Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

11 reviews

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

josieruby1's review against another edition

3.75

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Content Warnings

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

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

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Death

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

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: 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

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

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

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

marnash's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

This one was at the top of my to-read list and my physical bookshelf for a good few years. It always seemed unapproachable to me, like something you keep saying you'll read but don't, like Catch 22 (for me). But after having read two Kafka books in December, it felt doable, so it was done. I liked the writting, but for some reason I feel like I missed some things. Maybe it's my lack of historical knowledge or the fact that I read it over a span of two weeks. Either way, like Kafka, I'll be looking up what I was supposed to understand from it from ThugNotes or some other video explanation. But it was enjoyable enough as is, despite the heavy topic. Things kept changing and shifting, there were multiple different settings and different years, and it kept me intrigued. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Medical trauma, and War

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

ri_lei_gh's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Violence, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Medical trauma, and Sexual content

Minor: Pregnancy

dortz_solivagantreader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

This book has been sitting on my shelf for a year before I had enough courage to read it. I'm glad I have waited this long because I didn't have sufficient emotional resiliency back then. This book would have swallowed me whole and spit me back in pieces. Thanks to my book friends in Just Another Chapter book club for being there to help me process what I had just read.

I love it because it's masterfully written with the emphasis on needlessness of war, and its debilitating effects. One of the most haunting lines in the books is "So it goes", an acerbic refrain that comes up every time someone dies or when the author talks about death in the book. 

"there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want  anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds."

"So it goes."

"You know - we've had to imagine the war here, and we have imagined that it was being caught by aging men like ourselves. We had forgotten that wars were fought by babies. When I saw these freshly shaved faces, it was a shock." 'My God, my God - - 'I said to myself, It's the Children's Crusade."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death, Mental illness, and Medical trauma

dominic_caudill's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

But did anyone ever consider: war is bad?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, War, and Violence

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Physical abuse