Reviews tagging 'War'

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

213 reviews

pllylzbth's review against another edition

dark sad medium-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Mental illness

Minor: Infidelity, Racial slurs, and Car accident

complexmind51's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

There’s nothing objective I can say about Slaughterhouse Five that hasn’t been said, it’s a classic. So I’ll share my own subjective experience. I came to this book in the time when I was processing my very fresh and very raw grief from the loss of my twin sister. Billy Pilgrim’s journey dealing with the horrors of war, both banal and extraordinary, give an authenticity rarely captured in popular media related to WWII. The Tralfamadorian 4th dimensional view of time gave me the intellectual framing I needed to begin dealing with my own pain. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Moderate: Death, Mental illness, and Injury/Injury detail

kh11's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Grief, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail

celery's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

jesshn's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

imrereads's review against another edition

2.5

While this most definitely was very interesting, the tone and style of the book didn't really land with me. I think my biggest question, having ended the book, is why the narrator, who is is own character, is telling us about Billy Pilgrim. I feel like I missed something. Maybe I did. 

(Reflections 8 days later)
I think this is a book I like more to have read, than I liked actually reading it. I've been thinking a lot about it, and my conclusion is that I really like the story. It stuck with me. When I finished the book, I very firmly felt like I wasn't interested in rereading it, but now that I've had it in the back of my mind for a while, I'm thinking that maybe I will after all. I wonder what I'll get out of it if I do. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty

koromylo's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad fast-paced

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

melist6's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense medium-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? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

zoe_271's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

To anybody wishing to ingest a quick, yet intensely meaningful story, to be amused and provoked simultaneously - give Slaughterhouse-Five a read. Vonnegut's blunt, short and sharp style pairs impeccably with the disjointed nature of the narrative, following Billy Pilgrim, who has come unstuck in time. 

We see a non-glamorised side of World War Two. Billy doesn't face any combat, or win any medals - he's captured before doing much of anything, imprisoned, and we see the truth that many men faced in the war - awful conditions, forced labour, and boredom ruling. The firebombing of Dresden is the climax of the novel, Billy reminiscing on it in the future and looking ahead to it from the past, the omniscient narrator too reminding us that 'he was there.'

Billy's life is dotted with interesting characters that Vonnegut makes stick even in their small scenes. Every line of dialogue lets us know who these people are, and every person serves a purpose - an old historian who needs to disparage others and marry young girls to feel powerful, a soldier who lives to seek revenge or a poor, too-caring colonel who wants people to come to see him in his home town.

I don't think I would recommend Slaughterhouse-Five as a first Vonnegut read, as Vonnegut's style takes some adapting to, in the course of which I believe some meaning could be lost. It certainly is a necessary, pivotal read though, central to the discussion about war, how we frame it, and how it affects us. And so it goes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

krohnan's review against another edition

challenging funny reflective relaxing 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War

Minor: Death