This graphic novel was quite scary. It is an adaptation of the post apocalyptic novel by Cormac McCarthy. It is a great adaptation but it reminded me why I don’t read such novels. The artwork fits the story of a father and son who are trying to go south after an apocalyptic event and death of his wife. Cannibalistic gangs roam the country, there is no food and it is winter. It is a dark and grim story but if you like these kinds of stories then you might enjoy it. Too dark for me but great illustrations.

Thanks NetGalley and Abrams ComicArts for this arc

3.5/5 stars rounded up

I think this just wasn't for me, and/or it was hard to decipher in digital format on my phone. I know the book has large dimensions and I'm sure bigger pages will make what's going on much easier to decipher. I unfortunately found a lot of it to be hard to tell what was going on due to the sketchy nature of the art, and how small my phone screen is; even if I zoomed in it didn't keep the quality so it made things really blurry. I also haven't read this book yet, and I feel like I would understand more what's going on if I had. Some things happen then a page or two later it's just moved on to the next thing, and I understand there hardly being any dialogue but what dialogue there was was repetitive. I think if I came back to this in physical form after reading the book I'd have a better appreciation for it. As such, I know my review is pretty subjective so I won't give it as low of a rating as I normally would based on how I'm feeling after reading it.

Stunning. Gorgeous. Horrifying. Emotionally devastating. No notes.

As an aside, I have not read The Road (the original) yet, so I can't speak to whether or not this is a good adaptation.

The Road has been on my TBR for so long, and I just haven't been able to pick up the novel. I figured the graphic novel version might be a bit of a push to get me to read the actual book, and I was absolutely right.
First of all, the art is absolutely stunning. Dark and gritty and haunting, it really is fantastically done. At times it's unclear what' being depicted, as some of the scenes can be so dark or intricate that it's hard to parse through. But I think sometimes that worked in its favor.
The story itself was excellent. The illustrations only amplified the emotions of the characters. Loved it.

The Road is a visually-stunning graphic adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy. I will preface this review by saying that I have not read the novel yet. (It is on my list.)

Wow, what a story. I really felt for the characters in this book, and the back and forth between the boy and his dad is so effective at portraying the persistent dread and the hollow existence of the people in this world. The way this story repeatedly pulls back the curtain for us when the father finds something brutal and gruesome and then quickly shields us from it as the boy asks if he's found anything.. Wow! Those small glimpses really make this story a masterpiece. It toyed with my morbid curiosity while also telling me, "No, you shouldn't look at this." It brings up dilemmas of survival, morality, and unconditional love - and while there are incredibly dark parts of this story, overall it feels reserved, calm even, like we have made peace with the inevitability of loss and death.

The atmosphere of this post-apocalyptic take on our world is excellent. It is raw, dark, gritty, and ugly. There are no holds barred here; The brutality of the dark side of human nature is on full display.

The art itself is beautiful while still depicting those qualities. Since I read the uncorrected proof it was in black & white, but it still packed a punch. There were some previews of the colour version and it looks stunning, with a very muted colour palette that really fits the vibe.

It is a quick read. I took about a half hour to get through it and I was really savouring it.

Reading this made me even more excited to read the novel! I will be picking up both to add to my library.

Thank you to Manu Larcenet, Abrams ComicArts, the McCarthy Estate, and of course, the late Cormac McCarthy for bringing us this story.
Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
#TheRoadAGraphicNovelAdaptation #NetGalley

This review will be available on NetGalley, Goodreads, and Tiktok @temptedblaze

Going in I was not aware this was adapted off of the same novel The Road. While reading this in a new medium, it definitely grew my desire to track down and read the original piece!

Thanks to NetGalley and Abams ComicArts for the opportunity to read this before it released!

The Road is a post-apocalyptic classic and I was so impressed seeing it brought to life in graphic novel format by Manu Larcenet. The art was both gorgeous and devastating in turns. I commend the artist for the ability to bring depth, nuance, and quiet beauty to such a dark world.

In graphic novel format The Road was very similar in tone to a lot of The Walking Dead comics and I think fans of those would really enjoy this journey. I would also recommend this graphic novel to anyone seeking to explore father/son relationships or post-apocalyptic landscapes through art.

The ARC copy I was given of this did not include color, so I don’t know how much it effects the experience. But the experience in black-and-white is immaculate.

Sparse or no color is really what is needed for The Road. This is not a book of brightness. This is not a tale of light. It’s an epic quest, where the end goal is merely survival and perhaps maintaining humanity. Perhaps.

The book ends with an original note from the artist, Manu Larcenet, asking McCarthy if he could adapt the book. He speaks with reverence, with fervor. This wasn’t a cash grab, but a labor of love and obsession. He did not add to the story–we never know what caused the apocalypse that the father and son wander through, or learn their names, or find out the boy’s final fate–but conveyed it with respect and skill.

I 100% expect this book to win the Hugo for best graphic novel next year. If you are in any manner interested in scifi, apocalypse fiction, or moody graphic novels, this is a great pick. Do, though, check out the trigger warnings before purchase. There’s a fair bit of death, though I’m glad to say, no animal abuse or sexual violence.

Advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.

Great rendition of the new classic Cormac McCarthy book of the same name. It's stark, gritty, and frightening.

