What readers think of The Road, plus links to write your own review.

Cormac McCarthy’s book The Road is a touching book that changed the way I look at life. The Road makes you realize everything that you actually have and to never take anything for granted. This book goes by very fast and is written beautifully. As you read the book you feel like you are there and going through all of this with them. Living with no water, no food, and no shelter it is tough but their love never fades away. He likes to write in a poetic form which brings more meaning to what he is writing. McCarthy actually took conversations that he had with his own son and put them into this book. To me, I loved the book and would recommend this to anyone who loves to read. It is such a well written book and very easy to read.

I would read this book on my lunch hour at work. After closing the book I would thank the Lord for my food because I was transported from The Road.

I was the third person walking next to the father and son but how could this be done it's only a book or is it? I've been trying to find out how this book fools my brain into thinking I'm there with them? I have found 2 other books like this but nothing comes really close.

The poetic statements about every third page brings "awe" and wonder to the reading journey, in fact I forget I'm reading and forget time all together.

This book makes finding fiction more difficult because I'm subconsciously comparing the Rolls-Royce to regular car. Examples: Deep stone flues where the water dripped and sang. Who writes like that?

I loved the book. Wow, it is the bomb.

I just read this book for an AP English IV paper. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Unlike another reviewer, I liked McCarthy's use of the stereotypical father/son (father willing to do anything to protect the son). I found that it made the book relatable to all people, for all are the child of someone. Regardless of your relationship with your parents/children, you can relate to a desire to have a relationship in which another person whole-heartedly loves and cares for you. The presence of this stereotype softens the otherwise harsh and chilling tone of the novel. The short sentences and abundant but simple dialogue is given depth by the relationship between the father and son.
I would write more, but I am off to write my paper. In summary, I really liked this book and would definitely recommend it to people of all ages and backgrounds. Threads of love and hope are woven through the scenes of sadness and struggle. Great for a book club or a school project, as it is easy to read but dense in meaning and varied in interpretations.

The Road is one of the most compelling books I have read that elevates the value of life, no matter how bleak the circumstances.
From the first sentence to the last, you are drawn into the theme as a traveler with the man and boy. You experience every step, every good fortune, every savored morsel of food, every drink of water, every shelter from the cold.
If you are seeking a story that portrays real hope, faith and love, you will want to read "The Road".

‘The Road’ is one of the most twisted and beautiful books I have ever read. Each paragraph is written in an almost poetic style. McCarthy writes: “All the day they traveled through the drifting haze of woodsmoke. In the draws the smoke coming off the ground like mist and the thin black trees burning on the slopes like stands of heathen candles.” This vivid description can give almost anyone the chills, and each paragraph is written with details such as this. ‘The Road’ is a must read on all accounts.

With a touching story of a father and son struggling to remain whole in a broken world, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road displays an excellent assembly of powerful imagery and a classic flickering hope for a brighter future. While this experimental, post-apocalyptic novel describes a dark Earth and its merciless inhabitants, McCarthy puts an intense emphasis on what little hope the world continues to possess in the form of a boy, born after the end of civilized society, who “carries the fire” and inspires others to do the same.

Faced with vicious cannibals, ruthless thieves, and the occasional straggler not so different from themselves, the father and son journey south along “The Road” in hopes to reach a warmer climate before the cold and deadly winter sweeps over them. Food is scarce, shelter is rare, and potential dangers lurk around every corner. Although suicide is a tempting option, they continue through the ash and snow to survive, refusing to surrender although the world has already abandoned them. Any science fiction reader with an interest in opening basement doors to find a pantry of food in the form of still-breathing human beings and a preference for a bittersweet ending will definitely possess a fondness for this novel.

While particularly exploring the collapse of society and the breakdown of social standards, the main description of the story is spun in an intricate web of sentence fragments depicting mostly the landscape and the psychological stresses on the main characters’ minds; although do not confuse McCarthy’s lack of proper sentence structure and his frequently confusing refusal to include quotation marks and other indications of “who-spoke-when’s” with a case of ignoring the accepted grammatical rules for the simple reason of “I just can.” Bold experimentation with style and form of writing is one of the many Modern characteristics that The Road possesses, a poetic quality few can achieve with such finesse and elegance as McCarthy. The novel remains something of an “easy read,” written in a straightforward fashion, a relief from the numerous novels that are frequently undermined by their over stylized and flowery descriptions.

The Road definitely goes on the top shelf of my bookcase with the rest of my favorites. It’s heart-wrenching, curious, and invigorating – leaving the interpretation for what ended the modern world completely up to my own bit of imagination, a trait I can easily admire. McCarthy’s granted the rare coupling of wanting more while at the same time feeling completely satisfied with its ending. A perfect candidate for a rainy day, once you start down The Road, there’s no turning back.

The one time I went camping, it was only for one night, and we had plenty of supplies. The book The Road throws you right into a world of darkness and devastation where every minute you have to struggle to live. Cormac McCarthy uses extreme description to make you feel as if you are in a post apocalyptic world. The openness and loose ends make it all the more real. Not only was it an interesting journey through a scorched landscape it was a very easy book to read.



The book follows a father and his son through some of the harshest conditions imaginable. You can feel yourself take their place from having a vivid picture of what is going on around the two people implanted into your head. They passed a metal trash dump where someone had once tried to burn bodies. The charred meat and bones under the damp ash might have been anonymous save for the skulls. No longer any smell. The description of every situation makes it impossible not to picture what is going on to the father and the son. Almost all of the lines in this masterpiece are perfectly composed to give you something for every sense. The most interesting thing about The Road is the way it is written. This is my favorite part about it. The openness that this book has lets you plug in whatever you so choose to. The only things it gives you to link to what happened before the book is all of the flashbacks. They are littered throughout the book. Not once in those flashbacks however does it mention anything about the father or boy from before the beginning of the book. Cormac McCarthy didn't even name anyone. Not one sentence gives any insight to what happened to the world. McCarthy left all this open for you to interpret it for yourself. Put in whatever you want and you get your own version of the story.



Reading The Road was extremely easy. This is a really good thing about this book. The print is big and paragraphs are spread out a lot. Pages fly by very quickly. The language is really easy to understand too. Each page and each paragraph and each word flows perfectly together and makes it almost impossible to put the book down for an extended period of time. The lack of chapters also makes it so that you can't stop reading because you can't just read to the next chapter. The only hard thing is that conversations are confusing to follow because there are no names and it doesn't say who is talking.



The only way to understand why this future classic is going to be considered a classic sometime in the future and why it won the Pulitzer Prize you have to read it. Go get this book and enjoy this journey of father and son and see how they go through ups and downs and love and hate they can strive and keep pushing through a world that has been completely burnt to a crisp.