Reviews tagging 'Torture'

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

54 reviews

salmonite's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Excrement, Rape, Animal death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Racism, Confinement, Hate crime, Violence, Cursing, Child death, Cultural appropriation, Death, Kidnapping, Xenophobia, Child abuse, Mental illness, Murder, War, Grief, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Bullying, Gore, Pedophilia, Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Alcohol, and Torture

blipsk's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Might be my favourite book of all time. McCarthy's prose is transcendental. He has a gift for evoking amazing imagery with the lightest touch of description, just perfect, efficient word choice.

It's hard to talk about what happens in the book. It's brutal and relentless. A lot of the characters feel like sketches, we don't get very deep into any of them, even the main POV. And they are without exception awful people. And yet I found myself caring about The Kid a lot by the end.

Reading this book feels a bit like a bad dream, and finishing it felt like the emotional equivalent of muscle ache after hard exercise. It's a book I know I will come back to and reread many times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Sexual assault, Racial slurs, War, Racism, Colonisation, Animal cruelty, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, and Child death

princemyshkin's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

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

4.0

Like nothing else, the pages and prose flow like spilled blood. Ultra violent, decedent. Pulling punches only to save the viewer from the worst abuses.
Initially feeling stilted, once you accept the patter, it rushes over you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Excrement, Genocide, Grief, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Blood, Hate crime, Rape, Sexism, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Physical abuse, Child death, Death, Deportation, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Chronic illness, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, Eating disorder, Murder, Slavery, Trafficking, Violence, and War

redmarten83's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Slavery, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Violence, Vomit, War, Alcohol, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Xenophobia, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Misogyny, Murder, Gore, Racial slurs, Medical content, Mental illness, Blood, Cursing, Drug use, Kidnapping, Bullying, Cannibalism, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Rape

fatherofmysteries's review against another edition

dark informative reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

There is no review I could write that could begin to sum up the journey that this book took me on

He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Vomit, Genocide, Murder, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Blood, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Confinement, War, Violence, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Alcohol, Death, Child death, Drug use, Racial slurs, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Alcoholism, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Ableism, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Gore, Stalking, Torture, Racism, and Colonisation

Moderate: Medical content, Cannibalism, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Incest, Addiction, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Body horror, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Pedophilia, and Grief

selftitled's review

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Torture, Physical abuse, Murder, Colonisation, Child death, Blood, Animal death, War, Racism, Racial slurs, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Rape, Genocide, Emotional abuse, Death, Cursing, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Gore, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Ableism, Child abuse, Sexual content, and Trafficking

siggney's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Slavery, Animal cruelty, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Animal death, Blood, Genocide, Gun violence, Violence, Physical abuse, and Torture

nyxlexica's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

3.0

Difficult to read. Very slow, very distant, no character to get behind. An intense depiction of a period in history I knew nothing about, though, with an incredible villain. Happy I've read it but can't say I enjoyed the process, exactly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, Sexual violence, Cursing, Death, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Ableism, Mental illness, Torture, Child death, Racism, Alcoholism, Kidnapping, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Xenophobia, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, War, Gun violence, Hate crime, Animal death, Colonisation, Genocide, and Racial slurs

blueshirt's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Beautiful book about horrible people doing horrible things.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Child death, Death, Gore, Xenophobia, Child abuse, Genocide, Racism, Torture, Violence, and War

Minor: Child abuse and Pedophilia

thimbler's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Torture, Gore, Violence, Murder, and Gun violence