Reviews

Blood Meridian, or The Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy

readrabbitwrite's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

trin's review against another edition

2.0

A book about senseless violence that mostly just made me bored senseless. If you’re tired of valuing human life and want to instead be reduced to thinking, “Oh, ho-hum, another scalping, another massacre,” this is the book for you! McCarthy’s prose is so convoluted in this book that half the time I could hardly tell what was going on (typically: someone was being killed). The beautiful pieces of description that I appreciated in [b: The Road|6288|The Road|Cormac McCarthy|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1439197219s/6288.jpg|3355573] were few and far between. I didn’t care about anyone or see the point at all, to be frank. This book is often compared to [b: Moby-Dick|153747|Moby-Dick or, The Whale|Herman Melville|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327940656s/153747.jpg|2409320], but I don’t see it: in comparison to McCarthy’s, Melville’s prose is as easy to understand as [b: Dick and Jane|14177|A Treasury of Dick and Jane and Friends (Dick and Jane)|Pearson Scott Foresman|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442718755s/14177.jpg|16255], and his book is full of memorable characters whose dark fates fill you with dread and sadness. So maybe I just don’t get it.

Or: maybe McCarthy is hugely overrated. I’m willing to wait this one out.

thequack4's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.0

i think unfortunately i am too stupid for this book, but the prose was nice when i understood it

nickfury95's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

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

3.0

dvnielletreads's review against another edition

3.0

the road is one of my favorite books of all time - but this one just didn't do the same for me.

lucaszucas's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

4.0

never read so many descriptions of the desert and the sun

knittingchaos's review against another edition

4.0

This is one of the most beautifully written books I have ever read... it is also the most violent and sad. It brings up issues of good & evil and what culture is... and is it worth anything.

benelliot's review against another edition

5.0

"The kid rose and looked about at this desolate scene and then he saw alone and upright in a small niche in the rocks an old woman kneeling in a faded rebozo with her eyes cast down.
He made his way among the corpses and stood before her. She was very old and her face was gray and leathery and sand had collected in the folds of her clothing. She did not look up. The shawl that covered her head was much faded of its color yet it bore like a patent woven into the fabric the figures of stars and quartermoons and other insignia of a provenance unknown to him. He spoke to her in a low voice. He told her that he was an American and that he was a long way from the country of his birth and that he had no family and that he had traveled much and seen many things and had been at war and endured hardships. He told her that he would convey her to a safe place, some party of her countrypeople who would welcome her and that she should join them for he could not leave her in this place or she would surely die.
He knelt on one knee, resting the rifle before him like a staff. Abuelita, he said. No puedes escucharme?
He reached into the little cove and touched her arm. She moved slightly, her whole body, light and rigid. She weighed nothing. She was just a dried shell and she had been dead in that place for years."

sterocca01's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

kj_1429's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

3.5