Rhonda W. (smoky) reviewed Blood Meridian: Or, the Evening Redness in the West on + 228 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
This author has a unique writing style that takes a little getting used to. But the book is engrossing and enlightening for those who grew up on tv westerns. This is much more on the dark side of those westerns. It will keep you wondering til the end the outcome of their saga across the southwestern US in 1849. Very, very, good. I can't wait to read more of this author!!
Kendall F. (Kendall) reviewed Blood Meridian: Or, the Evening Redness in the West on + 20 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
This book is brilliant. It may be the best written book I've ever read, both stylistically and in the clarity of its vision. But that may keep it from being a good book. Cormac McCarty believes, at least as he comes across in these pages, that violence trumps everything else. It is a deeply disturbing vision, one to which I cannot assign the adjective 'good.'
Trevor N. (trevor) reviewed Blood Meridian: Or, the Evening Redness in the West on + 38 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
The writing in this book is very strong, but the story is hard to stomach. The book depicts all the worst things about humanity through the eyes of a young man who has joined in a band of mercenaries working north and south of the Mexico-Texas border. The end of the book feels meaningless, and I think it was meant to feel that way. I'm not a philosopher, but this book feels nihilistic and empty. Beautiful writing, ugly vision.
Helpful Score: 1
madness, mayhem, and carnage. by far his best novel.
Helpful Score: 1
One of the best books ever written. Drenched in blood and despair, McCarthy takes the topic of the old west and head-scalping to gripping new levels. The punctuation and archaic way of writing may be confusing and/or frustrating, but give it a little bit and be patient with it. The book is well worth it.
Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed Blood Meridian: Or, the Evening Redness in the West on + 1223 more book reviews
Cormac McCarthy died last week (June 13, 2023), age 89, at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was a masterful prose stylist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author who plumbed the depths of violence and vengeance in his novels such as "Blood Meridian," "No Country for Old Men" and "The Road."
Blood Meridian is an historical novel based loosely on the exploits of the Glanton gang, a group of scalp hunters who massacred Indigenous Americans and others in the United StatesâMexico borderlands from 1849 to 1850. The gang was hired by Mexican authorities to hunt the Apaches and were rewarded $100 per scalp. But the gang didn't stop there. They also killed peaceful Indians and murdered Mexicans to claim the bounty on scalps. The narrative of the novel follows a fictional teenager from Tennessee referred to as "the kid" as he is drawn into the Glanton gang after being rescued from prison. But the center antagonist of the novel is a vile personage know as "the judge" described as a physically massive, highly educated, skilled member of the gang who is extremely pale and completely bald from head to toe.
This novel is full of violent descriptions of the bloody encounters between the Apaches and the scalphunters. There is violence on both sides and McCarthy's prose does not hold back in showing this. This is considered by many to be McCarthy's masterpiece and he has been compared to writers such as Faulkner, Twain, and Melville. To me his writing is somewhat like Faulkner's with a lot of long sentences and thoughts strewn together. McCarthy doesn't use a lot of punctuation such as quotation marks and sometimes I did find it difficult to determine who was saying what. But I would definitely say that he is masterful in his narrative descriptions. I definitely need to read more of his work.
Blood Meridian is an historical novel based loosely on the exploits of the Glanton gang, a group of scalp hunters who massacred Indigenous Americans and others in the United StatesâMexico borderlands from 1849 to 1850. The gang was hired by Mexican authorities to hunt the Apaches and were rewarded $100 per scalp. But the gang didn't stop there. They also killed peaceful Indians and murdered Mexicans to claim the bounty on scalps. The narrative of the novel follows a fictional teenager from Tennessee referred to as "the kid" as he is drawn into the Glanton gang after being rescued from prison. But the center antagonist of the novel is a vile personage know as "the judge" described as a physically massive, highly educated, skilled member of the gang who is extremely pale and completely bald from head to toe.
This novel is full of violent descriptions of the bloody encounters between the Apaches and the scalphunters. There is violence on both sides and McCarthy's prose does not hold back in showing this. This is considered by many to be McCarthy's masterpiece and he has been compared to writers such as Faulkner, Twain, and Melville. To me his writing is somewhat like Faulkner's with a lot of long sentences and thoughts strewn together. McCarthy doesn't use a lot of punctuation such as quotation marks and sometimes I did find it difficult to determine who was saying what. But I would definitely say that he is masterful in his narrative descriptions. I definitely need to read more of his work.
A. J. C. (Bibliocrates) reviewed Blood Meridian: Or, the Evening Redness in the West on + 252 more book reviews
I kept hearing great things about this book and couldn't wait to dive in, but I just couldn't get into it. For starters, I'm not a big fan of westerns, and the narrative in this book is a great contrast to the dialogue, hard to adapt to, made it difficult to get through.
A very strange book, like his others. Lots of gore, blood and killing with a very hard to read dialoged. Guess its just his style, but not very enjoyable trying to figure out what is being said. Takes place 1800, Texas-Mexico boarder.
John O. (buzzby) -
His writing takes a little getting used to...
No book has ever inspired me to become a serial killer quite like this one.
June A. (pertdoe) reviewed Blood Meridian: Or, the Evening Redness in the West on + 191 more book reviews
I did not care for this book. I had read No Country for Old Men and All the Pretty Horses and loved both of them. This one did not have much of a story in my opinion and was full of blood, gore and massacres. Even the main character did not have much of a place in the story. Maybe it was me,and not ready for this book. Others may really enjoy it.
Jeff P. (jeffp) reviewed Blood Meridian: Or, the Evening Redness in the West on + 201 more book reviews
I cannot read this book. I read one and a half chapters and gave up.
A while back I read - and thoroughly disliked - The Road, another work by McCarthy. It was, however, the only thing by him I had read, and I thought I would give him another try.
Mistake. Big mistake.
This book is just about as unreadable as The Road. The prose is deliberately stilted, and convention - like quotes around dialog and apostrophes in contractions - is ignored.
In a nutshell, it's junk. I couldn't comfortably follow it, and was disinterested in it - and the characters involved - nearly immediately.
The only reason I am not giving it the worst possible rating is because I didn't finish it, and I cannot in good conscious do that to something I didn't fully read. That said, I did flip around after giving up, and no, it clearly gets no better. The complaints above apply from page one right through the end.
I won't be reading any more McCarthy. Not my thing.
A while back I read - and thoroughly disliked - The Road, another work by McCarthy. It was, however, the only thing by him I had read, and I thought I would give him another try.
Mistake. Big mistake.
This book is just about as unreadable as The Road. The prose is deliberately stilted, and convention - like quotes around dialog and apostrophes in contractions - is ignored.
In a nutshell, it's junk. I couldn't comfortably follow it, and was disinterested in it - and the characters involved - nearly immediately.
The only reason I am not giving it the worst possible rating is because I didn't finish it, and I cannot in good conscious do that to something I didn't fully read. That said, I did flip around after giving up, and no, it clearly gets no better. The complaints above apply from page one right through the end.
I won't be reading any more McCarthy. Not my thing.
