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devermismysteris's review against another edition
- 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
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
- 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 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.
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 bookpershie13's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Mental illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Murder, War, and Sexual content
Moderate: Violence, Body shaming, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Deportation, Excrement, Gore, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Trafficking, and Vomit
Minor: Car accident, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Classism, Blood, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Medical content, Death of parent, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, and Suicide
lucyselim's review against another edition
- 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 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.
Moderate: Antisemitism, Genocide, Gun violence, Animal cruelty, Death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and War
megb64's review against another edition
- 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
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
sarareadingpiles's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Torture, Mental illness, Gun violence, Murder, Slavery, Gore, War, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Mass/school shootings
agw622's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Confinement, Antisemitism, Genocide, Grief, Death, Excrement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, and War
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
deannamartin113's review against another edition
- 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
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.
Graphic: Genocide, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Ableism
Moderate: Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Racial slurs, Ableism, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, and War
ru_th's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
And Lot’s wife, of course, was told not look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human.
Graphic: Death and War
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail
cptnstphy's review against another edition
- 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
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.
Graphic: Body horror, Animal death, War, Animal cruelty, Genocide, and Antisemitism
Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Murder, Violence, Alcohol, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Medical trauma, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Pregnancy