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tracytcamp's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
tense
medium-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
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Mental illness, Suicide, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
boring_samizdat's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
A bleak and masterful study on grief, existence, and the nature of reality. Often dialogue heavy, swapping back and forth between the main character's sister (whose sections are all italicized, making a jarring start to the story) and different sequences in the protagonist's life, which are told on a non-linear timeline that often shifts without warning, sometimes mid-chapter or even paragraph. It really benefits from a second reading of it and the companion/sequel Stella Maris, as lots of context and sequences of events are given out slowly throughout the course.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Suicide, Death of parent, and Incest
christynhoover's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I need to reread the conclusion. --Not sure it all comes together for me. I can't tie together the last part of the book with the mysterious aspect of "the missing passenger" at the beginning of the story. --Probably it's me being dense.
I have liked the author's writing style in earlier work that I've read and I like this one too although occasionally the philosophical and scientific arguments were tedious. Still, overall, I found the work thought-provoking about loss, among other things.
I have liked the author's writing style in earlier work that I've read and I like this one too although occasionally the philosophical and scientific arguments were tedious. Still, overall, I found the work thought-provoking about loss, among other things.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, and Suicide
ncghammo's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide and Mental illness
emmonsannae's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Reading this book felt like watching a looped youtube video of an especially grisly car crash at half speed from different angles. I laughed when I realized the central setting is a place called Pass Christian. C.M. asks a lot of questions he doesn’t answer. How are the sins of the past handed down to be weighed? How should we bear up under the weight of our own sin? What does it mean for our protagonist to stumble across a great sin he doesn’t understand and does not choose, and to be consumed because of it? C.M.’s meditations on the legacies of history and self recall Flannery O’Connor’s observation that if the American South is not Christ-centered, it is certainly Christ-haunted. (And yes—there is not a quotation mark to be seen for miles and miles.)
“In their recollections dream and life acquire an oddly merging egality. And I've come to suspect that the ground we walk is less of our choosing than we imagine. And all the while a past we hardly even knew is rolled over into our lives like a dubious investment. The history of these times will be long in the sorting, Squire. But if there is a common keel to our understanding it is that we are flawed. At our core that is what we know.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Grief, Incest, Mental illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Death of parent, Cursing, Transphobia, and Alcohol
Minor: Alcoholism, Self harm, and Adult/minor relationship
ivan_tw's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
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
2.5
I almost feel like I shouldn't rate since it's really only 2/3 of the story, but I'll review just based on the book itself.
The Passenger is a good but not exceptional McCarthy novel that has a lot of references and callbacks to his previous work (Outer Dark, No Country for Old Men) while unfortunately never being as strong as those works. The characters are mostly fine, though a few of them - Long John, the Thalidomide Kid - are extremely obnoxious. I eventually started skimming Alicia's chapters because the Kid was so irritating. The story is nice and kept me engaged, though it's unfortunate that the central "mystery", such as it is, becomes such a nonentity. I wasn't expecting it to be solved or anything, but it's pretty much forgotten about 50 pages in. The relationship between Bobby and Alicia is strong and intriguing, but it's sort of a shame that this will probably be McCarthy's last novel and it's mostly him nicking ideas from The Sound & The Fury.
Still curious to read Stella Maris, but this duology may end up one of McCarthy's minor works, which is too bad.
The Passenger is a good but not exceptional McCarthy novel that has a lot of references and callbacks to his previous work (Outer Dark, No Country for Old Men) while unfortunately never being as strong as those works. The characters are mostly fine, though a few of them - Long John, the Thalidomide Kid - are extremely obnoxious. I eventually started skimming Alicia's chapters because the Kid was so irritating. The story is nice and kept me engaged, though it's unfortunate that the central "mystery", such as it is, becomes such a nonentity. I wasn't expecting it to be solved or anything, but it's pretty much forgotten about 50 pages in. The relationship between Bobby and Alicia is strong and intriguing, but it's sort of a shame that this will probably be McCarthy's last novel and it's mostly him nicking ideas from The Sound & The Fury.
Still curious to read Stella Maris, but this duology may end up one of McCarthy's minor works, which is too bad.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Suicide, Death, and Incest
Moderate: Toxic relationship
tobsi's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Mental illness
Minor: Self harm
davidh12's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The Passenger wasn’t at all what I expected. You are onboarded into this world with a mystery surrounding a crashed airplane and a missing passenger, but this plot is mostly abandoned over time. In its place, we follow Bobby Western as he converses with a diverse assortment of people he meets in his travels as he struggles to cope with his personal demons. By the end of his journey I can’t say I fully understood everything McCarthy was trying to say but I FELT it. There are some beautiful and haunting passages in this book I won’t soon forget
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Transphobia, Suicide, and Incest
bethbarron's review against another edition
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
Woof. I will always be enamored by McCarthy's writing style. No quotations, leaving you to guess (pay attention) who is talking, no apostrophes for "not" contractions, so much vocabulary, so many references.
It's glorious.
However.
This book. It is both bizarre stream of consciousness and conversation and wonderfully heartbreaking depiction of someone struggling with heritage and mental illness (with a big ol' dose of incestuous feelings).
It's. Challenging. Interesting. Oddly compelling.
It's glorious.
However.
This book. It is both bizarre stream of consciousness and conversation and wonderfully heartbreaking depiction of someone struggling with heritage and mental illness (with a big ol' dose of incestuous feelings).
It's. Challenging. Interesting. Oddly compelling.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Death
skitch41's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Incest
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