Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

51 reviews

lilybear3's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated

4.75

I've been curious about this book for some time and I finally got around to it.  When reading and reviewing this book in 2023, it's important to remember this book was first published in 2006.  I didn't initially see why this book won a Pulitzer Prize, however, at the time and for all of it's hidden intricacies, it is great.

On the surface, the book is very straightforward and sentences are mainly stating what a character is doing or feeling, what the environment is, etc.  However, every now and then, we get a poetic and philosophical paragraph that wants the reader to stop and think.  This book is not a feel good book and there are some gruesome imagery at times, but it's not extremely pessimistic either.  There is hope, even if just a little.  Other themes are love, loss, grief, and humanity. 

I think this modern classic is really accessible, the writing isn't too complicated, except for a few words here and there that I didn't recognize.  I've seen other reviews question why there aren't quotation marks when characters are speaking and the lack of apostrophes in contractions like "cant."  These details are intentional.  As a reader, I could still understand who was talking based on how dialogue is laid out in other books.  I'm speculating here, but I think it represents the fall of structure and formality, almost all of humanity is gone.  It might also be hinting at the lack of education and need for written language.

I love a dystopian and I love that there are so many scenarios that fit that description.  There aren't a lot of details as to why the world has turned out this way, but I kind of like that the reader doesn't know and that is left to their own imagination.  I thought it might be a statement on environmental issues, but we just don't know.  Obviously, reading this in 2023 has made me compare it to more recent media like "The Last of Us," but I don't think that's a bad thing.  Both The Road and "The Last of Us" have similar themes, as mentioned above.

I could write an essay on this book.  I wasn't sure what I was walking into (I encourage you to do this with any book you read), but I ended up enjoying this a lot.  I couldn't put this book down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Murder, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Death of parent, Chronic illness, and Death

Moderate: Cannibalism

Minor: Animal death, Rape, Self harm, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, and Pregnancy

tr4shc4n's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Gun violence, Gore, Death of parent, Death, Abandonment, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

bookish_bry's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

I really enjoyed this book. It was incredibly bleak, but there was also some burning embers of hope on almost every page. I really liked the relationship between the father and son. The father was really trying hard to raise his child the best he could even in a world of death and suffering.

The apocalypse itself didn't always make the most sense. It wasn't really steeped in much reality, but that didn't detract from the story too much. I really liked the writing style, but that comes from having listened to its audiobook. Judging by the other reviews, there may be some style choices that could have made it hard to read a physical copy. The audiobook however was great.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Grief, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death of parent, Murder, Cannibalism, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Rape, Pregnancy, and Pedophilia

The canabolism is pretty bad through the book. This includes the main characters stumbling across a baby being cooked. There are many dead bodies. Also, the characters almost starve to death a few times.

natgoe's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Death of parent, Child death, Violence, Death, Cannibalism, and Blood

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide

saxymisty's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Whenever someone asks me for a book recommendation, this is always the book I suggest. I'm not really sure what that says about me. It's not a perfect read, as the writing style takes some getting used to and paragraphs don't really exist. But this is a dystopian novel that's more realistic than most. It's dark and bleak and shows the worst of humanity, but in the end it's a father trying to keep his son alive. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Death, Torture, Murder, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape

This is not an easy book to read, research any specific triggers you might have, because yikes. Rape is both mentioned and heavily implied in this book even if it's not described in detail. Cannibalism, however, is very, very heavily implied. Reveal for specific warnings/spoiler -->

There's a house they find that keeps people in the basement for the single purpose of killing and eating them

revolution666's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Abandonment, Torture, Murder, Gun violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Terminal illness

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Cursing, Gore, Rape, War, Pregnancy, Grief, and Animal death

batlodge's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Grief, and Death

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Lesbophobia

erica_lannan's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I would have made a lot of different choices than the father throughout the book, so it was hard in a lot of ways for me to relate.  It's definitely a book that has challenged my worldview, and it made me think deeply about the will to fight/live/survive/humanity itself.  That being said, I really didn't like it, although I CAN appreciate the writing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Chronic illness, Grief, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, and Slavery

Minor: Violence, Car accident, Pregnancy, Trafficking, Suicide, and Sexual violence

atreidesjr's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Chronic illness, Grief, Murder, Death, Sexual violence, Genocide, Death of parent, Cannibalism, Torture, Slavery, Blood, and Child death

weirdodari's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.5

So this book completely wrecked me

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Death, and Blood