Book · 1969
Slaughterhouse-Five
by Kurt Vonnegut
Billy Pilgrim comes unstuck in time, bouncing between a WWII POW camp, a Tralfamadorian zoo, and his own suburban optometry practice, all at once.
What does Reddit think of Slaughterhouse-Five?
"So it goes." shows up twice in the displayed excerpts here (↑272, ↑223), both times with zero surrounding commentary, just the phrase, dropped like people are trading a password rather than making an argument. That's the pattern across most of this sample: r/suggestmeabook and r/booksuggestions mostly cite Slaughterhouse-Five as a line in a list, paired with Animal Farm, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and Lord of the Flies in one comment (↑357), or folded into a full high-school syllabus dump in another (↑250), rather than argued over individually. Where there's actual reasoning, it lands on structure: one comment (↑277) calls the constant jumps in time and place a device that "somehow all make sense," and r/Fantasy's entry (↑251) praises the backwards-bombing-raid passage specifically, quoting it in full. One comment (↑342) states plainly that it's among the best depictions of why war is awful, a claim, not a debate, since nothing displayed here contests it.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · Time as nonlinear: Billy Pilgrim 'unstuck' across his own life
- · War rendered absurd rather than heroic, centered on the Dresden bombing
- · 'So it goes' as a refrain for accepting death without protest
- · A fixture of high-school English curricula alongside Animal Farm and Catch-22
Common praise
- + One commenter (↑277) singles out the nonlinear structure specifically, saying the constant jumps in time and place still add up to something coherent.
- + r/Fantasy's top entry (↑251) doesn't just recommend it, it quotes the reversed-bombing-run passage in full, which reads as a stronger endorsement than a rating would.
- + Called flatly one of the best anti-war books by one commenter (↑342), stated without hedging or comparison.
Common criticism
- − Most of the volume here is list filler: it shows up bundled with four or five other classics (↑357, ↑250) rather than discussed on its own terms.
- − 'So it goes' gets quoted twice in this sample (↑272, ↑223) with no surrounding argument, closer to a catchphrase than literary engagement.
- − Nothing displayed here pushes back on the book, but the flip side is that the commentary that exists is thin relative to the mention count.
Who it's for
Come here for the structure, not the plot summary; the one specific piece of praise in this sample (↑277) is about how the constant time jumps still cohere, which is the actual skill on display. If your last anti-war reading was Catch-22 or All Quiet on the Western Front off a high-school list (↑250), this slots into the same syllabus without feeling like homework, going by how often it's bundled with those titles. People who want their absurdism paired with an actual body count, rather than played for pure comedy, are the audience one r/Fantasy comment (↑251) seems to be writing for. It rewards rereading the same handful of lines more than it rewards a plot-driven first pass.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for Slaughterhouse-Five?
The most relevant excerpts across the subreddits where this book is mentioned — opinionated, argued takes first, then top-upvoted mentions. Click through to read the full thread.
“Slaughterhouse Five We Have Always Lived in the Castle Animal Farm Lord of the Flies The Old Man and the Sea
“"Slaughterhouse 5" by Kurt Vonnegut is in my opinion one of the best depiction of why war is such an awful thing.
“Probably Slaughterhouse-Five. The crazy constant changes in location and time somehow all make sense. It's really well done.
““Trout, incidentally, had written a book about a money tree. It had twenty-dollar bills for leaves. Its flowers were government bonds. Its fruit was diamonds. It attracted human beings who killed each other around the roots and made very good fertilizer.” \- Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut J…
“*Slaughterhouse-Five* by Vonnegut. So it goes.
“If you like absurdly funny (and insightful) writing you will love Vonnegut. One of my favourite passages from *Slaughterhouse Five*: --- “It was a movie about American bombers in World War II and the gallant men who flew them. Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this: American planes, fu…
“Here's the full list of what I read in my high school classes: Animal Farm The Giver To Kill a Mockingbird Things Fall Apart Siddhartha The Life of Pi Brave New World Lord of the Flies Frankenstein All Quiet on the Western Front Catch-22 The Color of Water Catcher in the Rye Black Boy …
“Slaughterhouse-five not for how the book is written but the story and the feelings the book conveys. After finishing it'll leave you thinking for weeks
“The greatest I don't know, but Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut and The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell are def. amongst the best, two novels about World War II but each from a very different perspective.
“Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut. Every single page in that book just brings me joy, but I have a hard time explaining why. I’ve definitely read “better” books, just none that I loved quite the same.
“Unfortunately perfect timing, my favorite book is the anti war book Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. No only did this book open up a lot of ideas about life for me, it made me wholeheartedly believe that war should never be the answer.
“Slaughterhouse 5 is the obvious one, but if I was you I'd just read a couple of blurbs and pick the one that intrigues you the most.
“If You Want To Laugh: *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*, by Douglass Adams If You Want To Laugh And Cry: *Slaughterhouse-Five,* by Kurt Vonnegut If You Want To Be Terrified: *1984*, by George Orwell If You Want To Be Depressed: *Roadside Picnic*, by The Strugatsky Brothers If You Want To Be…
“Anything by Kurt Vonnegut, but specifically Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse Five. Not always the main point, but definitely an underlying theme of much of his fiction, IMO
“Slaughterhouse 5 is also a fun one.
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Readers also mention
Books that share discussion threads with Slaughterhouse-Five — counted from the comments, not curated.
Slaughterhouse-Five — frequently asked
Is Slaughterhouse-Five still relevant today?+
Yes, going by the volume alone: 6,326 mentions across seven years with no visible drop-off, still appearing in 2025 threads. More specifically, one commenter (↑342) calls it flatly one of the best depictions of why war is awful, a claim nobody in this sample argues against. That's thinner evidence than the mention count implies, but it's not nothing.
What does 'So it goes' mean in Slaughterhouse-Five?+
This corpus doesn't explain it; the phrase gets quoted twice in the displayed excerpts (↑272, ↑223) with no surrounding commentary either time. Both look like people dropping the line as recognizable shorthand rather than unpacking it. If you want the phrase's meaning explained, you'd need a source beyond what's shown here; Reddit just repeats it.
Is Slaughterhouse-Five confusing because of the nonlinear timeline?+
Not according to the one comment that addresses it directly (↑277): the constant jumps between locations and time periods "somehow all make sense," in that commenter's words. That's a single account's read, not a fleet consensus, but it's the only displayed opinion on the structure, and it comes down against confusion.
Is Slaughterhouse-Five taught in high school alongside similar books?+
Yes; one r/booksuggestions comment (↑250) lists it inside a full high-school curriculum alongside Animal Farm, Brave New World, Catch-22, and Catcher in the Rye. That's one person's remembered reading list, not a curriculum standard, but the company it keeps there matches how it gets recommended elsewhere in this sample too (↑357).