Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

21 reviews

sunn_bleach's review against another edition

dark funny reflective fast-paced

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

3.5

Another one of those revisits from the mid-2010s when I was getting deeper into adult reading. I felt middling upon first reading "Cat's Cradle" in around 2015 or 2016. Upon this read, I get it a lot more, albeit it's still not my favorite Vonnegut. The parallels to MAD and nuclear warfare are more obvious, though it's clearly meant to be so - the man is angry. Vonnegut writes imperfect and unlikeable characters yet usually separate that from the author's voice (masterful in "Breakfast of Champions"), but here it's hard to separate the pseudo-nameless narrator from Vonnegut's own voice in the native sexualization and overuse of "midget". One can always say he's aware of this - especially since Newt gets it more than anyone else - but it's still jarring. The banana republic satire is similarly confused, at once sardonic toward the USA's involvement in the rape and pillage of those countries while also kind of playing it straight with McCabe and Bokonon.

Yet, as with some other mixed opinion reads this year, I still liked it. The ultimate "fuck you" to God at the end and mordant tendency toward fatalism is incredible. I had a friend who in his early 20s called himself a "Bokononist", and I see why.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Death

Moderate: Ableism, Racism, Bullying, and Animal death

technicolorxsn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

This book is the lightest of Vonnegut's novels that I've read so far honestly. I found it's engagement with faith very fascinating and somewhat adjacent to my own spirituality. I thought the concept of ice-nine was really cool and the exploration of its mechanics fascinating, even if it wasn't the core of the story.
(it's been a while since I've read it)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, and Ableism

Moderate: Racial slurs

Minor: Sexual content

sumnerbrook's review against another edition

challenging dark funny reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Ableism, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, and Alcohol

Moderate: War, Violence, and Vomit

abmochapman's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

2.5

this was mid, nihilism is overrated, and i think i do deadpan comedy better than vonnegut. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Suicide, Ableism, Racial slurs, Racism, and Sexism

wemilyebb's review against another edition

dark funny lighthearted reflective fast-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Racial slurs, and Ableism

mxhcat's review against another edition

dark funny reflective 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? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Religious bigotry and Colonisation

Minor: Cancer and Animal death

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

dark funny reflective

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Death of parent, Racial slurs, Suicide, War, and Ableism

Moderate: Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Sexism, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Colonisation, Confinement, Medical content, Pedophilia, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

Minor: Fatphobia, Animal cruelty, Grief, Excrement, Genocide, and Slavery

Also includes technically legal but nonetheless predatory age gaps.

senpai_no_lie's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

2.75

Some of the language and humor has not aged well. Hints at themes of science, religion, and morality. About the end of the world in a way that's fairly light-hearted and strange. No one is a good person but they're not unlikable. 

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Death of parent, Animal death, and Ableism

Chapters are very short so it's a fast read.

mengzhenreads's review against another edition

dark funny fast-paced

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

4.0

Lots of good food for thought, but funnier than Slaughterhouse Five. Seriously insane mind, like the creativity is fully on another level.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Ableism

Moderate: Body shaming, Misogyny, and Racism

Minor: Suicide

emmalouisereads's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

0.5

I will admit, whatever the humour was here, went over my head. It seemed you needed to remember a load of nonsense made-up words to follow what on earth was going on here. 

What didn’t go over my head was the problematic language, including a lot of super unnecessary ableism.

I was glad when this book was over.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Racial slurs, and Ableism

Moderate: Misogyny and Racism