So It Goes: A Review of the Graphic Novel Adaptation of ‘Slaughterhouse Five’

Original Story: Kurt Vonnegut / Writer: Ryan North / Artist: Albert Monteys / Boom! Studios 10 “Tralfamadore Zoos” out of 10 I think it’s important that I am very up front about the score I am giving this graphic novel adaptation at the start of this review rather than the end. I think it’s important that when presented with a piece of media that is itself unstuck in time to follow suit and similarly buck the linearity of the typical review structure in service of a greater good, which is to let you dear reader know that I adore this book for a wide range of reasons, and I hope that you’ll understand why by the time you get to the bottom of this article.

See, in 2015, I picked up The Brothers Vonnegut: Science and Fiction in the House of Magic by Ginger Strand, and I developed an even greater appreciation for the late Kurt Vonnegut, venerated science fiction author, and his older brother Bernard who was one of the many scientists involved in the development of early cloud seeding. Bernard’s research was, in fact, one of the direct influences of my personal favorite Vonnegut novel, Cat’s Cradle. But the point stands, that I learned that Kurt was a technical writer (as I currently make my own living) and the rest of the historical context that he lived in that informed the themes in his rapport. So now, let’s skip to 2020 and to this adaptation of one of the most iconic of Vonnegut’s titles: Slaughterhouse Five or the children’s crusade: a duty-dance with death. It had been y…