This summer, Boston Public Library's teen volunteer program has gone remote! As part of this program, local high schoolers will be sharing their thoughts on books, movies, and more on our blog. In today's post, local sophomore Sofia Fragala shares her thoughts on one of her summer reading books: The Road.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy, is a novel about a man and his son struggling to cross the country in a post-apocalyptic world. This book has a very slow start. As you begin reading, it is very hard to continue. However, once you reach page 60, it gets much more interesting. There is a continuous theme of darkness and of an evil, dark, bleak, and depressing life. This book is not for the faint of heart.
This book is for a very specific audience. Lovers of The Hunger Games or Bird Box might enjoy this book. They are similar because of the tense situations and the unlikely outcomes.
Personally, I did not enjoy this book. I have a decent attention span, but it took a lot of focus to read this book. I found myself reading pages at a time but not processing what they said and having to reread them.
The only reason I continued reading was because it was one of my summer reading books. As a teen, I feel that picking this book because it is "famous" does not justify teaching it; I was so bored reading it. The story line is repetitive, and hard to get into. If I had borrowed this book at the library, I would have returned it. Overall, I would not recommend this book to the average teen.
Add a comment to: Teen Volunteer Review: The Road