Blood Meridian

Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West (known simply and more commonly as Blood Meridian) is a 1985 epic historical novel by American author Cormac McCarthy, classified as an anti-Western^[1][2] and Gothic Western.^[3] McCarthy's fifth book, it was published by Random House.

Set in the American frontier with a historical context, the narrative follows a fictional teenager from Tennessee referred to as "the kid", with the bulk of the text devoted to his experiences with the Glanton gang, a historical group of scalp hunters who massacred American Indians and others in the United States–Mexico borderlands from 1849 to 1850 for bounty, sadistic pleasure, and eventually out of nihilistic habit. The role of antagonist is gradually filled by Judge Holden, a physically massive, highly educated, preternaturally skilled member of the gang with pale and hairless skin who relishes the destruction and domination of whatever he encounters, including children and docile animals.

Although the novel initially received lukewarm critical and commercial reception,^[4] it has since become highly acclaimed and is widely recognized as McCarthy's magnum opus and one of the greatest American novels of all time,^[5] with some labelling the work as the Great American Novel.^[6]