It’s very bleak. Seriously. Imagine standing in the middle of a field at wintertime. It’s cold, snowing and there isn’t a soul around. You haven’t eaten in days and there’s no help coming for you. In fact, there’s no one for miles. That’s The Road.

It is extremely extremely desolate. I personally love post apocalyptic, survival, prepper - ish stuff but everything I've read before 'The Road' was Sesame Street. Throw out all the cool plot building and factions. Colorful characters with deep back stories and character archs don't exist here. Its a man trying to keep his son alive. There is no real hope. It's prolly the closest I've read to a actual reality and that is what shook me the most. No speeches or grandstanding. No heroic last stands or helping others. Me being a parent, it's the absolute worst case scenario. Terrifying to be honest. I'm glad I read it tho. What people can do and become is more terrifying than anything that can be put in paper. Man o man. Reader beware.

Truly dread. 10/10 would not do it again

I think it could trigger you. It's remarkably bleak. However its pacey and not that long so you could get through it quickly!

This book haunts me. It’s a Great Book in the timeless, immortal sense. It’ll be around a long time.

But it is as dark as it gets. I’ve never read anything that comes close to it. It’s credible. One has the sense that this is indeed what the first years of a post apocalyptic future would really look like. It fills you with a unique kind of terror. Dread. Hopelessness. Despair. Fear. It means something more than all of that.

It’s devastating. It’s profound. It’s a masterpiece.

An absolute masterpiece.

I’ve have read it twice, brutal and amazing. My wife claims to have ptsd from it.

At your own risk…

None of the responses so far look at the relationship between the boy and the man. And that is what the book, at its core, is all about. The relationship is quite beautifully depicted. And this is despite - and frequently in response to - the situation they're in.

If you accept the dystopic, post-apocalyptic setting, there are a few pitch-black, horrific events that will probably not go down at all smoothly. I've not read The Stand, and can't really comment about the events in that, but will say that as a writer McCarthy typically has more ability than King to make an event hit you like a ton of bricks.

Maybe try Emily St. Mandel’s Station Eleven.

It's bleak. I don't find it particularly realistic but as the other commenter said it doesn't have grand hero plots, it does feel real and hopeless.

I don't know what you mean by triggering. It's not graphic if that's what you mean. Compared to say Octavia Butler.

Incredible book but can be quite depressing. There is a reason the movie is almost black and white. There is no hope and is a story of true desperation. Some of the thoughts and statements of characters will rattle you if you have any empathy at all.

I love post-apocalyptic stuff but most books make it seem survivable. The Road is much closer to reality and highlights all the challenges of surviving.

I don’t know that it’s triggering, but it did leave me with a sense of wtf did I just read, when I was done.

Not for the fragile. On one hand it's grotesquely violent and at first pass irredeemably grim and truly quite horrible to read. On the other, second-read hand it's still all that but the religious/metaphysical subtext comes out.

So I also get severely depressed and need to stay away from depressing things. I read The Road because it's been highly recommended by multiple people.

I'll say this. It's one of the most depressing books I've ever read (the winner is still A Child Called It) and it for SURE still makes me sad to think about it sometimes.

That being said if you can manage to read it, I highly suggest it. This book is such a good book, and if anyone reads it and doesn't feel sad afterwards then they're not someone who can feel emotions to the same extent. Or they're just REALLY good at compartmentalizing. I got through it by reminding myself "This is fiction. This is fiction. This is fiction" 😅 Good luck! I hope you make the right decision for you, whatever that may be :)

It was devastating for me as a parent who had young kids at the time.

A better book is The Fourth Horseman by Alan E. Nourse

I loved The Stand and hated The Road. The Road is extremely depressing.

McCarthy is an excellent writer. I couldn’t put it down and when I did my teenage son grabbed it and read it. That should tell you something.

It's far more demanding that anything Stephen King ever wrote. Cormac McCarthy doesn't feel the urge to be entertaining other writers do. However it is a rewarding book. Just not in the way you imagine at this point.

It's not very triggering. There's a couple scene that are heavy.

McCarthy trick in the road is creating the post apocalyptic ambience. The relationship between dad and son is really good. It feels like this could happen.

It's a must read imo. But I'm a big fan of post apocalyptic anything.

The Road is McCarthy’s most accessible and arguably his best book. Ultimately it has a positive message and moral lessons for father/son relationships. But also there is some deep, dark, scary, shit in it that when subtracted from the post-apocalyptic setting are things that regular people have to face and endure though not in the same circumstances. McCarthy never lets on about how the world got to where it is, it’s all about survival and trust. Is everyone just out for themselves or is there still compassion and unconditional love left in what remains of humanity? I love McCarthy’s older work, my favorite is probably Blood Meridian and/or The Crossing. I’ve read nearly all of his books and I think The Road is his most succinct, most artfully distilled creation. After reading it I was struck by its power for a long time.

Most of these comments make it sound worse than it is.

I wont spoil the plot, but I will spoil something pertaining to a message or moral to the book, so read further at your own risk.

While the content is pretty severe, the ultimate message is pretty positive. You may cry, but you will cry for the depth of the human soul, the love of fellow men, and a glimmer of hope for mankind.

“The Stand” comes to a screeching halt once they get to Colorado IMO, “The Road” is great but it definitely doesn’t encapsulate the beginning of “The Stand”. It’s bleak as hell. Themes of suicide, loneliness, giving up, brutality, perseverance.

Look. Its a rough read BUT I firmly believe the ending pulls it out. I dont want to give any details but its a toughs slog but worth it

The Road is quite beautifully written, and about as bleak as you could imagine, but like most 'literary' works dipping their toes into genre, it's a tired and unambitious retread of far lesser known, generally lesser-regarded, but ultimately more satisfying and original works: you could look to Earth Abides, by George R Stewart; A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M Miller Jr; I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson; The Postman, by David Brin; or much of Ballard's early work—The Drowned World, The Drought, The Crystal World.

If you do fancy reading outside of the genre specific, and into literary writers making a better fist of venturing into the post-apocalyptic, you could do worse than Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker, Emily St John Mandel's Station Eleven, PD James' The Children of Men, or Nevil Shute's On The Beach.

Please post 'Should I read X book''What do I need to know before I read X' questions, in our Weekly Recommendation Thread.

Curious how it is that almost every downvoted comment here also contains criticism of—or indifference to—McCarthy's book. Astounding how our supposed literati of intellectual giants seem utterly incapable of engaging in good faith debate or unwilling to defend a criticised work in favour of hit-and-run cowardice.

I pretty much love depressing dystopian type stuff and to be honest I found that book thoroughly boring.

When is the word “triggering” going to make an exit from everyday vocabulary? Does anybody know?

It reads like someone went on a wikipedia spree to just get all the shock schlock from warzones and sieges to string together into the most flat and generic possible "story".

So yeah, if you don't get your jollies reading about the miserable and cruel things we do to each other, it won't be for you.