Alex. O’s Reviews > Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West > Status Update

Very good book so far. I’ve come to know Judge better during these last few chapters. He’s a collector of knowledge but as said nothing can exist outside his own knowledge without his consent. Knowledge is also power so he destroys and leaves no trace left after preserving its image in his ledger. He’s highly intelligent and hides a terrifying individual under his polite and rather friendly facade. Tbc…

When I thought I had become somewhat desensitised to the violence McCarthy presents, he always one ups it. The massacre of the Gileños camp with ~150 scalps collected, incl the bashing of the babies skulls by the Delaware, to the Glanton gang turning on the Mexican citizenry and killing them too in order to squeeze the governor of the last amount of cash he has until the bounty is rescinded. Im lost for words.

Oh, so much cruelty. Favorite scene, however, is the fortune teller one. When Glanton receives the card from the magician and seemingly unintentionally throws it away into the night, but the old blindfolded fortune teller somehow knows the card and reveals its meaning. It’s such a gripping moment. And then, at last, she mentions the young child (the kid) again, I wonder if the kid causes Glanton’s downfall…

Not the most gory scene in the book (so far) but I was just so disgusted with Glanton when he tested out his long barrel colt revolver on the farm animals. Not happy with this guy. Holden also has an amazing vocabulary, seems like an ok dude apart from the creepy smiles.

Brutal. Brutal, is the only word I could describe this book so far. The kid, our main protagonist or anti hero, has a taste for mindless violence and throughout his journey violence is what drives him forward and closer to his destiny/ fate. Cormac’s prose is interesting as well, fully layered, where reading one time isn’t enough to grasp the entire story and context. Excited to see what becomes of this story!