Slaughterhouse-Five: The Graphic Novel was so cleverly created! I recently re-read the original classic for my book club so I was excited to read the new graphic novel adaptation and it did not disappoint. The images and writing do wonderful justice to Kurt Vonnegut's tale. The art and colors were creative and unique. It was a perfect match to the tone of this time traveling story. I also loved the casts of characters and the peeks inside Kilgore Trout's books! This is a tough and sad read yet still has a sense of Vonnegut's wit and strange humor. "So it goes."
Thank you to NetGalley and the authors Ryan North (Kurt Vonnegut) and publisher BOOM! Studios/Archaia

Great concept for an already amazing story! If you're a fan of Slaughterhouse Five or if you've never read it, this is the book for you!

Slaughterhouse-Five is about a man named Billy Pilgrim who becomes unstuck in time. He was abducted by aliens that help him understand the nature of time and that we never really die we are just at different time points of our lives. The story follows Billy through his different points in time and everything that happens in his life.

This graphic novel did a wonderful job of recreating Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five. The graphics were done very well and depicted everything that needed to be understood. The panels and dialogue were easy to follow. I really enjoyed reading this book.

I would definitely read more books by this author and illustrator.

It is interesting to see classics made into graphic novels, but I do think this one was well done. The dialogue was enough to keep me interested and the illustrations were unique. It is a dark story, and I think the graphic novel stayed true to the original novel..

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
This was not what I expected, in a very positive way. I was quite a fan of the art style. Didn't know the original work but this made me want to read to see what's different, things like that. good one guys.

I find it hard to rate this book - I recognize it for what it is [and the brilliance that is Kurt Vonnegut and the talent of Ryan North in adapting something so difficult], yet I also did not enjoy it, so three stars seems to be good compromise.
I knew nothing about the original book when I requested the ARC of this graphic novel. I do know that that I won't be reading the original novel, no matter how tremendous it might be. For me, this was upsetting and brutal and extremely sad, mixed with the absurd and confusion. And I am pretty sure those are the emotions you are supposed to feel. Which makes me know that I could not handle the longer original book. Billy Pilgrim's story, though not a new one [though the aliens story-line was different], was a sad, unique way of looking at war and the aftermath of such atrocities.

I am not sorry that I read this as I think it's important to remember things that happened in the past, in WW2 and what happened in places like Dresden [a place and incident that is rarely talked about and should be talked about more, in my opinion. The Nazi's were not the only ones inflicting horror on people - war is brutal, on BOTH sides] <b>AND</b> the aftermath of war and what it does to people; both the people who fought and those who were waiting for them back home.

I found a lot of relevance to what is happening right now - "And so it goes" reminded me over and over of the current administrations admonishment of "it is what it is" and that made for some tough emotions as well. I can imagine that Mr. Vonnegut would have been a loud dissident of the current administration and all the lies and trope they spread. But I digress.

All this said, this was still a very rough read for me and I doubt I will be reaching for any more of Mr. Vonnegut's works [though you never know and I never, ever, say never].

Thank you to NetGalley and BOOM! Studios/Archaia for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

***An adjustment: Due to reading Carry [a book I received an ARC for], I needed to change this rating. Just because it was horrific doesn't mean it isn't necessary and isn't brilliantly done and when that happens a three star review is a slap in the face. It is a lesson learned and one that I can hope to remember as I move forward in my reading life.

*COPY RECEIVED THROUGH NETGALLEY*

When I decided to try to read all the classics I never got round to before, I began to realise some books don't always stand the test of time well, or I'm just not the right target audience. So, when they pop up in graphic novel or manga form, I figure I get the best of both worlds - a modern version, that is quick and easy to read, with the classic novel storyline.

This just didn't suit me. I wasn't a fan of the excess over-explanations of how they were going to adapt it at the beginning of the book, wasting time and space explaining characters I'd never met before, and I wasn't a fan of the storyline itself.
The constant "so it goes" was annoying. The "in 3 panels" was annoying and usually always never needed or important.

Thank God I didn't read the novel instead, because the story doesn't suit me, at all. It's long, boring (to me), tedious. While the illustrations were perfect for the story, gritty and made a nice use of colour palettes to separate time/situations, the story itself was weird, introspective, lost in translation from the author's brain to mine, and ambiguous.

