Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - Blood Meridian

Moral law is an invention of mankind. A moral view can never be proven right or wrong by any ultimate test. A man falling dead in a duel is not thought thereby to be proven in error as to his views. His very involvement in such a trial gives evidence of a new and broader view. For the argument is indeed trivial, but not so the separate wills thereby made manifest. Decisions of life and death, of what shall be and what shall not, beggar all question of right . In elections of these magnitudes are all lesser ones subsumed, moral, spiritual, natural.
~ Judge Holden, Blood Meridian

McCarthy's Blood Meridian (1985) is a book of wills. Players in the ultimate game force their wills on everyone around them, and the victor only emerges after all competition is eradicated. Here we observe through the eyes of The Kid the strongest wills in America's deep southwest unfolding a sequence of events, cause and effect until only the strongest will is left to strut and dance upon its stage. It does not take long for the pure carnage to stop shocking you, but the coldness with which it is recounted never will. McCarthy thoroughly and completely avoids internality and goes to great lengths to ensure his reader never once catches an idea of how his cast is feeling. Sometimes, two dozen pages pass before The Kid says anything or contributes to the story. We see times where men stand awkwardly around the corpse of a raped and naked twelve-year-old boy, or stand around corpses that have had their genitals relocated to the owner's red and foaming mouth, or drowning puppies are shot at like sideshow games, or one thousand scalps are taken in an afternoon's work, or close companions are hanged, or traveling convoys are ambushed, or hundreds of livestock are cast from the top or a stony cliff to spray red mist across the lower landscape and not once will you be told the effect these events have had on the characters. This is a book of wills: the extremes of which a will is capable if it desires strongly enough to come out on top of the ultimate game of war. The Kid and Judge Holden are diametrically opposed. The Judge is an indomitable force of will, resolute in his belief that everything has a purpose and absolutely must fulfill that purpose. Only then can you force your will onto others:

For whoever makes a shelter of reeds and hides has joined his spirit to the common destiny of creatures, and he will subside back into the primal mud with scarcely a cry. But who builds in stone seeks to alter the structure of the universe...

The Kid is a natural-born killer, a dead-eye in every sense of the word. Whenever the situation absolutely calls for violence, he demonstrates his profound ability for death. However, at all other times, he is resolved to take a neutral stance and subscribes to a 'live and let live' approach. In doing so, his very existence is offensive to Holden, who sees the boy as a warrior. Neither character gets any development here. McCarthy puts these two people in motion. You will have to read the novel to discover what happens when The Kid's immovable neutrality collides with Holden's unstoppable force of will.

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grantsharpies's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Content Warnings

cthulhu95's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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ak9's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Brutal and disgusting but beautiful and poignant

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benjiaprout's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense 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

3.75

I will bet money on this being the most violent book you'll read. McCarthy writes like no other, if you're going to read this, don't half arse it. I intend to re-read this once I have the capacity to take it in entirely.

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