01/03/2026
Oh boy, this is not a book for those with a weak stomach. I’ll admit that I felt the beginning of this book was just a rush of summary to a life you really don’t get invested in, the boy. Then the rest of the book is a day in the life of the boy as he moves around in the west with a group of scalpers he gets involved in.
Now the thing is, McCarthy’s writing is amazing. I have never read the moon described in so many ways that were fresh. The violence, the characters, they were great, no doubt. This is a book that references the old west in a way that pulls from historical facts and embellishes some of the internalization that is lost to time. In that context, the book was good. For a “story”, there really wasn’t much of one, just a bunch of connected events and an ending that didn’t resonate with me. I don’t like when the author leaves out what is seen from the reader.
Now, the last thing I have to say, the antagonist was AMAZING. The Judge. He is based on a real person with VERY LITTLE history, basically a paragraph in a recounting of the scalper gang. What McCarthy does with that judge. The things he says, yeah, the book is worth reading JUST for his character.
2025-53