Any message about the war was lost in the mad ramblings of the sci-fi, alien abduction, time travel shtick. Give me the war story, without that, and I'd be happy.
I've read worse, but I've read better. This one is not for me.

An excellent introduction to Vonnegut for graphic novel lovers and an excellent introduction to the graphic novel for Vonnegut lovers. The artistry in this one creates the same sense of disjointed, unsettled, dark satire that I experienced when I first read Slaughterhouse Five over 30 years ago. I can see success for this one on multiple levels across different communities of readers. Well done.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Archaia for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Slaughterhouse-Five has been described as the best anti-war novel surpassing both The Red Badge of Courage and Catch-22. When it was initially published in 1969, its timing was pitch-perfect with IRL anti-war protests over Vietnam hitting their stride.

The novel is about a bumbling Chaplin named Billy caught by the Germans during WWII. He is imprisoned in an underground former slaughterhouse while a horrific Allied firebombing completely destroys Dresden above. It appears to mimic the author’s survival of the bombing. However, it quickly, and funnily, diverges into a science fiction alien tale with a dash of hitman plot.

I originally read Slaughterhouse-Five when I was under ten. Back then, I didn’t appreciate all the philosophy within the book. I also didn’t know that it was based, at least partially, on a true story. Now, decades later, the book seems much better. The artwork helps the reader visualize each scene. It is especially helpful for the aliens’ picture book. I also enjoyed the old-school pixelated style of Mr. Trout’s comic books. Overall, this is a great book made even better with a graphic novel treatment. 5 stars!

Thanks to Boom! Studios and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Adapting Slaughterhouse-Five into any form, much less a graphic novel, seems like a near-impossible task. This graphic novel assuages any worries I might have had about adapting such an iconic and narratively complex piece of work by immediately poking fun at its source material, addressing its own role as a graphic novel adaptation. To do anything else would be an unfaithful translation of a novel that's identity centers around its meta-humor. Ryan North's adaptation is as hilarious and bleak as Vonnegut's original, weaving a variety of different art styles together seamlessly as a way to visualize the nonlinear structure and Billy Pilgrim's unreliable narration. This graphic novel is gorgeous and well worth reading for any fans of the original.

A very solid adaptation of Slaughterhouse-Five. I really felt like the graphic novel format made a lot of the more confusing, jumping around in space and time elements of the source novel easier to follow. I really liked how transitions were handled. The art was pretty good. The only major thing that I felt that was missing in this adaptation was a lot of the natural humor of Vonnegut's narration.

I got bored while reading this and had trouble wanting to continue to read this. I felt that the text was a little too small to read at times too.

My preface must include that I haven't read Vonnegut's book, so I can't compare it to anything other than a few summaries I read because the first few pages of the graphic novel had me a little thrown. Then I got into the rhythm, dark humor, artwork, and story and realized what I was reading. I get it.

Will I go and read the book? I might.

The colors and timeline jumps as well as characters and story all interlock to create a strong graphic novel presentation in general, regardless of how true it is to a retelling, though from reading some other reviews and comments that a generally difficult book to retell is in the capable hands of the adaptor. A whole mood is created that I got in to.

I have never read the American classic Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut so when I saw this graphic novel adaptation on @Netgalley I thought it was a good way to discover this book. At first, I wasn’t much into it but then I found it really interesting and I’m sure it would be a great comic to analyse in depth. The art style fits so well with the story; it adds to the tone and feel well the silences. I am not going to analyse the story as this comic is just an adaptation of the novel but from what I read, if you wanted to discover this book but was always scared of doing so because of the themes, this comic is for you. Because Billy, the main character, sees himself a lot in the future, the past and in another world even, I expect the book would be a bit difficult to follow. However, this graphic novel makes it really easy to read and to understand. I recommend it.

