Cool graphic novel adaptation, bringing the wonky images from Vonnegut's classic to life (the hand-like Tralfamadorians; Billy Pilgrim's toga/fur collar/silver boots ensemble).

Ryan North cleverly adapts this classic to a new medium. The perfect pairing of creator and material.

When I first heard that there was going to be a graphic novel adaptation of Slaughterhouse-Five, I was both curious and skeptical. Readers of the source material know the strange world that is presented in the book, and the ways that world mirrors our own.

What I found in Ryan North's adaptation was surreal, at times brutal, and expert in its presentation of the grounded reality of war and the transcendant plain that the reader finds themselves in by the end of the book. This is a text that offers much, both in terms of storyline and visual.

Very well done, and I recommend its pairing for enjoyment (and perhaps even study) with Vonnegut's novel.

How do you adapt a notoriously unadaptable novel to another medium? You choose to make it a graphic novel, so you can skillfully portray the time jumps inherent to the story, while having the complete freedom to comment on the characters, what is happening to them, has already happened and will happen in the future. So it goes.

The first time I read Slaughterhouse-Five was only last year, and I loved it. This book is about as good an adaptation as I could imagine. It fully transfers the humour, the horror and the insanity of the novel to the illustrated page. I already was a fan of Albert Monteys' work on Universe! over at Panel Syndicate, and his style fits the tone of Slaughterhouse-Five perfectly. Monteys' has a knack for portraying the insane bordering on the silly.

Thoroughly recommended.

Beautifully illustrated and a nice interesting take on a classic. I really enjoyed!

Thanks NetGalley for a review copy!

Thank you Boom Studios! and Netgalley for the digital ARC.

I need to say that I have never read Slaughterhouse Five before nor seen any of the various adaptions that have been made. I thought this graphic novel did a very good job translating a prose novel about time travel (?) into an easily understood narrative. I think it will be a hit with our young adult crowd.

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut with Ryan North and Albert Monteys is a fantastic graphic novel adaptation of this classic novel. I’ve actually never read the original novel but this new adaptation is really great. The illustrations help to tell this unique story that blends together war fiction and science fiction. The main character, Billy Pilgram goes on such an epic journey through war and time. I’m so curious to read the original book now.

This is a beautifully rendered graphic novel adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's anti-war classic; I have not read the original but found this version to be extremely accessible--not confusing, and appealing to readers who might not otherwise pick up Vonnegut's work.

Includes some language ('sh__' and 'f__') and violence and (censored) sexual situations, as you would expect in a war story.

Oh my, oh my did I love this graphic novel adaptation of Slaughterhouse-Five. The art style was fantastic and it was so easy to read.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an advanced readers copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve never read the original, but after this graphic representation my interest certainly has been piqued. I thank Net Galley for accepting my request to view this ARC.

Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, a science fiction classic, has been morphed into a bold creative graphic novel that does the story real justice. It’s a standout among graphic novel adaptations.

The graphic version doesn’t just repeat the story from the novel, but also provides the reader with handy dandy charts and displays of all the characters, the timelines, and even all the equipment worn into battle by Billy Pilgrim’s wartime buddy.

The story intersperses comic relief ala Hogan’s Heroes POW camps with the horrors of war including particularly the Dresden Bombing. And then for something completely different, soldier Billy Pilgrim is so traumatized that he becomes unstuck in time, flitting back and forth over the years and is captured by aliens who put him in the zoo on their planet with a kidnapped buxom bride to exhibit fornication with on full display.

The aliens have a different view of time then we do. For them, like unstuck Billy Pilgrim, everything is observable now, past , present, future. Every moment exists always. And their motto seems to be to always exist in the moment, at least the good moments. Kind of like Monty Python’s Always Look on the Bright Side Of Life.

But, I digress. The point is that, like the companion novel, it’s just not a traditional story structure. Anyway, if you dig the novel, you’ll get a real kick out of the graphic novel version.

*Thank you to Net Galley and BOOM! Studios for the advance copy*

Slaughterhouse-Five is the first Vonnegut novel I read and will always have a special place in my heart. I didn't know what I was getting into when I started reading it, but I loved how it jumped in time and location to tell the story of Billy Pilgrim and his PTSD.

