Reviews

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

sagostund's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

3.0

once again i am not smart enough for this book

annie_green's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

I've never read a book as awful and as beautiful like this. The descriptions of the places around them were beautiful. It was hard to read but I still kept going. 

nohbody's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

spikeabell's review against another edition

Too violent

satellitehabits's review against another edition

1.0

🙄🙄 ok this goes down as the worst book club pick IMO I listened to this on audio and it was almost impossible to follow I'm not even sure what happened in the book besides blood, death and a bunch of traveling with a kid and a judge/pastor? Needed to finish this today so I can start fresh tomorrow and not go into the new year with that on my brain

deltabelta's review against another edition

5.0

Blood Meridian is about that moment when you crack open a history book, find descriptions of the worst tortures and slaughters and genocides imaginable, and ask yourself “why? How can mankind be so consistently cruel, so horrible on such vast scales?”

Some call this a nihilistic book, or Cormac a nihilistic author. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, it’s exactly what he was trying to warn us about. Judge Holden is nihilism physically embodied. He leads processions of doomed young men like a piper, and all men who follow him care for nothing, value nothing, and believe in nothing. They have no concern for the lives of their comrades, or even their own. Their lives are brutish and empty and miserable, the rare fleeting pleasure found only in hedonistic excess. Inevitably, they are destined to die slaughtered like animals in the mud, and the world is better off without them.

Ultimately, the book is hopeful that Holden’s ways are coming to an end; that the unstoppable tide of human progress will pave over his savagery. Its a deeply optimistic book because of, not despite, it facing the darkness.

Favorite quote:

Spoiler

For let it go how it will, he said, God speaks in the least of creatures. The kid thought him to mean birds or things that crawl but the expriest, watching, his head slightly cocked, said: No man is give leave of that voice. The kid spat into the fire and bent to his work. I aint heard no voice, he said. When it stops, said Tobin, you’ll know you’ve heard it all your life.

ethanhkelly's review against another edition

I wish I didn't start this during finals, given I couldn't give it my full attention, and it took super long to finish; I will have to re-read some time in the future. That being said, what can I say about this that hasn't already been written. Melvillian epic of Shakespearean proportions.

irongauntlet's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

4.0

bering's review against another edition

2.0

Lost track of the plot and gave up...

sugarpop's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0