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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
slow-paced
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
If this was written by anybody else I would absolutely have given this 5 stars. Not gonna lie McCarthy's writing style is pretty atrocious, no quotation marks, not a comma in sight. Some paragraphs are just made up of one long run-on sentence. So it was definitely hard to read, I had to be in absolute silence so I could really focus on wtf was being said. But I still ended up really liking it, purely because of the story itself. It was excellent. I could feel the grime and the sweat and the cold and the discomfort. The judge really creeped me out. I actually had a few dreams about this book when I was reading it which I guess says how much I subconsciously think about it lol
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I can’t fault much with this book. It is an astounding achievement in literary terms, but it leaves a mark. Will need to recuperate for quite awhile before reading another book by McCarthy as I’m too much of an emotional snowflake to handle this much darkness in this strong of a dose. Wow.
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
warning: im dyslexic, sorry if i embarrassed myself in advance.
"Whatever exists, he said. Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent."
holy shit is the only thing a have on my mind. this is the first time i struggled reading a book, not because of the violence, but because of the way cormac wrote it. and the ending fucked me up too, since i choose to believe that (spoiler)the kid (now the man) was eventually raped by holden, though i don't think he killed him (hence the little "epilogue" at the end of the novel).
the issue that i own is ~355 pages but it felt like i read the entirety of lord of the rings faster than blood meridian. and if you wonder if you should read it here's a little snippet without spoilers:
"Everywhere there were horses down and men scrambling and he saw a man who sat charging his rifle while blood ran from his ears and he saw men with their revolvers disassembled trying to fit the spare loaded cylinders they carried and he saw men kneeling who tilted and clasped their shadows on the ground and he saw men lanced and caught up by the hair and scalped standing and he saw the horses of war trample down the fallen and a little whitefaced pony with one clouded eye leaned out of the murk and snapped at him like a dog and was gone."
...there are longer sentences with the same complete lack of punctuation, but this here is pretty much the summary of the way the book is written in my opinion lol
i think you can apply pretty much 95% of the trigger warnings you can pick on this app to this book. no one's safe from the very gruesome deaths, so if you can't handle gore or violence in media that's not targeted towards only adults, then i higly advise against reading blood meridian. the books is filled with hate crimes and the plot is pretty much about men murdering native amercan people (as well as other random folk and animals/pets) for money or sick enjoyment, and the judge being a creep and a child molester for the entirety of it. also if you have a spit kink, then this is for you (why is everybody spitting god damn).
this isn't the most gory book in the existence of literature (there's for sure something more graphic, obviously) but it is probably the most evil one lmao. there's no way holden is a human, i feel like satan's scared of him.
phenomenal
"Whatever exists, he said. Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent."
holy shit is the only thing a have on my mind. this is the first time i struggled reading a book, not because of the violence, but because of the way cormac wrote it. and the ending fucked me up too, since i choose to believe that (spoiler)
the issue that i own is ~355 pages but it felt like i read the entirety of lord of the rings faster than blood meridian. and if you wonder if you should read it here's a little snippet without spoilers:
"Everywhere there were horses down and men scrambling and he saw a man who sat charging his rifle while blood ran from his ears and he saw men with their revolvers disassembled trying to fit the spare loaded cylinders they carried and he saw men kneeling who tilted and clasped their shadows on the ground and he saw men lanced and caught up by the hair and scalped standing and he saw the horses of war trample down the fallen and a little whitefaced pony with one clouded eye leaned out of the murk and snapped at him like a dog and was gone."
...there are longer sentences with the same complete lack of punctuation, but this here is pretty much the summary of the way the book is written in my opinion lol
i think you can apply pretty much 95% of the trigger warnings you can pick on this app to this book. no one's safe from the very gruesome deaths, so if you can't handle gore or violence in media that's not targeted towards only adults, then i higly advise against reading blood meridian. the books is filled with hate crimes and the plot is pretty much about men murdering native amercan people (as well as other random folk and animals/pets) for money or sick enjoyment, and the judge being a creep and a child molester for the entirety of it. also if you have a spit kink, then this is for you (why is everybody spitting god damn).
this isn't the most gory book in the existence of literature (there's for sure something more graphic, obviously) but it is probably the most evil one lmao. there's no way holden is a human, i feel like satan's scared of him.
phenomenal
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Murder, Colonisation
Moderate: Ableism, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Alcohol
Minor: Transphobia, Excrement, Cannibalism, War
challenging
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Reading this evokes a pathos that is unique to high art. It is a Good Book. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy it. The intriguing Judge is given too few scenes to buttress the whole. It's all a bit too vague for me. Scenes and speeches wash over me, but I don't grasp them, and the opacity is of the muddy sort rather than the lucid labyrinth I'd prefer. I believe a reader could glean meaning here, but it would require close rereading of a mostly revulsive tome.
While I believe art's purpose is to evoke pathos moreso than it is to be enjoyable, my review score reflects what I'd like the algorithm to recommend to me, rather than what I think is the absolute quality of the work.
While I believe art's purpose is to evoke pathos moreso than it is to be enjoyable, my review score reflects what I'd like the algorithm to recommend to me, rather than what I think is the absolute quality of the work.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Epic. Brutal and violent.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes