Chapter 1 Summary

Blood Meridian follows a teenager known only as the kid as he runs from his home in Tennessee and finds himself in Texas, a member of a renegade unit of the army still intent on fighting the Mexican War. After entering Texas, this unit is ambushed by Indians and massacred. The kid then joins the Glanton Gang to avoid jail time and finds himself linked with a dark man he has met before, Judge Holden. What follows is a dark, violent story about the west that will leave its readers stunned by its gory conclusion.

The kid is born in Tennessee. His mother dies during childbirth, and the father has buried his grief in alcohol, ignoring the child and never talking about the mother. The kid runs away when he is fourteen. The kid travels through Tennessee to St. Louis to New Orleans...