Genre: Apocalyptic fiction
Key Stage: KS5+ contains mature often unsettling content including scenes of a graphic nature.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2007)
Reviewer: Imad, Year 12
The Road is a devastating, yet incredibly captivating novel focused on the relationship between a father and son who (both both remain unnamed throughout) who attempt to survive in a post-apocalyptic earth world without law or order. Survival is key: you cannot trust anyone: only yourself. The father and son’s relationship is quite simple yet complicated; the interactions with the characters that the reader will soon come to meet throughout the novel can leave you questioning their morality: are they good or bad? Or is everyone bad? With this novel, you truly have no idea or perhaps you do. It all rounds up into a sad yet satisfying ending. Slow, but with a true sense of realism and emotion. Overall, a 10/10 novel that has it all.
My opinion on The Road is that it is an extraordinary book. For readers who enjoy dark and eerie settings that give you goosebumps through the imagery of carefully written words, this is the book for you. The Road is by far one of my favourites as it is slow but simply complicated. My favourite aspect of the novel is the relationship between the father and son. It is a different kind of relationship than you would expect in a post-apocalyptic novel. Cormac explores it so well: the father shows absolute care for his son yet must accept the matter of the fact that they are in danger. The reader may find the interactions that take place between the two perhaps weird and empty but later the void is filled with the ending being absolutely sad yet fulfilling. The last interaction between the father and son despite its brevity, sends the message of love overall between the two which was more than enough for me. The gruesome scenes are dark but make you question morality. Overall, I loved the novel – it is incredibly written and I would recommend it.