Something is out there . . .
Something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse and a person is driven to deadly violence. No one knows what it is or where it came from.
Five years after it began, a handful of scattered survivors remain, including Malorie and her two young children. Living in an abandoned house near the river, she has dreamed of fleeing to a place where they might be safe. Now, that the boy and girl are four, it is time to go. But the journey ahead will be terrifying: twenty miles downriver in a rowboat—blindfolded—with nothing to rely on but her wits and the children’s trained ears. One wrong choice and they will die. And something is following them. But is it man, animal, or monster?
Engulfed in darkness, surrounded by sounds both familiar and frightening, Malorie embarks on a harrowing odyssey—a trip that takes her into an unseen world and back into the past, to the companions who once saved her. Under the guidance of the stalwart Tom, a motley group of strangers banded together against the unseen terror, creating order from the chaos. But when supplies ran low, they were forced to venture outside—and confront the ultimate question: in a world gone mad, who can really be trusted?
Interweaving past and present, Josh Malerman’s breathtaking debut is a horrific and gripping snapshot of a world unraveled that will have you racing to the final page.
Horror Book Reviews Blog: Bird Box
Pontypool, Dawn of the Dead, Blindness and The Happening. These were just a few of the films that came to mind when reading the first couple of pages of Josh Malerman’s Bird Box. It was not because of the specific content contained in said films nor their premise, I.E., zombies, infected or mother nature (plants) avenging the Earth – spoiler alert. Rather, It was the feeling of dread and hopelessness that Malerman wonderfully exhibits in his writing. I felt the tension and the constant sense of impending doom with each page where it felt like no one was safe and they weren’t. This is all within the first thirty pages of the book.
Bird Box, like its characters, forces you to use your imagination as if you too are blindfolded, all sight cut off from the outside world and what may or may not just be right beside you. Let me elaborate a little further on this. Like any good book, the use of your imagination is integral, the author filling in the blanks or telling you what you are supposed to be envisioning. Bird Box rendered me sightless, being immersed behind the veil of darkness, my eyes shrouded by a blindfold like both our protagonists and antagonists. In the same way, they did not know what they encountered, save for what they were able to deduce using their sense of hearing, touching, and smell we, as the reader, were painted an image based on what the characters were sensing. This was gripping and terrifying. Try it. Close your eyes and try walking to your neighbor’s house across the street or a mile down the road. But, really, don’t try this. But try to imagine what that would feel like knowing that there is something out there, something unknown. This is Bird Box.
There is something out there, not just in your neighborhood, or city but, rather, in the world that renders those who see it into madness. It is because of this and the aforementioned sense of impending doom that kept me on my toes and biting my nails.
Like everything, it is not without its faults. I was a little disappointed at the book’s conclusion in that I felt that it did not pack a heavy enough punch that was in line with the rest of the book. There were still questions by ‘The End’ that I wanted answered. Make no mistake, I don’t like everything to be wrapped with a big fat, red bow for me but, again, there were a few arcs that I would have liked to have seen developed a little further.
The journey to the finale, however, was in line with the pacing of the story which was, for lack of a better term, a non-stop roller coaster ride that allowed for only the briefest of moments to catch your breath before plummeting again into this gripping and tense story. Malerman’s writing was gripping and kept me engaged and was one of the more scarier books I’ve read in a long time.
Bird Box was an absolute thrill to read, and I recommend giving it a read before the movie comes out. Unfortunately, you’re going to have to open your eyes to read it. Unless you have the audiobook, then, you’re safe.