Literary · Historical
Blood Meridian
A teenage runaway known only as the kid joins a gang of scalp hunters on the Texas-Mexico borderlands in the 1850s. The gang's most terrifying member is the learned, pale Judge Holden.
- First published
- 1985
- Pace
- slow
- Length
- medium
- Format
- Standalone
Read this if you want an extremely violent, mythic, poetic western that treats America's frontier as a place of horror.
Skip this if you are sensitive to graphic violence; it is relentless and the prose is dense.
The feel
Content warnings
Where to get it
| Store | Price | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Borrow free | ||
| Libby / OverDrive | Free with a library card | Borrow free with Libby from Libby / OverDrive |
| Print, new | ||
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| Amazon | Check price | Buy new from Amazon |
| Barnes & Noble | Check price | Buy new from Barnes & Noble |
| Print, used | ||
| AbeBooks | Check price | Buy used from AbeBooks |
| ThriftBooks | Check price | Buy used from ThriftBooks |
| Ebook | ||
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| Google Play Books | Check price | Buy ebook from Google Play Books |
| Audiobook | ||
| Libro.fm | Check price | Buy audiobook from Libro.fm |
| Audible | Check price | Buy audiobook from Audible |
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If you loved Blood Meridian
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The Road
McCarthy's later, sparser book, with the same fixation on violence but a tender father-and-son centre.
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Lonesome Dove
Another western epic that treats the same era with warmth and humour rather than horror.
-
Heart of Darkness
Another novel in which a charismatic, terrifying figure embodies the moral emptiness of conquest.
Literary
