Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

La strada by Cormac McCarthy

12 reviews

bungo_books's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Love the authors writing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and War

michaela_reads_stuff's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

It made me want to weep, and then made me feel bad about the wasted energy of weeping. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

Moderate: Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, and Death of parent

beanjoles's review against another edition

dark reflective 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

3.0

This feels sacrilegious to say, but I think I would have enjoyed this book more had I not watched the Last of Us... because TLoU just did it better. Same vibes, similar landscape, but the show was so engaging and this book was just... not. That said, some of the writing was quite beautiful. 

The audiobook read by Tom Stechschulte is fantastic, though. I'm glad I read the book in that format. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Suicide and Torture

Minor: Kidnapping, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

jordanfister's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, and Murder

tkroeker's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

This book is a challenging read. The writing is solid throughout, at times impeccable. At its best it is straight poetry, which contrasts with raw matter-of-fact depictions of unimaginable brutality and loss of humanity. It is a clever device McCarthy uses to mirror the abstraction that traumatized people must undergo in order to avoid their own insanity. It’s well worth the read if you can stomach it. Stars docked for preference more than quality. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Gore, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Kidnapping, and Cannibalism

ee_comins's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Suicide, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, and Death of parent

rottenromance's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

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: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

nadalien's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

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