Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

56 reviews

maulikki's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad fast-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? Yes

4.0

I usually like stories set in dystopian worlds, and this one definitely left me thinking. To me, the book was a good balance between light and dark, I really enjoyed all the small believable moments of love and humanity inside the new bleek world. The book rarely gave any answers, and instead presented a parent in impossible situations trying their best to protect their child. I get this is not for anyone, but just for the writing alone, I could recommend this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Grief, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Slavery, Pedophilia, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Torture, Vomit, Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Cannibalism, Rape, Child abuse, Excrement, Confinement, Cursing, Gun violence, Child death, Death of parent, Violence, and Murder

tariana's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective fast-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

What a tense book! I didn’t give much credit to the reviews when I started listening this, but they didn’t lie. It really gave a John Steinbeck’s vibe. Most of the story is about father and son walking towards the coast on a post apocalyptic world, looking for food, running away from bad guys and trying to find hope in the midst of desolation. Through the story we see the father evolving from being super understanding with the child to becoming short tempered as the control starts to slip from his hands together with the realization that he won’t be able to protect the boy forever. At the same time, the boy starts to see his father with new eyes, no longer a hero, but failing to realize that his father is afraid. I confess that at a certain point the boy would die and the father would finally be free from his self imposed responsibilities and put an end to his suffering. But as he says at the end, he wouldn’t be capable of doing so. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Cannibalism, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Terminal illness, Grief, and Death of parent

beamishbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense 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

5.0

One of the best fictional books I've ever read, maybe the best.
DEFINITELY the best dystopian tale.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, Vomit, Murder, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Terminal illness, Gore, Abandonment, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Gun violence, Violence, and Animal death

stephanielee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

1.5

I read this book based on a recommendation off TikTok. She had other books that she rated high as I had so I figured this one couldn't be terrible. I was wrong. I will say that once I finished and reflected on this book is the only reason I gave it 1.5 starts. I should've added it to my DNF pile. This is the story of a man and his young son walking across the US after there was some sort of massive devastation that caused a lot of fires. The man knows that one day his kid will be alone and we get flashbacks of the man's wife and some interactions between them. It is supposed to be how the father and son are sustained by love in a hopeless world but the father always seemed to be on the brink of just giving up and didn't really seem to love his son all that much. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, Death of parent, Cannibalism, Murder, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, and Violence

surdiablo's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense 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? No

3.0

So I admittedly had a rough time liking this initially, not because I minded the lack of punctuation or anything similar, I just couldn't connect with it emotionally. The slow, monotonous pacing didn't help either as it felt like it was going nowhere for a while, besides showing how bleak and miserable the world is. However, it picked up around 40% and I found myself interested in it for the most part. This book is unequivocally the embodiment of bleakness, yet it surprisingly manages to instill a sense of hope all the while. Make no mistake, this book can leave you torn apart. There were several gut-wrenching moments, and even though I had already seen the movie and knew what was in store, the ending was emotional. I can see why this one is polarizing aside from the writing style, as people may find the plot or character development lacking, but I think McCarthy crafted a compelling journey that we were meant to take alongside the duo, and it's doubtful any other book can the beat the experience it provides in that sense. It's a beautiful yet disturbing novel that you may or may not click with, but it's also rather short so I would recommend giving it an honest try and not putting it away immediately if you are taken aback by the writing style.

<b>“He walked out in the gray light and stood and he saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world. The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth. Darkness implacable. The blind dogs of the sun in their running. The crushing black vacuum of the universe. And somewhere two hunted animals trembling like ground-foxes in their cover. Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it.”</b>

“He walked out in the gray light and stood and he saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world. The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth. Darkness implacable. The blind dogs of the sun in their running. The crushing black vacuum of the universe. And somewhere two hunted animals trembling like ground-foxes in their cover. Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Death of parent

Moderate: Suicide and Cannibalism

uniquelymace's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Vomit, Death of parent, Excrement, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Death, Gore, Grief, Suicide, Torture, Murder, Cursing, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, and Violence

ar0deth's review against another edition

dark sad fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cannibalism, Death of parent, Grief, Body horror, and Death

nadalien's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Slavery, Sexual violence, Rape, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, Death, Self harm, Abandonment, Death of parent, Child death, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, and Body horror

mason15's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Child death, and Death of parent

krokicki's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? No

4.75

The writing in this book is phenomenal. I wouldn't have been able to put it down, except that I had to in order to reflect on what I was feeling. This is perhaps the darkest story I've read, and I've read a lot of  post-apocalyptic novels. It's not due to the plot but because of the way the emotion is conveyed through words. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Grief, Cannibalism, Death, Gore, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence