Bird Box by Josh Malerman


Bird Box by Josh Malerman



I have many, many thoughts regarding this book, but first I want to say that I really enjoyed Bird Box. This review might come off a little critical at times. I had to keep reminding myself to stop comparing this to other dystopian books that I’ve read and movies that I’ve seen. Overall this was an intensely disturbing novel, that has an extremely interesting premise and this really boils down to survival and trying to hold on to remnants of society even when no such society exists any longer.
                Malorie had just moved in with her sister Shannon when reports started coming in. It started in Russia and the videos would show people being randomly attacked. There were reports of people going into rages and attacking others or harming themselves. The reports began to trickle in from Alaska, then different areas of the northern part of the United States. Something was causing people to commit these acts, something they were seeing. People began covering their windows, refusing to look outside eventually refusing to leave the house. It’s been almost five years since those first reports. Malorie is still in the home she ran to. There used to be other survivors. They’re all gone now. And she has with her the boy and the girl. She has trained them to listen, since they cannot use their eyes. They have never seen outside. Have never went to the well without blindfolds. But now Malorie is planning to take the kids and go down the river to a place she hopes will keep them safe.
                So to sum this up, people begin seeing creatures that cause them to lose their sanity and kill themselves or other people. No one knows what this creature is. No one knows where it came from or why it’s causing people to kill others. People are terrified! This book is told in third person, with alternating narratives focusing on Malorie and the two children in the present and Malorie with her group of survivors in the past. We get to see Malorie evolve as a character from the clueless pregnant woman trying to survive, to the terrified mother of two trying to keep her kids alive and training them to have super hearing. Malerman actually did a pretty great job creating these intertwining narratives. As Malorie continues on her present journey, we see through the past narrative the experiences that have caused her to become so cautious and so persistent. It also turned this story into a mystery. We know from the very beginning of the novel that she is alone, but we learn very early on that this wasn’t always the case. Malorie was part of a community of people that cared about each other and yet she is the only one in the home years later.
                This novel made me squirm while reading it. While I wasn’t overly attached to any of the characters, they were all well developed and a mix of what you would expect personality wise from a group of people thrown together because of exceptional circumstances. But nothing frightens me more than a dystopian with young children. It disturbs me to my core thinking about children having to worry about their survival. Their presence along with the overall setting and tone of this novel made it terrifying for me personally. Malderman would include these extremely tense moments where anything can and did happen. And that tension would linger through the pages. It was extremely well done.
                Now with all of this being said and as much as I enjoyed this book, it took quite a bit of mental gymnastics and suspension of belief to enjoy this novel. I mean, seriously creatures causing people to murder themselves and others. It sounds a whole lot like the M. Night Shyamalan movie “The Happening” where plants where exuding a chemical making people do the same thing. That movie was horrible because the concept just didn’t work. Here it works to an extent but there were moments where it seemed highly unbelievable and I was jumping through hoops because the one question I had was the one that was never answered. How?
                Regardless, I highly recommend this novel. It’s addictive reading. I went into this fully unprepared for a story that would capture me in this visceral, horrifying way. This isn’t a gory story meant to gross you out. This is definitely a psychological horror story with unpredictable twists and turn and traces of failing humanity. I give this 4 out of 5 stars.

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