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Bird Box by Josh Malerman


L.E.91

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Did anyone read this man's amazing book? If you haven't read it yet, please, don't waste any more time and go freaking buy it and READ IT!!!! Josh Malerman was and is the best Suspense/Horror book writer ever! The book is very confusing though, the ending especially, I mean, it's a group of people trying to run away from something, and trying to survive from something, but the thing is.... the author never reveals WHAT it is they are trying to survive from. Please, can someone discuss this issue with me >_<

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I loved this book, and this was my review at the time of reading:

 

Horror is one of those genres, like thrillers, by which I can potentially be hugely impressed or satisfied (even by books I don't feel are objectively flawless, such as this one), but by which I'm more commonly underwhelmed by unoriginality or lacklustre writing.

Happily, this book (mostly) falls into the category of the former. I don't remember the last time I was so gripped by a horror novel. From the outset it was promising, indicating an unknown and unknowable enemy which terrifyingly does not itself hide in the dark, but which forces you to hide in the darkness of blindness. So much more chilling than the likes of Weeping Angels is their exact opposite - these creatures. I absolutely loved this whole concept, and the creativity it inspired in the characters in their attempt to survive - how do you walk the length of a garden without your eyes? How do you scavenge for food to stay alive? How can you travel far enough to find safety? This is a genuinely, psychologically creepy novel which brings you so close to horrors you can't observe that they might pull the blindfold right off your face.

The writing, although a tad clunky in places, is great in others. I really felt a superb sense of pacing, and a wonderfully conveyed sense of confusion amidst chaos during the more tense moments. The characters were perhaps not the most developed (particularly Gary and Rick, who felt like little more than placeholders for necessary plot devices - one of which led to the ending that I'm a little unsure of). All the same, I warmed to Tom and Jules immensely, and certainly had a fair amount of respect for the lead gal Malorie. There's definitely quite a bit, largely towards the end, which requires rather a lot of salt. The unliklihood of certain events combined with a total flatness of certain characters made the whole thing underwhelming. The novel is a short and quick read, and I can't help but feel that the author could easily have fleshed it out and vastly improved it with another hundred pages.

Still, getting there is half the fun, and I enjoyed the ride on this debut novel immensely. I would happily recommend this novel to anyone who likes stories which elicit that creepy-crawly under-the-skin feeling of discomfort.

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Right!? I don't remember the characters names much, but I was just very confused on the whole plot of the story, I was hoping Josh would reveal what it was that they were afraid of and what it was that they all followed to kill themselves. I loved the suspense Josh was putting in every chapter, if I can be honest, I literally read this book in like 3 days, I was very hooked on it. And Malorie I believe was pregnant, which she had her child and the other young girl's child as well, and raised them both, but when she took them out, blind fold them, and they go through the river, I was more confused when they met up with that one man who said he had his blindfold off. I was questioning then if what they were so afraid of was something that was not real, but only in their heads? Or was their something that they were breathing which made them go insane and kill themselves? I mean, think about... was that man really blind folded or not? Was their REALLY something out there? Why did Malorie and the children survive? How the heck did the others die? I think it had to do with something that was airborne... Josh never revealed it, and that killed my whole enthusiasm, it was so lame, but I can't lie he kept me at the edge!

 

This is true though,some spots their was some bad writing, miss-spellings, but he made it come together quite nicely, he did a great job, makes me want to pick up thebook again and read it. To me, my review would be that it was one of the books that got me into reading more horror, and it opened my eyes to getting into more suspense, because he added gore and suspense together,he made those 2 categories come hand in hand nicely! I do believe that he could of at least given the reader a hint of what the characters were afraid of, their was one character specifically that would get me quite angry, I can't remember his name, but I think it was Rick. Tom's death hurt me so bad, because he was the most positive out of the whole group, I mean, I even felt like I almost cried. 

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Horror, in my opinion is very hard to get into because their is so much unoriginal stuff out there that does not feel like it is horror anymore, it just feels as if it is a waste of pages, it's hard to find an author that writes great horror books. It takes me a while to find some good ones, although I only have 3 authors who write horror that are my absolute favorite, hands down. But yes, I agree, it feels like playing the lotto when searching for horror books.

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