Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

17 reviews

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

christianbluer's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Terminal illness and Vomit

rafaper19's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Blood, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Chronic illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Terminal illness

tariana's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective fast-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

5.0

What a tense book! I didn’t give much credit to the reviews when I started listening this, but they didn’t lie. It really gave a John Steinbeck’s vibe. Most of the story is about father and son walking towards the coast on a post apocalyptic world, looking for food, running away from bad guys and trying to find hope in the midst of desolation. Through the story we see the father evolving from being super understanding with the child to becoming short tempered as the control starts to slip from his hands together with the realization that he won’t be able to protect the boy forever. At the same time, the boy starts to see his father with new eyes, no longer a hero, but failing to realize that his father is afraid. I confess that at a certain point the boy would die and the father would finally be free from his self imposed responsibilities and put an end to his suffering. But as he says at the end, he wouldn’t be capable of doing so. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Cannibalism

Minor: Gore, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

beamishbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective 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? Yes

5.0

One of the best fictional books I've ever read, maybe the best.
DEFINITELY the best dystopian tale.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

lyfeistrip's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Abandonment

erafact's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Death, Suicide, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Minor: Confinement, Slavery, Vomit, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

rainerasnic's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Slavery

paukinra's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Cannibalism, Abortion, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Eating disorder and Slavery

Minor: Miscarriage, Rape, and Pregnancy

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