Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

64 reviews

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

carlytenille's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

qstew's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Grief

Moderate: Child death, Gore, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide

st_ella_r's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Slavery and Pregnancy

Minor: Excrement

whatthesquids's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

deathmetalheron's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: War

bitterpearl's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

It's an eye-opener about the effects of climate change on our planet, but at the same time the author teaches us that if current society is stripped bare of its material wealth, power, and pleasures, nothing else will help the human race but love.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

authorannafaundez's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.75

I liked this book. But I also didn't. Story-wise, it was slow and grueling and sad. Just as a book like this is expected to be. None of those adjectives are a negative.

There were odd choices in the formatting: no quotation marks when someone spoke, not always new paragraphs when someone spoke, extremely long paragraphs with no breaks besides scenes, and a strange aversion to commas. There were huge numbers of run-on sentences and fragments. These choices made the book skip a bit like an old record, or like a shopping cart bouncing over potholes.

The prose itself was excellent, but sometimes the poetry of it acted as a distraction. McCarthy seemed to struggle somewhat with a balance between experimental writing and readability. Sometimes the balance was perfect. Sometimes it was not. There was no connector between these times of "not" either, such as theme, mood, or memory.

I understand the why of the artistic style and formatting choices though: it's meant to slow you down, keep you a little disoriented and just off-step, to force the reader into the desired mood and the same patterns as the two main characters. It's done well. Really well.

Really, the formatting and readability--the way this book is written will definitely turn a fair amount of readers away--are the only reasons I gave the book less than 5 stars, because it drove me a little crazy sometimes too. But if you're up for a challenge and in the mood to be sad, I encourage giving this book a try. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Violence, and Cannibalism

Minor: Sexual violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

byelingual_kegan's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

grankottekarin's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.0

It's a really good book, thought provoking and written in an interesting way. It probably deserves a higher rating but, even if I appreciated it, it wasn't really my cup of tea

There were so many bad things constantly happening that you got kind of numb to it - but then again there's some meaning in that too

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, and Vomit