Reviews - The Road | The StoryGraph

16.3k reviews for:

The Road

Cormac McCarthy

3.92 AVERAGE

lexifox's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous dark 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: No

sethnblack's review against another edition

4.75

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

cheytaydemi's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

raind0ll's review against another edition

3.5

dark sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

an interesting story, but not one i particularly fell in love with. the writing style was a little too odd and confusing at times.

eleanor_rose's review against another edition

4.0

dark 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: No

leilaekn's review against another edition

2.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

bkovach13's review against another edition

2.0

Felt intentionally monotonous and redundant, like the prose reflected the environment, for the most part. The structure of the story as chapterless supports this — there are bits and pieces of the book that make it feel at least like a conscious, artful choice. Characters are shallow. Plot is thin. The relationships between the protagonist and his son and wife feel especially razor thin to the point of being unbelievable. The meeting with Eli had some good dialogue but that was the only bit I really enjoyed.

I will say, it seems like Cormac McCarthy’s description of a post-apocalyptic world informed a lot of future depictions of the same - fallout and mad max definitely seem to have taken bits and pieces of this world.

I’m middle-of-the-road on this one. I wouldn’t recommend it but glad to have the context and can see why it’s so divisive.