Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

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

75 reviews

billyjepma's review

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

A towering, alienating, raging tapestry of the violent, bloodthirsty heart of the American condition. It’s a nightmarish read, one that forces you to wrestle with its foggy, murky plotting and aimless pacing—there’s a reason it took me months to finish. But that’s part of the nightmare McCarthy is cataloging for us, and his disdain is palpable even (especially?) as he coldly pontificates on the situation of the men his story follows.  

“In the days to come the frail black rebuses of blood in those sands would crack and break and drift away so that in the circuit of few suns all trace of the destruction of these people would be erased. The desert wind would salt their ruins and there would be nothing, nor ghost nor scribe, to tell to any pilgrim in his passing how it was that people had lived in this place and in this place died.”

There are a lot of quotes that speak to the intent of this book—a book I might someday understand better—but that one might be the one I latch into. McCarthy understood violence and its roots in the masculine soul better than almost any other American writer.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Confinement, Genocide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Medical content, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Alcohol, and War

bheller77's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Very dark. Violent. Gory.

mymorie's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

ronophica's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

hypnoticspxlls's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pedophilia

asililydying's review against another edition

4.5

depraved.  The 'wild west' and manifest destiny created a Level of atrocities probably greater than the dark ages. Enlightenment was only bringing pure hateful fire to the darkness.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Antisemitism, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

loganreads's review against another edition

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

revolution666's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, Colonisation, and War

Minor: Rape

erks's review against another edition

challenging dark sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Racism, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Pedophilia and Slavery

themagpiereads's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

A stunning and brutal indictment of Manifest Destiny. A tough read in many ways: the writing is dense, the subject matter is harrowing, the characters are detestable. Yet, it is a propulsive read as well, difficult to put down in spite of its brutality. Did I like this book? Not really. Did I think this book was good? Absolutely. Take heed of all the content warnings if you're going to pick this one up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual violence, Excrement, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail