think that pairs well with the messages I thought Vonnegut was trying to convey. The discussions about the "necessity" of war and the descriptions of a decimated city felt eerily similar to the current tragedies occurring in Ukraine. As Billy would say, "So it goes." It's not a long book, so why not take the time to read it? As the Tralfamadorians would explain to you, time really isn't as sequential as we humans think it is.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and War
_morgan's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
reflective
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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Medical content, and War
Moderate: Physical abuse and Racism
Minor: Animal cruelty, Blood, Kidnapping, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury
mjg_'s review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Torture, and War
nrogers_1030's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, and War
Moderate: Cursing and Sexual content
dortz_solivagantreader's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
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? It's complicated
5.0
This book has been sitting on my shelf for a year before I had enough courage to read it. I'm glad I have waited this long because I didn't have sufficient emotional resiliency back then. This book would have swallowed me whole and spit me back in pieces. Thanks to my book friends in Just Another Chapter book club for being there to help me process what I had just read.
I love it because it's masterfully written with the emphasis on needlessness of war, and its debilitating effects. One of the most haunting lines in the books is "So it goes", an acerbic refrain that comes up every time someone dies or when the author talks about death in the book.
"there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds."
"So it goes."
"You know - we've had to imagine the war here, and we have imagined that it was being caught by aging men like ourselves. We had forgotten that wars were fought by babies. When I saw these freshly shaved faces, it was a shock." 'My God, my God - - 'I said to myself, It's the Children's Crusade."
I love it because it's masterfully written with the emphasis on needlessness of war, and its debilitating effects. One of the most haunting lines in the books is "So it goes", an acerbic refrain that comes up every time someone dies or when the author talks about death in the book.
"there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds."
"So it goes."
"You know - we've had to imagine the war here, and we have imagined that it was being caught by aging men like ourselves. We had forgotten that wars were fought by babies. When I saw these freshly shaved faces, it was a shock." 'My God, my God - - 'I said to myself, It's the Children's Crusade."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Medical trauma, and War
hanakograce's review against another edition
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Sexual content, Blood, Excrement, Antisemitism, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, War, and Injury/Injury detail
vikingvisuals's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-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? No
5.0
For years I had always enjoyed the small bits and pieces of Vonnegut that I read and for years had always intended to actually read one of his books in full. Given his presence at the Writer's Workshop of my alma mater, their was always a weird sense of undeserving pride I felt with that association and such a feeling deserved proper investigation years ago. Anyway, this is the first full book of Vonnegut I have read and I am kicking myself for not having done myself the favor sooner.
If someone asked me to explain Slaughterhouse-Five, I am not sure how I would go about it or if it would even been possible. Describing the writing style and the plot seems an impossible challenge. "It's a book reflecting his experiences in WWII and his witnessing the bombing of Dresden" just barely scratches the service. It has so many things going on: sci-fi elements, time-travel, adventure, political commentary, etc. Some of which are barely touched upon yet somehow still hold a large weight.
Surely one thing the book is not is a typical novel with a clear storyline. Reading it you are taken on an adventure not due to the plot, but due to the diverse shifts in time and place. Having some understanding of trauma and PTSD, reading this book sort of transported me into the very mind of Vonnegut, errr... Billy Pilgrim and his experiences.
The sudden teleportation through various timeline brings up emotions of survivors of war being brought back to a traumatic experience from even the seemingly simplistic of triggers. When going back to the experiences of WWII in the book, often it seems the knowledge of experiences that happened to Billy Pilgrim after WWII are also present, reflecting potential new interpretations or emotions becoming attached to a memory upon its further inspection.
War and death in this book do not seem super "vivid" in a way that I can't quite describe. Certainly there are scenes that are graphic, but these scenes are often combined with shockingly beautiful descriptions. But I don't think that alone is the reason for this feeling, more-so that the perspective of Billy Pilgrim conveys the feeling survivors of war themselves develop towards death. It becomes a constant of sorts throughout the book. With each death being marked by the Traflmadorian "So it goes" it becomes clear that each occurrence of death is both very much present and recognized whilst still being so 'insignificant' that a simple 'so it goes' becomes the only way to process it.
