# Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend it for its self-referential opening and its fictional take on fatalistic thinking about time, and it is widely assigned as required reading.

## Why people recommend it

- Self-referential, effective opening (1 comments): "there's something effective about the way the book begins, and continually references other parts of itself" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48964774))
- Commonly assigned required reading (2 comments): "I have to thank an English teacher who had us read Slaughterhouse-Five for steering me clear" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49927239)) "Slaughterhouse-Five is required reading." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46318551))
- Fictional take on block-universe thinking (1 comments): "my favorite fictional take on this kind of thinking is still Slaughterhouse-Five" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47473519))

## What people warn about

- Poor cover quality (1 comments): "kinda shitty in terms of cover quality and whatnot" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47398522))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky](https://hackerapproved.com/p/crime-and-punishment.md): 39 recommend
- [The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky](https://hackerapproved.com/p/brothers-karamazov.md): 28 recommend
- [Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace](https://hackerapproved.com/p/infinite-jest.md): 26 recommend
- [The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald](https://hackerapproved.com/p/great-gatsby.md): 24 recommend
- [Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand](https://hackerapproved.com/p/atlas-shrugged.md): 23 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1784871346?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9781784871345) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut", https://hackerapproved.com/p/slaughterhouse-five/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).