Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

32 reviews

cstein's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Prescient, disturbing, and sad, occasionally funny, often beautiful, full of (human) nature and faith. Images that stick in your head. Not as completely bleak as I feared and not as violent as some of McCarthy's other works.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Murder, Pedophilia, Child death, Confinement, Medical content, Violence, Cannibalism, Torture, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Chronic illness, and Terminal illness

Minor: Ableism

caffeinecrow's review against another edition

dark sad 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? Yes

1.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Violence

Moderate: Grief, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts

perthalus's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

The Road speaks to me on many levels. To some extent I can compare it to my own life, especially due to how this was originally based on the author’s relationship with his son. I feel as if I am something in-between the father and the son. Carrying my fire through a grey and hopeless world, uncertain who is a good guy and who is a bad guy. Like the father and son I argue with myself about whether I’d be better off helping somebody or looking out for myself. It’s a cold ash-covered world.

The way the world is described, and the characters journey through it, feels like it draws from feelings of depression and anxiety, which I can definitely relate to. We get pages of hopeless grey landscapes full of death and destruction, only to have it broken up by an intimate moment, surrounded but also contained in those feelings. A glimpse of hope.

Every description and conversation feels real, and they never stop no matter how slow or quick the pace goes. It’s a constant, seemingly endless journey, yet every moment is to be savoured and held. The tension of reward and punishment is constantly pulling you to the following page, just to read about every night spent watching the road, every tin of pears and every secret door, because you can feel it.

Maybe I’m biased because of the person who recommended it to me, or because this is the first buddy read I’ve ever done, but this may be my favourite book I’ve read so far. It deserves every bit of praise it gets, it’s beautifully haunted, hopeless yet so incredibly hopeful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Suicide

Moderate: Blood, Gore, Cannibalism, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal death, Rape, Vomit, Slavery, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

luis0n7i's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Trafficking, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Rape

owenwilsonbaby's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

"What would you do if I died?"
"If you died I would want to die too."
"So you could be with me?"
"Yes. So I could be with you."
"Okay."

McCarthy is so incredibly talented. This was a horrifying book. I will never be the same.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Excrement, Gore, Pedophilia, Terminal illness, Slavery, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Cannibalism, and Suicidal thoughts

bruinrocks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

What a fantastic novel. Very bleak and desolate. The description of the landscape is beautifully eerie and solitary. The relationship between the father and son is extremely well done, their bond is unbreakable. This novel has some really graphic moments, but, it shows the lengths humanity will go to in an apocalyptic event. Read at your own risk, but you surely won’t be disappointed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Death, Gore, Cannibalism, and Death of parent

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

childofmongreldogs's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

My first reading was definitely a more enjoyable experience. (Enjoyable in the sense that I didn't see some of the more flagrant flaws in the writing as opposed to the content matter which is mostly unenjoyable and pretty bleak.) 

There are some questions, though. While the boy's age isn't really stated, he seems to be very young in the ways in which he interacts with the world. It makes me wonder about what the world was like when he was small. He clearly understood how bleak everything was (the one question about his mother's disappearance) but he also seemed remarkably sheltered in other ways. The absence of most punctuation lacks clarity in a way that is more confusing than poignant. I will also say that it felt like none of this book was planned. Things happen, the characters react or underreact. There seems to be no direction. I don't know if it's reading into it to say that that might have been intentional since the two of them are wandering aimlessly with no plans beyond survival.

I still like The Road, however; I found that the minimalist way that it's been written really adds to the ambiance. There's a certain void to it, an empty flatness, that's reinforced by the stark punctuation and dialogue between the man and the boy. The stark contrast between the emptiness of the narrative that's pretty much void of description and the "purple prose" that seems to originate from a different perspective was an interesting choice. I actually enjoyed the characters and thought they did have a very strong personality between the two of them though I noticed some reviewers didn't see that. 

Overall, lovely prose, painful emotions, and a heartbreaking ending that leaves the reader with the same sense of mystery made it a lovely read for me. I liked that the questions remained unasked and the novel refused to answer them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, Violence, Cannibalism, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Blood, Body horror, Violence, Child death, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, and Animal death

book_loser's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, Animal death, Murder, Grief, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, and Blood

Moderate: Cannibalism and Sexual harassment

eininthebird's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

laurenparham's review against another edition

challenging 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cannibalism, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Murder, Slavery, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Pedophilia