Billy Pilgrim being described so negatively and weak yet surviving while other more "fit" characters perish brings the sense of the futility of war and the complete randomness / luck involved in it. It is not something you see in typical action movies where the strong and "good" survive while the weaker and "bad" perish, yet it very much is a feeling veterans often cope with, having seen countless friends killed right next to them while they survive.
This book has so many layers and I feel like if (or better said, when) I read this again, I may uncover a new understanding or a new interpretation of it.
One thing to me that was also quite jarring is how Vonnegut can manage to make you laugh in one sentence only to make you somehow feel guilty about it in the very next one. Or as stated above even with oddly beautiful descriptions of terrifying scenes. I really loved the writing style and surrealistic descriptions.
Other reviewers have also mentioned it, but the hardest part for me was also the attitude/descriptions of women in the book revolving around them as little more than sexual objects. That alone is an aspect of the book that I am still struggling with, as so many other aspects of the book were so great in my eyes that it makes you feel a bit uneasy loving them and the overall book itself so much.
If someone asked me to explain Slaughterhouse-Five, I am not sure how I would go about it or if it would even been possible. Describing the writing style and the plot seems an impossible challenge. "It's a book reflecting his experiences in WWII and his witnessing the bombing of Dresden" just barely scratches the service. It has so many things going on: sci-fi elements, time-travel, adventure, political commentary, etc. Some of which are barely touched upon yet somehow still hold a large weight.
Surely one thing the book is not is a typical novel with a clear storyline. Reading it you are taken on an adventure not due to the plot, but due to the diverse shifts in time and place. Having some understanding of trauma and PTSD, reading this book sort of transported me into the very mind of Vonnegut, errr... Billy Pilgrim and his experiences.
The sudden teleportation through various timeline brings up emotions of survivors of war being brought back to a traumatic experience from even the seemingly simplistic of triggers. When going back to the experiences of WWII in the book, often it seems the knowledge of experiences that happened to Billy Pilgrim after WWII are also present, reflecting potential new interpretations or emotions becoming attached to a memory upon its further inspection.
War and death in this book do not seem super "vivid" in a way that I can't quite describe. Certainly there are scenes that are graphic, but these scenes are often combined with shockingly beautiful descriptions. But I don't think that alone is the reason for this feeling, more-so that the perspective of Billy Pilgrim conveys the feeling survivors of war themselves develop towards death. It becomes a constant of sorts throughout the book. With each death being marked by the Traflmadorian "So it goes" it becomes clear that each occurrence of death is both very much present and recognized whilst still being so 'insignificant' that a simple 'so it goes' becomes the only way to process it.
Billy Pilgrim being described so negatively and weak yet surviving while other more "fit" characters perish brings the sense of the futility of war and the complete randomness / luck involved in it. It is not something you see in typical action movies where the strong and "good" survive while the weaker and "bad" perish, yet it very much is a feeling veterans often cope with, having seen countless friends killed right next to them while they survive.
This book has so many layers and I feel like if (or better said, when) I read this again, I may uncover a new understanding or a new interpretation of it.
One thing to me that was also quite jarring is how Vonnegut can manage to make you laugh in one sentence only to make you somehow feel guilty about it in the very next one. Or as stated above even with oddly beautiful descriptions of terrifying scenes. I really loved the writing style and surrealistic descriptions.
Other reviewers have also mentioned it, but the hardest part for me was also the attitude/descriptions of women in the book revolving around them as little more than sexual objects. That alone is an aspect of the book that I am still struggling with, as so many other aspects of the book were so great in my eyes that it makes you feel a bit uneasy loving them and the overall book itself so much.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Violence, and War
Minor: Racial slurs
tennilles's review against another edition
challenging
dark
inspiring
sad
medium-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? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and War
Moderate: Sexual content
dominic_caudill's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
But did anyone ever consider: war is bad?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Violence, and War
Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Medical trauma