Reviews with content warning for Cannibalism - The Road

The style of writing is unique and some getting used to, but it's very effective. There are several really visceral and horrifying scenes in the book, but it's not entirely hopeless, though definitely very bleak. Relatively short book that you can read in one sitting if wanted. I couldn't put it down.

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vonnibel's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

beautiful beautiful prose. the right side of the book kept getting devastatingly thinner and thinner. kind of want to immediately reread it just to be with the boy and his dad one more time.

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kaybronny's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

I cried. A lot.

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bitterpearl's review against another edition

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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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authorannafaundez's review

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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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tkroeker's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

This book is a challenging read. The writing is solid throughout, at times impeccable. At its best it is straight poetry, which contrasts with raw matter-of-fact depictions of unimaginable brutality and loss of humanity. It is a clever device McCarthy uses to mirror the abstraction that traumatized people must undergo in order to avoid their own insanity. It’s well worth the read if you can stomach it. Stars docked for preference more than quality.

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byelingual_kegan's review against another edition

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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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