Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

48 reviews

joharrismay's review against another edition

funny lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A

5.0

Thank you lauren crocco for telling me to read this it’s so good top 10 books of all time. I loved the characters and Kurt Vonnegut’s writing style is amazing.
Will probably read another Kurt Vonnegut book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War

Moderate: Death, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

josieruby1's review against another edition

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Mental illness, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War

Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Alcohol

sarareadingpiles's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

• 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

I was upset to be honest. It was upsetting, really dark and couldn't find a motive. Definitely not a bad one, but it's the type of book, where you think back to the time you've read it and you get a headache. From the perspective of Billy it seemed that nothing in his life had a point. He was just drifting with the tide. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

agw622's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

• 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

It's weird. It's so odd, and I find Billy such an unappealing unreliable narrator. It jumps so much that you never really get a good pace of reading. I personally am not a big fan of an unreliable narrator, and I also dislike spastic time jumping. This made it an unpleasant read for me. Although I appreciate what it is conveying, I don't think I will reread it nor recommend it in good faith.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Excrement, Antisemitism, Grief, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

reachingforstardust's review against another edition

dark funny slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Genocide, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

frogpants's review against another edition

dark funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Violence, Xenophobia, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Excrement, and Vomit

Minor: Car accident

cptnstphy's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

• 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

It took me a while to get into it, but I was pleased when it clicked for me. It went from “this is a bit too odd for me without enough reward to get over it” to “alright I see what Vonnegut is doing here! I’m on board” 
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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Genocide, Antisemitism, and War

Moderate: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pregnancy

taleofabibliophile's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-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? It's complicated

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, and War

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Blood, Antisemitism, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Infidelity, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Excrement, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Murder

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

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

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

dejaghoul's review against another edition

dark funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

"It was a movie about American bombers in World War II and the gallant men who flew them. Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this: American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.

The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans though and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody as good as new.

When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again.

The American fliers turned in their uniforms, became high school kids. And Hitler turned into a baby, Billy Pilgrim supposed. That wasn’t in the movie. Billy was extrapolating. Everybody turned into a baby, and all of humanity, without exception, conspired biologically to produce two perfect people named Adam and Eve, he supposed.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Alcoholism, Gun violence, and Mental illness