Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

62 reviews

annaa_aaaaa's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Slavery, Suicide, Trafficking, Body horror, Gore, Grief, Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Cannibalism, Child death, and Pregnancy

joshkiba13's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

"Where men can't live, gods fare no better . . ." 

This was my second post-apocalyptic type story after The Stand, and it was quite different than that. In The Road we solely follow a man and his son, nameless to us. 

I liked how it was left ambiguous what happened to humanity and the earth, what the cause was of such desolation. And I think McCarthy did a good job having flashbacks every so often of the man's life before the world changed so. The pain he went through and goes through throughout the story for his son's protection is tender and gripping. 

It was mostly travels and aims to survive with sudden and unexpected bursts of violence or horrific presentations of the grisly lengths that other people went to to survive. The contrast between the man and boy's understanding of the world always made for interesting dialogue, the boy not understanding why they couldn't help other people or be with them. 

I 100% recommend the audiobook format of this book, as McCarthy doesn't use quotation marks for his dialogue, and what dialogue there is is very simple, short, and capped of with he said's, so it'd be hard to tell which character is talking without the narrator doing distinct voices. Tom Stechschulte was phenomenal as a narrator; his voice for the young boy wasn't cringy, and his voice for the father was deep, gutterly, and emotional. 

In the end I'm left feeling like not a ton happened, but it leaves you with questions to ponder and such. Descriptions of the landscape were often beautiful, and every once in a while we'd get a quote about humanity and hope that we're great, such as the one I opened with. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Violence, and Cannibalism

Minor: Death of parent

cati's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

:(

I didn't cry at all, but I'm feeling choked up just thinking about it. This book had me going "McCarthy, you sick, sick man!" at times. Like, it's insane. This passage:

Can you do it? When the time comes? When the time comes there will be no time. Now is the time. Curse God and die. What if it doesnt fire? It has to fire. Could you crush that beloved skull with a rock? Is there such a being within you of which you know nothing? Can there be? Hold him in your arms.

I JUMPED. And then that scene where they find the

burnt baby

... Are you kidding me!!!!! I knew that the

dad was going to die

because he was coughing and I saw the

parent death tag

on here, but jesus christ man. I'm just gonna be staring into space for a couple days until I find another book to read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Child death

Moderate: Chronic illness, Blood, Death, and Cannibalism

enbylievable's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Spellbinding. Wow

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Gun violence, and Trafficking

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Body horror

arifairy's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Cannibalism

bitterpearl's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

It's an eye-opener about the effects of climate change on our planet, but at the same time the author teaches us that if current society is stripped bare of its material wealth, power, and pleasures, nothing else will help the human race but love.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Mental illness, Gore, Physical abuse, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Body horror, Sexual assault, Death, Sexual harassment, Violence, Cannibalism, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Pregnancy, Chronic illness, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, and Child death

authorannafaundez's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

I liked this book. But I also didn't. Story-wise, it was slow and grueling and sad. Just as a book like this is expected to be. None of those adjectives are a negative.

There were odd choices in the formatting: no quotation marks when someone spoke, not always new paragraphs when someone spoke, extremely long paragraphs with no breaks besides scenes, and a strange aversion to commas. There were huge numbers of run-on sentences and fragments. These choices made the book skip a bit like an old record, or like a shopping cart bouncing over potholes.

The prose itself was excellent, but sometimes the poetry of it acted as a distraction. McCarthy seemed to struggle somewhat with a balance between experimental writing and readability. Sometimes the balance was perfect. Sometimes it was not. There was no connector between these times of "not" either, such as theme, mood, or memory.

I understand the why of the artistic style and formatting choices though: it's meant to slow you down, keep you a little disoriented and just off-step, to force the reader into the desired mood and the same patterns as the two main characters. It's done well. Really well.

Really, the formatting and readability--the way this book is written will definitely turn a fair amount of readers away--are the only reasons I gave the book less than 5 stars, because it drove me a little crazy sometimes too. But if you're up for a challenge and in the mood to be sad, I encourage giving this book a try. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Cannibalism, and Violence

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, and Blood

byelingual_kegan's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Violence, Death, Child death, Death of parent, Cannibalism, and Murder

grankottekarin's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.0

It's a really good book, thought provoking and written in an interesting way. It probably deserves a higher rating but, even if I appreciated it, it wasn't really my cup of tea

There were so many bad things constantly happening that you got kind of numb to it - but then again there's some meaning in that too

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Child death, Child abuse, Death, Trafficking, Suicide, Murder, Grief, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Torture, Animal death, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Vomit

wolfgold's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Suicide, Violence, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, and Blood