Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

44 reviews

luis0n7i's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Although this is one of the best books I have ever read by far, I would only recommend it to a few people. The prose is jarring at first and if you know anything about this book, you know the amount of explicit and terrible violence that happens within. Despite this, it is still some of the most incredible, impressive and even beautiful prose I have read in my entire life.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Racism, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Trafficking, Xenophobia, Torture, Violence, Ableism, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, War, Sexism, Sexual violence, Body horror, Cannibalism, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Gun violence, Bullying, Child abuse, Death of parent, Dementia, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Slavery, Rape, and Genocide

thetatteredowl's review against another edition

 Really enjoyed the book's hypnotic, poetic quality, but it had no speech marks, which is always a dealbreaker. Gave up as soon as I reached page 50. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, War, and Xenophobia

venusenvy's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-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? It's complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Genocide, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Death, and Child death

Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, and Rape

jakej's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A towering achievement, so awe inspiring and distinctly McCarthian that it challenges the ideas of what a great book has to do. There is no character development and no protagonist (except in the superficial sense of occasionally being told from the kid’s point of view) and little plot. The purposes of the book are to remind you simultaneously of the necessity of violence to the world, and as a warning of what violence will do to it. More depressing and immersive than The Road, birthed by McCarthy’s archaic and cold descriptions.

The depravity hides a lot of complexity: there are a lot of unanswered questions in terms of plot that translate into unanswered questions about the characters' psyche's. However, the characters aren’t inordinately complex: the thematic treatment is through descriptive imagery and lacerating language, not through characters facing some internal struggle. It reaches near Biblical levels in the sheer amount that can be pulled from it.

Worth reading a dozen times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Excrement, Gore, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, and Violence