I will read anything Ryan North writes. He is a brilliant, funny, insightful author. I first came to know his work through The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, which is the best comic book series ever. Period. Full stop. Subsequently, I sought out his other works, like his brilliant Romeo and/or Juliet and his self published book based off of his tumblr B to the F, where he recaps the bizarre novelization of Back to the Future page by page. So when I saw that NetGalley had an eARC of his to request I jumped at it before I even realized what it was. It turned out to be a hauntingly evocative graphic novelization of Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. I have never read any Vonnegut before - I think I had bounced off of his writing style back in high school. But this graphic novel perfectly distilled the essence of the original book with perfect visuals. A comic is one of the best ways to tell a story about someone unstuck in time, because each panel is a frozen moment that still manages to convey movement. Ryan North did a fantastic job here. You should totally check this out!

Did you read Slaughterhouse-5 in high school?

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I admit that I never did, but was very interested when I saw that it was being adapted into a graphic novel!

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Thank you to @boom_studios and @netgalley for the gifted copy of the graphic novel adaptation of Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut and Ryan North.

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Synopsis from the publisher: The first-ever graphic novel adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great anti-war books. An American classic and one of the world’s seminal antiwar books, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five is faithfully presented in graphic novel form for the first time from Eisner Award-winning writer Ryan North (How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler) and Eisner Award-nominated artist Albert Monteys (Universe!).

Listen: Billy Pilgrim has…

…read Kilgore Trout

…opened a successful optometry business

…built a loving family

…witnessed the firebombing of Dresden

…traveled to the planet Tralfamadore

…met Kurt Vonnegut

…come unstuck in time.

Billy Pilgrim’s journey is at once a farcical look at the horror and tragedy of war where children are placed on the frontlines and die (so it goes), and a moving examination of what it means to be fallibly human.

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While I can definitely appreciate the style that this story is written in as a way to make the reader feel the disorientation of suffering PTSD, it is not something I am really a fan of as a reader. With that said the graphic novel adaptation I think makes the jarring time hops, multiple side characters, and overall storyline easy to follow with the detailed and labeled graphics. The artwork really does bring the grim horror of war to life and does a great job of connecting the storylines together. This adaptation definitely conveys the importance of Vonnegut’s original story while almost providing a visual outline to the reader. Would highly recommend this who has already read the original or would appreciate a visual reference for characters and storyline connections while reading the original text.

The first-ever graphic novel adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great anti-war books.
An American classic and one of the world’s seminal antiwar books, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five is faithfully presented in graphic novel form for the first time from Eisner Award-winning writer Ryan North and Eisner Award-nominated artist Albert Monteys.
This is so well done. North's adaptation is true to the original and Monteys' illustrations are in a style that is extremely appropriate.

When I heard Boom Studios had decided to make a graphic novel based on Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, I thought: One, that is a fantastic idea, as it would make it a lot easier for the reader to follow all the time jumps; and two, yeah, it's going to be complete madness to put Kurt Vonnegut's masterpiece in pictures.
Fortunately, both Ryan North's adaptation and Albert Monteys' art are simply the best I could imagine for a story like this.

As it happened with the original book, it is really difficult to summarize Slaughterhouse-Five (believe me, I tried, and each time turned up being something completely different), and Ryan North seems to be aware of this as well, because he takes advantage of all the tools a comic book can offer and puts them to good use. In the very beginning, he creates, not only a highly informative introduction but a very accurate timeline that serves as the perfect cheat-page for Billy Pilgrim's extraordinary life.

And once the story starts to unfold in all its levels, the three panel biographies, the use of color, some amazing landscapes and even the tiniest detail in a smile can help the reader's journey along and make them re-read the story two, even three times to catch all the details. Albert Monteys does a fantastic job, as always.

Highly recommended to both lovers and haters of the original Kurt Vonnegut's story, to those who have never been around Tralfamadorians and to every single person that's not afraid of going through the worm-hole.

And so it goes.

***ARC by Boom Studios through NetGalley. Very thankful for the opportunity.

So it goes . . .

Ryan North, you’ve done it again. This book is an expertly adapted graphic novel of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s book by the same title. This medium definitely compliments the story, with the jumps in time being easily established by scenery and wardrobe changes while the character’s pose stays the same.
I really like how this graphic novel was crafted!

(I was granted early access to this book through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review)

I can’t really decide how I feel about this. I loved the art and cannot deny that this is a very hard work to adapt. I love the original novel but I just didn’t feel gripped by this? That being said, I think it’s a great adaptation and will definitely recommend it to patrons who I think may be interested. It just wasn’t personally anything breathtaking for me.