Thankfully, this graphic novel follows the same format transitioning through Billy's life with ease. It helped me better understand and appreciate this book. It was nice to have visuals. I loved the vivid images of the Tralfamadorian book. This graphic novel enhances the book. I could feel the frustration in the hospital scene, gained a better sense of Billy's state of mind in the radio station scene, and felt Billy's relief when he is riding on the cart in Dresden after the war has ended.

'I'd been wanting to reread this book and I'm grateful to have the opportunity to reread it in a new way the helps me connect better with the material .

Actual rating: 2.5 stars

I have always been willing to give a classic a try. They are definitely hits or misses for me. I really enjoyed the artwork in this graphic novel a whole lot. It was so interesting and I really like the different styles within the book. I may have read the synopsis at some point but couldn't remember what it was about. So as per usual, I went in blind. I appreciate what the author was trying to do with it. I, however, am a person who likes a clear plot and a non-ambiguous ending and this story doesn't really have it, unless I'm too dim to get it. I do like the time jumps and the "and so it goes" and the "everything is beautiful and nothing hurt" - which I have on a bookmark and is one of my absolute favorites. Overall, it was a really interesting book and I think that there is definitely a group of people that do appreciate and adore this way more than I do, but I still wanted to give it a try. It wasn't hard to read at all, so it beats out Austen and Steinbeck and Twain for me!

Ho. Ly. Crap.

This is, by far, the best adaptation of a novel to graphic novel I have read to date.

It 100% stayed true to the novel while making it extremely easy to follow, understand, and enjoy.

The graphics are imaginatively beautiful and perfectly done.

A easy 5/5 stars. I will be pre-ordering this one as soon as possible.

Netgalley provided this ARC free for my honest review.

Slaughterhouse-Five was my first Kurt Vonnegut Jr. I had just graduated high school and I obviously knew nothing. I remember reading it before bed and not being able to go to sleep because I was so damn confused! 9 years later and I'm no wiser.
World War II, the bombing of Dresden, time travel, aliens and "being unstuck in time"... Slaughterhouse-Five is a really weird anti-war book and this graphic novel is a pretty good adaptation. The art fits the story, it helps to explain what's actually going on. It's still really confusing and I can see why people could be confused and not enjoy this graphic novel. Especially if they haven't read the source material and don't know how weird Vonnegut's writing style was.

This would make a great introduction to Vonnegut's stories. The story itself, classic for obvious reasons, was retold in lovely panels and great stylistic form.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boom Studios for an ARC.

I love Kurt Vonnegut. I've read Slaughterhouse-Five several times and really enjoyed revisiting it with this graphic novel. I'm not sure how I would have felt about it if I had not already read the book and many of Vonnegut's other books though.

It is a very faithful rendition of the story with amazing artwork and the main themes of the novel are kept in place. This is worth a read if you're a Vonnegut fan.

This book was remarkable. Instead of simply transcribing the words to the page and adding pictures, this graphic novel lets the story breathe and take on a new life of its own. It does things that you can only do in this format, like including a paper doll cut-out illustration to emphasize the amount of gear Roland Weary carries. I also loved the inset comics by Kilgore Trout. The timeline of Billy’s life stretched out across the page and represented by different colors was a really effective way to communicate the Tralfamadorians’ concept of time. The tongue-in-cheek references to comics as an “inferior” art form were clever, too. I love the novel Slaughterhouse-Five, and I feared that a graphic novel would be a cheap reduction, but, instead, the graphic novel enhances the story and cleverly uses its format to make the story even better.

An intriguing graphic representation of a classic novel! Bold graphics and diagrams propel the story's momentum forward. It is a fine introduction to Kurt Vonnegut for those who prefer graphic novels over narrative fiction.

Thank you to the publisher for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I probably missed something here since this is a comic of the most popular novel I know at this point like every school would read this novel except for us. I however did not enjoy this comic. I thought the text bubble text was so small it was incredibly difficult to read. I also thought that it was all rather all over the place.

I did like some of the character so it wasn't all bad of course but I think I missed the main shot for this one.