Outer Dark (original 1968; edition 1993)

Just a tad disturbing. "Did they really...?" "Yes, they did." ( )

I do like McCarthy's writing style, I loved The Road. While this book kept me reading as I was pulled into where this book was going, I kept wondering what is truly to story line and when would the paths intertwine. Overall the ending was unexpected and lacked detail and closure. I was excited up until the last 50 or so pages and complete lost me by the end... ( )

Southern Gothic taken to such an extreme that it almost becomes camp. Very enjoyable. ( )

Great book. But, if you like endings that wrap everything up nicely and leave you feeling satisfied that all questions have been answered, then this book is not for you. McCarthy takes you on a fun ride in the process. ( )

Parts of this book are gripping but I felt at times that McCarthy’s prose was laboured, striving to produce the sepuchral tone that pervades this novel. It seems from the Holme and his sister have such a difficult time, Holme in particular, that McCarthy suggesting what was presumably incest has led to this living damnation. Certainly Holme seems despicably callous towards his sister giving birth and afterwards but as he moves around on his own he becomes a much milder figure, much more of a victim. This leaves me wondering what McCarthy is suggesting. In the end it seems more of a book designed to crate a sense of doom than any sort of comment on human behaviour, especially when the three horsemen are more supernaturally apolcalytic than part of mankind. ( )