Tag: Bird Box
Bird Box by Josh Malerman – REVIEW
I read a translated Norwegian ARC of this book.
Publisher: Ecco Press
Publication date: May 13th. 2014
Pages: 262 (paperback)
Audiobook length: 9hrs and 8 mins
Synopsis by the publisher:
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 motely 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?
The Review
“It’s been a long time since a book made me jumpy. Bird Box did just that in a frightening but excellent way!”
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The Writing
Malerman makes this world of his come alive in such an eerie way. His writing had me hooked to the story from page one and it still (even after finishing it a couple of days ago) has a hold of me.
The way he writes about the characters experiences when they’re not able to see anything was so well executed that it felt like I was the one with the blindfold.
He’s created a world so like our own, but so far from it as well. It’s terrifying!
The Characters
I really liked Malorie as a character. I thought her actions were realistic and very believable in a setting so unbelievably scary as this one.
She really did grow as a character throughout the story and I enjoyed the fact that she was a very normal person at the start of all. She had common sense and a strong personality, but was still very relatable.
The other characters we met along the way were really well written and it was hard to know where to put your trust.
The Plot
The storyline in Bird Box jumps in time from right at the moment where the world started to change, the progress from there and to the time where Malorie tries to escape with her kids. We go back and forth but it’s done in a way that doesn’t make it confusing.
The thing about the plot building in this one that makes it such an interesting read is the mystery and the never ending build of suspense. As soon as one suspenseful moment reaches its peak, another one starts right after. And so the story goes from beginning till end.
And I must say that I thought the ending was perfect!
Additional Thoughts
It’s been a long time since a book made me jumpy. Bird Box did just that in a frightening but excellent way! It had me thinking about how life would be without my vision. And if real life wasn’t scary enough in a scenario where you can’t look around, then adding dangers (and dangers that you don’t know what are nonetheless) makes it terrifying.
I’m not the one who gets super scared while reading, but this one was creepy enough to make me a little jumpy while reading it in the middle of the night.
Highly recommend Bird Box if you want to read something unique that will creep you out!
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What is the scariest/creepiest book you’ve ever read? Let me know in the comments below so I can add them to my never ending to-read list!
Christina de Vries 