Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

51 reviews

emmgracebuch's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic and Death

Moderate: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Murder, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Minor: Cannibalism, Grief, Cursing, Vomit, and Child death

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

aburnss's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

 I initially picked up "The Road" as a recommendation from Lisa. I knew going in that it was a dark dystopian read, but I was still surprised with the depth of emotion the book evoked.

"The Road" follows a father and son as they make their way south following a road, amidst a horrifyingly bleak start to a post-apocalyptic winter. While we know little about what caused this ending of normal society, the characters are faced with a level of desolation that is difficult to comprehend.

The world is covered in ash with fires everywhere. The lack of sun and fires have killed nearly all vegetation and animal life. Humans have long been in starvation and the few remaining alive live in terror of roaming cannibalistic groups.

The desperate fight for survival and slow starvation as the book progresses is heart-wrenching. The author expertly demonstrates the fierce love between parent and child in the backdrop of the most bleak of circumstances imaginable. It is difficult to say I enjoyed reading this book, but it was so well written. The desperation and horror grew with each chapter.

The lack of quotations in the dialogue between characters was a masterful choice. Humans in this world had lost everything. Conversation was plagued with the constant lurking of death around the corner and the lack of quotations made the huge difference between normalcy and this horror all the more apparent. 

Several scenes stuck out to me.

The discovery of the locked cellar with emaciated humans tied up for slow consumption. The discovery of the underground bunker and excruciating decision / necessity to leave it. The orchard full of old dry apples and eating and drinking until bloated. The father's desperate instructions to his son on how to use the final bullet to kill himself if he were to be discovered. The naked abandonment of the thief on the road.. and the son's realization that they had indeed killed him.

Each as or more heart breaking than the last, this was not a good book to read before bed. 

This book puts the human condition into dramatic perspective. The issues that plague our minds frequently are so inconsequential compared to the bleak and dying world of "The Road". I won't be forgetting this story any time soon. The writing is beautiful, immersive, and perfectly builds a horrifying dystopia. I would recommend this read to anyone wanting to explore familial bonds in the most traumatic setting possible.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Suicide, Cannibalism, Death, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Rape

Minor: Slavery

This book is a dystopian and horrifying world where all manner of dark things happen to and around the main characters.

parathenormal's review against another edition

dark hopeful reflective 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Cannibalism, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Trafficking, Violence, War, Medical content, Child death, Suicide, and Injury/Injury detail

rainerasnic's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Cannibalism, Gore, Death, Animal death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Minor: Slavery

paukinra's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Violence, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Abortion, Cannibalism, Child death, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Eating disorder and Slavery

Minor: Rape, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

queerloras's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Body horror, Death, Grief, Violence, Child death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Cannibalism, and Slavery

leebeeloves's review against another edition

challenging dark tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Grief

erebus53's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

This was a #FOMO Lighthouse Library Bookclub read for June 2023, and I really had no idea what it was about. I was amused that I had already read "The Road" by Jack London which is also a really cool book, though published 99 years earlier.

My overall impression of this book was that it was like a zombie apocalypse story, minus the trees and the zombies. In a non-descript North America that has been razed by fire, a man and his boy walk south in the hopes that they will get to warmer weather, and find it easier to survive. The main characters are known simply as the man, and the boy. This sort of increases the feeling of the bleakness, because for the most part, people are few and far between, and so you don't need a whole heap of names to disambiguate people.. and those names you do get from people are arbitrary and fairly meaningless.

Obviously this is a story of survival, and the balance of grief, hope and faith. As they travel down a highway they have to overcome obstacles both physical and emotional. The narrative is a mix of procedural descriptions, and poetic prose. It almost feels like the pretty bits are mismatched to the story, but I figure you have to have some fancy bits for your essays about the Literature (crozzled means with dark crispy bits on the outside.. like bacon). Typically the poetic observations are those of the end of day; musings that find one just before sleep after a long day of slogging through the countryside. It might help to have a dictionary nearby, because you don't get a Pulitzer by only using common words. There is a harsh poetic beauty to describing a highway full of burnt out cars whose occupants were scorched inside as they tried to flee the firestorms.

Ten thousand dreams ensepulchred within their crozzled hearts.

I really loved the descriptions of coming upon windfall resources, and in my own mind, I would have stopped my journey if I found plenty of resources.. or at least had a breather. Maybe I'm too risk averse to survive the holocaust of a continent. From what happens it doesn't look like radiation is a part of it, so this is a different take on things than other apocalyptic stories like Mad Max.

It was certainly an interesting read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Kidnapping, Animal death, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Terminal illness, Child death, Gun violence, Murder, Body horror, Physical abuse, Stalking, Violence, Vomit, Blood, Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

mildlypretentiousreader's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

“Nobody wants to be here and nobody wants to leave.”
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A slow-paced book, The Road by Cormac McCarthy tells the desolate and cumbersome story of a father (“The Man” ) and his son (“The Boy”) as they travel through a post-apocalyptic United States of America. Their world is severely limited by their grim circumstances. Harsh living conditions, starvation, the threat of animals, the inhumanity of other people.  Society is now rampant with thieves, bandits, cannibals, and the like who will do virtually anything to stay alive. Because of the harsh and untrustworthy nature of nearly everyone in the USA, the Man copes with this reality by trusting and helping no one he and his son come across. Although harsh, considering the circumstances, the Man feels this is necessary. If push comes to shove, 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Grief, Vomit, War, Abandonment, Animal death, Gore, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Violence