The original post: /r/books by /u/throwaway2202696 on 2024-06-09 22:30:52.

I recently picked up Sirens of Titan after really enjoying Slaughterhouse-Five and seeing a ton of recommendations for it online. After finishing it, I’m struggling to see why people like it so much.

I poked around at some threads on Reddit and goodreads, and it seems like some big themes of the book are around free will and commentary on organised religion? If that’s the case, fair enough - I guess I just don’t care that much about those themes.

Personally, I struggled with seeing what the book was trying to say. I felt like it didn’t spend enough time on any one idea to make it stick. The Stony Stevenson plotline is an example of this, and Beatrice’s whole purpose of life bit, including the often-quoted “love whoever is around to be loved” kind of came out of nowhere to me, and didn’t really feel earned for how widely referenced it is.

I don’t know. What am I missing here? For people who enjoyed the book, what did you like about it?