I’ve had a few days to compose myself and I’m ready to actually review this graphic novel. I read Slaughterhouse Five years ago and I’d be lying if I said I remember too much about it beyond there being a human zoo and a terrible war. But that seriously does seem to sum this up, but the meaning and heartbreak is so much more. 

Poor Billy’s life is not great and while he experienced a whole hell of a lot of shit, he also experienced some seriously amazing stuff too. The main focus for the majority of the story is the war, how awful it was, and how awful it still is. Billy’s part in it is not substantial besides being a prisoner and having to see so many vicious things happen to people around him. 

What makes his story unique is that he becomes “unstuck” from the time he’s in and begins to experience his life jumping from one moment in his life to another. It’s fascinating and confusing to see him go through this. Things get even more interesting when he gets abducted by aliens. 

Anyway, all of that really isn’t even the point. Billy could be lying in a hospital bed in a coma for all the reader really knows or believes, but you start to feel just how disjointed a person can be after having the horrific experiences that Billy had. Not even just with the war, but life in general. It almost feels like there is no point to his whole life, which is absolutely heartbreaking. I feel like it goes from, what’s the point of sending these children to fight these wars, what’s the point of wars, what’s the point of life at all. Of course, that’s just how I felt while reading this.

So while I very much did enjoy this graphic novel, it is much more serious and depressing than I do recall. It does bring to life the “unsticking” of Billy’s life, which is interesting. I recommend this to those who have read Slaughterhouse Five in its original form because this can bring a new way to view the book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Archaia for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Amazon review pending approval.

I read the original many years ago.  I'm trying to expand the reading experience for my grandson who reads graphic novels at the speed of light.  He was not positive when I first approached him about reading this book.  But, after a little coaxing, he read, then reread, the book, enjoying every page.  He said " If you can find more like that, I'll read them."  That is very high  praise indeed for a teen.

Slaughterhouse Five is one of my favourite books and so I was really intrigued to see how it translated into the graphic novel format. This wonderful book did not disappoint and I thought that the artwork style really captured the essence of the narrative. Slaughterhouse Five is ostensibly a novel about war, focusing on Billy Pilgrim, who finds himself a prisoner of war in Dresden during the firebombing in 1945. What I love so much about the book is the way it jumps around in time, giving the reader a way to experience the madness of war themselves through the dislocation and confusion caused in the narrative jumps. The graphic novel accomplishes this really well, both by jumping around in time in the same way of the novel but also by varying the art style. I loved the art style for Billy and the other characters and overall, thought this was both a great adaptation of the original work and also a really fun way for new readers to discover this fantastic story.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is the first ever graphic novel interpretation of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. Created by Ryan North and Albert Monteys, this adaptation makes the original work easily accessible while retaining the conceptual abstractions that made the book a classic. I highly recommend to anyone looking for a starting place in Vonnegut’s work. To those looking specifically for their next graphic novel, I would say this was an enjoyable read but the focus was more on telling the story than on pushing the boundaries artistically. 
If this sounds like something you would enjoy it is officially available for purchase tomorrow! 
Thank you to @netgalley and @boom_studios for the galley!

This book was given to me by the publishers via netgalley, all opinions are mine.

After reading this book i can agree that if all classics were adapted into graphic novels, maybe people would read more of it.

Slaughterhouse-five is an anti war book that's loosely based on the author's life.  It follows young Billy Pilgrim who is a prisoner of war and also an alien abducted human who becomes unstuck in time. This Unstuck in time( ness) allows him to see his life at various points in time.

This book is brilliant. And i think it was adapted very well, old fans of Slaughterhouse five would love it and new fans would find it easily digestible with wonderful art. The art is stunning and it depicted the time of the book well and  the unstuck in time ( ness).

I've been meaning to read Kurt Vonnegut's work for some time, and I thought this graphic novel adaptation would be the perfect opportunity.

This book is about a war, it's repercussions and aliens. It seemed like a weird combination, but it works. There is time traveling involved, which I enjoy, and I really liked how the aliens were incorporated into the story. I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did.

In terms of the graphic novel, the colors used were spot on the environment and made it easy to distinguish the environments. Everything was cohesive.

So it goes.

This is my second book to graphic novel adaptation, my first being Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which was so very complete and amazing. This graphic novel was a bit brief at times, I would compare my copy of the book to the comic so I could see what parts were either left out or skimmed over. The story is there to a certain extent just not as good as the book in my opinion. The comic does follow in the same series of events as the original novel. The illustrations are very good but a tad cartoony for my tastes, and the coloring is very good as well. I liked the lay out of the frames but I think the lettering could have been a bit larger, at least in my eBook ARC, maybe this could be different if you're reading the graphic novel.

A great adaptation of a beloved work.  North took the source material and make a lovely structure for a brilliant re imaging. Hope to see more Vonnegut graphics in the future!!

**I received and voluntarily read an e-ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

It's been years since I've read "Slaughterhouse-Five" so I jumped at the chance to read and review a graphic novel version of it. When reviewing graphic novel adaptations like this, it's harder for me to give a review- after all, is the review for the story itself or about the art?

While the original is not one of my all time favorite novels, this graphic novel did a great job of helping to tell the story. I think for younger readers, or those with shorter attention spans, this would be a great way to read and enjoy the novel without getting lost.

Overall, if you've never read the original book before, or you've started and given up, this is probably the best way for you to read Vonnegut's story. The art is well done and the original story is broken down in a way that is accessible and understandable (as much as this style of storytelling can be). 4/5 stars for a great job.

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.

I was never a huge fan of the original Slaughterhouse-Five, but the notoriety of the novel led me to give this graphic novel a chance. I thoroughly enjoyed this adaptation of the novel. 

Slaughterhouse-Five: The Graphic Novel provides a much more streamlined portrayal of the fluidity of time. The panels make sense and are organized in a way to understand the aliens' belief system related to time. 

I loved how Ryan North gave background and interesting tidbits of the characters to make them relatable and hateable; I'm looking at you, Lazzaro. The images were perfect and went with the story well; even a couple of double spreads to highlight events. My only issue was that I found the text small and hard to read, but this may be attributable to my digital copy and may not be an issue in a hard copy of the graphic novel. 

I highly recommend this to explore the ideas of Kurt Vonnegut's original novel.

*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.