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.

Content Warnings

grantsharpies's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

Go to review page

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

Content Warnings

ak9's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

Content Warnings

benjiaprout's review against another edition

Go to review page

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.

Content Warnings

zakcebulski's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

4.0

It is not a far fetched statement for me to say that Cormac McCarthy is my favorite American author that I have read.
I have not found an author who is able to so perfectly write with such a vivid display and mastery over the English language as McCarthy. This book absolutely solidified this stance for my money.

This book is from the perspective of a 14 year old Tennessean only referred to as "The Kid". He is a run away vagabond who joins the Glanton gang- a group of real like scalp hunters. Now, to say that this book takes place from the perspective of a bunch of villains would be an absolutely apt description. These characters are not good people. However, McCarthy makes their complete horrific people still have developments and personalities which are interesting to learn about. The Kid, Toadvine, Glanton and... the Judge... are all characters that while they are pieces of shit, they are interesting. I was obviously not cheering for them, but, I did find them interesting and wanted to learn more about them.

The story is less so a single coherent narrative linked together with a single through line. Rather, this book is a compilation of vignettes wherein the different exploits and travels of the gang are explored. There is largely not an end goal in mind, and, to me, I struggled with that, because I was originally expecting something like that to be there.
However, when I finally let go of the notion that there needs to be a goal, and instead focused on the wandering of the group, I felt myself loving this book a ton more.

If you have read any McCarthy, then you know that he has a bit of an affinity for violence. Hyper-violence may be a more accurate description. This book, rather than being an exception, absolutely commits to this affinity with what I can only describe as a reckless disregard for anything except for violence.
The imagery in this book is truly horrifying, nauseating, gut-wrenching, and it imbeds itself into your mind. I have not been able to get some of the images out of my head even though I read the descriptors a while ago.
I appreciate that McCarthy includes these descriptions, as it helps to establish the gritty, blood-soaked world which these characters inhabit.

One of the strongest characters which I have read recently is Judge Holden- referred to simply as "The Judge". This character is truly scary. He is described as stark white (I have read pieces which he is claimed to be albino). He is massively tall, and often appears on page naked. He has a seeming obsession with violence, and has the size and the intelligence to outsmart and intimidate any one.
The quote which he says of "That which exists without my knowledge exists without my permission" gave me chills when I first read it. I think that, to me, the Judge, is one of the best villains in literature. He has such a abhorrent presence to him, and is erring on the side of monstrosity.

I got the vibe from this book that there were some surrealist moments. It called to mind the works of Haruki Murakami, especially Kafka on the Shore wherein the vignettes veer off in to a less stable reality. I think that this plays well for this book to add a great layer of re-readability. This also gives the ability for the Judge to be truly more evil than man, rather than just an evil man- perhaps the epitome, the very essence of evil.

This is one of those books that I think will be even better upon subsequent re-reads. I thought that this book was absolutely exceptional, a book that is hindered the less time one spends with it.
I truly cannot wait for my next re-read of this book, and for my next excursion in to McCarthy's world.
This book is truly horrific when it comes to the subject matter, and I implore you to please read reviews of the subject matter and the instances of violence and racial slurs used before delving in to this book.

Content Warnings

gloombee's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.25

definitely a book for men

Content Warnings

thetatteredowl's review against another edition

Go to review page

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.

Content Warnings

More...