I think this is a wonderful adaptation of The Road. I think that the feel of the story is faithful to the original story. The artwork is perfect for the atmosphere of the book. I am excited to see the full colour version of this graphic novel once it is published.

Dans un monde dévasté, un père et son fils tentent de survivre aux multiples dangers qui les menacent. La faim, le froid et les hordes malfaisantes, mais surtout la perte de leur humanité que peuvent engendrer la souffrance et le doute.

Adaptée de l'œuvre iconique de Cormac McCarthy, cette BD démontre une fois de plus le talent de Manu Larcenet pour s'approprier une œuvre et en faire une expérience esthétiquement et visuellement unique. Ainsi, jouant du noir et du blanc avec virtuosité, il immerge le lecteur dans un monde d'émotions et de sensations, en suscitant néanmoins, comme dans l'œuvre originale, une réflexion profonde sur les chances de survie de l'humanité.

Faithful graphic adaptation with illustrations that captures the desperation and bleakness of the novel. I loved that it included the letter the author wrote to McCarthy asking to adapt his book. Very interested to see the final version, which will be in color.

The artwork in this really does the original justice. It is cold, obfuscating, isolating, and so eerie.

Desolate and cold, and characters quietly brimming with hope. True to the story, heartbreaking and unsettling but notifying the reader that yes, there are still good people at the end of it all.

I have been talking this up already to people purchasing or interested in McCarthy and cannot wait to handsell.

This graphic novel adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road does justice to the original book. I found that the drab imagery lends to the tone of the book and the bleak reality in which this novel too place. I would recommend this book for addition to our library collection.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Abrams ComicArts for an advance copy of this graphic novel adaptation of a book that uses the end of the world to explore themes of being a parent, what we owe our children, what we owe others, the how to be good even if the cost is very high.

In 2006 I was given a book on my birthday, written by an author I really didn't care that much for. The book was The Road, and I think I spent more time thinking where I could return the book for store credit, than thanking the person for it. When I got home I started to read the first page, and didn't stop till the end. And began it again. The book hit me hard in places that were still very raw. A story of a father and his son in the end times, trying to survive. The father reminded me of my Father, who had left the world almost 6 years earlier. My reading and not enjoying All the Pretty Horses, also by Cormac McCarthy had not prepared me for this book. Soon I was haunting used book stores looking for everything and anything by McCarthy, glad to have a second chance. I've talked over the years with many people who loved the book, or hated the book, but never an ehh. One who was also affected by the story was French writer and illustrator Manu Larcenet, who has adapted the novel for the graphic format, without losing the impact, the beauty, and haunting nature of the story.

The book begins with a father and son, both unnamed walking South to escape the cold and the ash that is America sometime in the future. Maybe after election day. Sectarianism has ripped the country apart, nothing is left, except bands of marauders, and lonely pilgrims trying to survive. A shopping cart, with rear view mirrors to see who might be coming holds that small amount of goods they have, goods that are constantly at risk of being stolen. Their path south is dangerous. Hordes of men move in packs, cannibal farms keep humans for livestock, and random strangers can either help, hinder, or haul away their stuff. Added to this, the father has a cough with blood mixed in it. And the world keeps getting colder.

The graphic novel cuts a few scenes, but the story loses nothing in impact. In fact the art fills in what the mind does not. Manu Larcenet shows their bodies both father and son, as wasted in ways we as readers don't want to contemplate. One can tell both from the art, the way the story is laid out that this was an important work for Larcenet, and one that he put a lot of time into. My copy was in black and white, and the art really brings the story to life, the wreck that is the world, and the wreckage that are our characters are. Larcenet keeps many of the key scenes, and does such a good job telling the story that one does not need to be familiar with the book to follow along. The current fashion of adapting well known novels to graphic novel form have lead to some good ones, a lot of bad ones, and a few that stand equal with the source material. This one is one of them. I do home McCarthy was able to see a copy before he passed, knowing his work was in the best of hands.

I loved the book, so I needed to read this graphic novel. This graphic novel is dark (both in plot and in color: it’s black and white with splashes of dark colors). The art style matches the creepy, horror vibes of the plot. There’s parts of the plot that I had forgotten about that are really dark. Trigger warnings: implied suicide, extreme violence, cannibalism, violence toward a baby.

I really liked the purposeful obscuring of panels and the droopy and blurred lines for the art.

What I missed: the original plays a lot with punctuation since grammar is not a priority at the end of the world … and this graphic novel doesn’t play around with the punctuation.

Beautifully illustrated, this graphic novel did a wonderful job of evoking the dark atmosphere of the Cormac McCarthy novel. I have not read the novel, and it did feel like quite a lot was missing but it was still a powerful story. Only one page was colorized, but the tons were muted and earthy, as appropriate for the atmosphere of the story.

This is a book you must physically hold and leaf through, carefully and slowly, to let soak it in. The digital medium just cannot do it justice. English edition is not out yet, but looking at other Countries' editions it's already a must have in everyone's library.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a classic novel although very depressing. The black and white illustrations in this graphic novel were well done, but made the story even more bleak.

This comic is a good adaptation of McCarthy's original work, has good art and dialogue choices and seems to interact a lot with the film adaptation.