Reviews tagging 'Death'

Mattatoio n. 5 by Kurt Vonnegut

123 reviews

marippe's review against another edition

4.0

‘And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like “Poo-tee-weet?”’

I liked the writing style and the bulk of the story. Was fucked up and a bit comedic.
The way women were written in this was kinda bad.
My favourite part is still the opening chapter though.

When you show up to a hater competition and Roland Weary is there: 🏃🏃🏃🏃

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, War, Violence, Sexual content, and Torture

kaznar342's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Physical abuse, Violence, Death, and War

Moderate: Torture, Violence, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, and Sexual content

alinarburwitz's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective sad fast-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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and War

yogabbagabba04's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

this is my second favourite book I’ve ever read 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Antisemitism, War, Cultural appropriation, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Death, Genocide, Grief, and Violence

count_of_carabas's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Chronic illness, Classism, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Sexual content, Slavery, Trafficking, Vomit, War, Cursing, Genocide, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Grief, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal cruelty, Dementia, Infidelity, Mass/school shootings, Sexism, Rape, Death, Excrement, Gore, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Body horror

op3's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, Violence, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Cursing

Minor: Antisemitism

Contains references to PTSD a , and etc.

greeneyed_ives's review against another edition

dark funny 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death, and Animal cruelty

devermismysteris's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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: Dysphoria, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Drug abuse, War, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Torture, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Body horror, Child death, and Death

precise's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-paced

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

4.0

I read Slaughterhouse-Five for the first time in high school. I found all of Vonnegut's work at the time to be highly compelling,  to the point where for my senior quote in high school I chose the quote that is prominently featured in The Sirens of Titan. It is worth mentioning here that I also consider the period from midway through my junior year of high school until the start of my junior year of college to be the absolute lowest point I have experienced or likely will ever experience in my life. 

I reread Slaughterhouse-Five in advance of a trip to the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library. I am glad that I did. It definitely enhanced the museum exhibits to see, for example, the ceremonial WWII saber that Vonnegut took home from his service on display (not particularly called out at the museum as such, but mentioned multiple times in the book). 

I also found Slaughterhouse-Five to say much more about trauma and stress than I remembered. It may make sense that I didn't remember this - see above re lowest point in my life when I first read it - for all that I experienced stress and trauma as a teenager, I don't remember a lot from then anymore. A naive assumption one might hold about trauma is that Billy revisits the worst times in his life over and over. Instead, he travels at random through things that definitely happened in his life and things that might not have, a much more nuanced metaphor for feeling adrift and like agency has been taken from you in the wake of a traumatic experience. I was also reminded, having also read The Body Keeps The Score less than a year ago, of how recent our modern mental health constructs are and how post-traumatic stress treatment was not really available to Vonnegut's generation. 

Overall - the book is fairly short, it's not satisfying and it's not meant to be. It does a good job of capturing a specific mood, and is worth reading for that even though it's not a pleasant mood.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, Cursing, Death, Medical trauma, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

I listed a lot of content warnings to be on the safe side but I would not warn most people about them explicitly before recommending this book

philippmk's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Violence, War, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Fatphobia, and Gun violence