Book Review for The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

★★★

What I thought it would be going in:

I wasn’t actually sure what I was going to be reading because around the time there were so many apocalypse/dystopia stories about zombies and great natural disasters and disease, but the blurb didn’t really indicate any of that. I think it’s because it’s very much the ‘afterwards’ rather than the ‘happening’.

My initial impressions:

It was interesting, I really like the vivid descriptions, but it was also slow. There’s something about the jiltedness of a father’s affection that I feel is overdone and I’m not a fan of it. But this was a recommended reading for my degree and I didn’t mind the other aspects so I kept going.

My final impressions:

I liked it, but I wouldn’t read it again. I was along for the journey, but I was easily bored by the main character and so there was a lack of motivation to keep following him.

What I liked most:

That it wasn’t like every other apocalypse story and focused on the continued collapse of society by mankind. It wasn’t the fault of anything else in the world, but just the fault of humanity.

What I disliked most:

It had a stale air to the main character.