Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

11 reviews

frdz's review against another edition

dark funny tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Death

Moderate: Gun violence, Body shaming, and Mental illness

pershie13's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious fast-paced

• 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

I tore through this book in less than 24 hours and absolutely loved it. When I picked up this classic, all I knew was that it was anti-war and centered on the destruction of Dresden, which piqued my interest immediately. What I didn't know was that Kurt Vonnegut would use science fiction and time travel to drive his point home. This book is semi-autobiographical and draws off of his experiences as a real-life prisoner of war in Dresden during World War II, which was interesting to consider while reading this book. While the characters were not real, they were based on people he knew, and that made it all the more interesting to consider what happened in the book and the toll that war took on these characters. The Tralfamadorian philosophy in this book was interesting to consider and clashed with a lot of the ways I was thinking about the story, and considering that way of thinking can provide a numbing viewpoint to the concept of war, especially a large destruction like the one that occurred in Dresden near the end of the war. This book was challenging and got me thinking about the philosophy of war, free will, and death all at once. I now understand why this is such a popular novel and a classic that will live on for so long. I loved the writing style and both the humor and darkness behind the book. I appreciate Vonnegut writing this novel over two decades after his real experiences as a POW, and I was surprised to see the portrayal of PTSD symptoms in the post-war sections as well. It is difficult to discuss the book, as it occurred in a non-linear fashion and constantly tore me all across Billy Pilgrim's life, but as you travel throughout the decades, the main themes start to come out and portray the big picture that Vonnegut is portraying. This is one of my favorite classics that I have read, and it makes me want to consider dipping into science fiction more frequently. I was pleasantly surprised by my love for the book, and not for the reasons why I initially decided to read it.

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Content Warnings

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

miniingrid's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny informative sad medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, War, Animal cruelty, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content and Body shaming

Minor: Infidelity and Rape

isirla'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

3.25

When attempting to find the hidden meanings in the writing, I felt lost and dissatisfied with the book. And had major whiplash from the constant moving forward and backwards in time. That is until I decided to focus on the dark humour and the dark reflective aspect of the narrative. And then I enjoyed it a lot more. Not quite enough to give it four full stars but enough that I could give it at least 3 stars.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, and Body shaming

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

hannahmeg's review against another edition

5.0

"everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt"

i genuinely don't think i can come up with the right words here. all i can say is that i know i will find myself reading this over and over, jotting down marginalia, always finding something different and new within the pages. and given the nature of time in this book, that feels apt.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and War

Moderate: Body shaming and Fatphobia

Minor: Car accident

brainstewww's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Vonnegut's usual dark humor shines through in this powerful anti-war novel. This is unlike most of the books I usually read, but I knew I liked Vonnegut's work, so I was quick to pick it up AND quick to finish it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, War, and Death

Minor: Body shaming, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Murder, Classism, Rape, Sexual content, and Violence

allidone's review against another edition

dark tense slow-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? Yes

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Excrement, Violence, Animal death, War, Medical trauma, Bullying, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Racism, Gun violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Sexual content, Homophobia, Sexism, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Transphobia, Racial slurs, Murder, Fatphobia, and Body shaming

tiinamiau's review

challenging funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death, Animal cruelty, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Body shaming

Minor: Ableism, Car accident, Confinement, Fatphobia, Grief, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Vomit

chekara_kane's review

emotional reflective slow-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

3.5

The flow of ideas and events in the book is really good, even when the pacing feels like a snail. The characters feel almost unimportant, and I didn't find myself liking any of them. It did bother me that there were very few female characters, and even lesser positively portrayed ones. Even so, it makes sense, given the context of the events in Germany, but there are some points where the way women are spoken about feels off, most notably

in the scenes with Montana Wildhack. The scene where Billy finds the pornographic photo and when the book describes the necklace she wears on her nude body (in my book there was an image and I found that to be really weird).

Even so, would recommend - Vonnegut's writing is very engaging, and the anti-war themes are carried through the book really well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Death

Minor: Body shaming and Sexism