| Title | : | Bird Box (Bird Box, #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0062259652 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780062259653 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 272 |
| Publication | : | First published March 27, 2014 |
| Awards | : | Bram Stoker Award Best First Novel (2014), Shirley Jackson Award Novel (2014), Goodreads Choice Award Horror (2014), James Herbert Award (2015), This is Horror Award Novel (2014) |
Five years after it began, a handful of scattered survivors remains, 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's 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. Something is following them all the while, but is it man, animal, or monster?
Interweaving past and present, Bird Box is a snapshot of a world unraveled that will have you racing to the final page.
Bird Box (Bird Box, #1) Reviews
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this is an incredibly original horror/psychological suspense novel that reminds us that with all great horror, the unseen is so much more terrifying than the seen. this is why japanese horror movies are so effective. they don't rely on graphic special effects to build the suspense, and the way they manipulate shadows, sounds, and background space creates an unparalleled atmosphere that leaves a more lasting, haunting impression than "crazy chainsaw-toting psychopath" splatter films. which, don't get me wrong, are also super-entertaining.
Bird Box takes place after an eerie phenomenon begins to occur on a global scale. starting in russia, moving to alaska, and eventually making its way to "a nice suburb of Detroit" where our story picks up, people begin to see…something. no one knows what this "something" is, because once it has been seen, it drives people to madness and suicide, frequently with some homicides along the way. people begin boarding up their windows, blackening their windshields, and staying away from other people. there is no way of knowing what this "something" wants, where it came from, what form it takes, or what the future of humanity will be.
malorie is living in a house with two children, both only four years old. from the time of their birth, she has been training "boy" and "girl" to live in this new world, making them wear blindfolds outside and putting them through rigorous tests to train them until they have the preternatural hearing of bats. all this preparation is for the day they will finally leave the house and try to find others, to find a safer place to live.
the story is told in alternating chapters between malorie "now" and malorie at the beginning of the event, finding out she is pregnant just as the world begins to collapse.we don't learn much about the origin of the event, but we do get to witness how people respond to the experience, which for me and my survival bent is book-gold. this book does tension and people-thrown-into-isolated-community so, so well. under the dome, take notes.
how terrifying is it to not be able to see?? to hear a noise right behind you and not know what it is?? to leave a safe house to forage for food and not be certain you will ever find your way back?? to drive a car blindfolded through corpse-studded roads and not know if you will hit a pole or fall into a ditch?? to determine what is danger and what is just a leaf falling?
this is the best kind of building, creeping horror, and the writing is perfectly suited to the story. it is maddening at times when you want to be able to "see" what is happening, but you are at the mercy of the characters' limited vision. impeccably done.
and that attic scene?? holy shit - that was so freaking intense.
i still have a handful of minor questions (and one very major one) but they don't detract from my overall positive impression of the book. the premise alone gives it an edge over most horror novels, because it has been a long time since i have come across anything "new" in that genre, and you cannot beat the killer, page-turning suspense.
debut novel from a musician?? quit your day job, friend.
come to my blog! -
”Creatures…
infinity…
our minds have ceilings, Malorie...
these things...
they are beyond it…
higher than it…
out of reach…
out of--
BUT HERE”
Whatever you do DON’T OPEN YOUR EYES!!
Malorie has just confirmed she is pregnant the very day that people begin killing themselves. News travels so fast now. Something can happen in Cairo. Someone can film it, load it to the internet, and within minutes of the event occurring someone in Des Moines is watching what happened. News, mostly tragic news, from around the world now impacts us instantaneously. The world, consequently, feels like a much more dangerous place than it did 50 years ago. So when this new phenomenon starts happening everyone knows about it very quickly. Terror escalates exponentially, and has reached a highly sustained level long before this catastrophe has contaminated the whole world.
”What kind of a man cowers when the end of the world comes? When his brothers are killing themselves, when the streets of suburban America are infested with murder...what kind of man hides behind blankets and blindfolds? The answer is MOST men. They were told they would go mad. So they go mad.”
It turns out everyone was right to be afraid.
There is something out there. If you see it... you go insane.
It goes through the world population like a pestilent storm. We have windows in our dwellings, in our work buildings,and in our schools because we WATCH the world. It only takes a moment, a need that can’t be ignored, one parting of a curtain, for us to see one of these creatures, and become deranged.
We do violent things to ourselves.The lizard inside us meant to fight when flight is not an option turns inward.
To live, we must reside in darkness, shrouded by blindfolds, tucked in dwellings behind blanketed windows. It is maddening to have our world reduced to so little.
So what are these creatures and do they know what they do to us?
After Malorie’s sister Shannon kills herself with a pair of scissors, Malorie is all alone. Some kook has been offering sanctuary at his house in newspaper ads when this manifestation first started to appear. Suddenly, with her changed circumstances, the kook becomes her best option.
The kook is dead, but the people he sheltered are still alive.
Tom and Jules are the alpha males who take chances, range the farthest away, blindfolded and with sticks to guide them, to find necessary supplies. Don is the weakest, the one that has found it hardest to adjust. He is also the most cynical.
”They’ll eventually get us, Don said. There’s no reason to think otherwise. It’s end times, people. And if it’s a matter of a creature our brains are incapable of comprehending, then we deserve it. I always assumed the end would come because of our own stupidity.”
For a few blissful months Malorie can feel reasonably safe nestled in the routine of this small group of survivors. Meanwhile her tummy is getting rounder.
Then Gary arrives. He whispers things to Don. Like any good charlatan he can pick the most vulnerable out of a crowd. He can sense their doubts before he ever hears them express them..
Gary thinks he is immune.
Which begs the question, if the bindings that keep our minds anchored in sanity have long been shorn away can the creatures do anymore damage?
There are two time lines at play in this book. One is during the few months when Malorie is with the sanctuary group. The other is four years later when she is raising two children that have never seen...well...anything beyond the cramped world of one house.
”The same colors. The same colors. The same colors for years. YEARS. Are you prepared? And what scares you more? The creatures or yourself, as the memories of a million sights and colors come flooding toward you? What scares you more?
Josh Malerman does a fantastic job building the suspense, allowing the tension to stretch nerves to the breaking point. Information is opaque. He doesn’t cheat and give the reader information before the characters figure something out. I kept thinking of the movie Monsters from 2010. There are monsters; and yet, we are not allowed to see them. We hear them. We see the reactions of the characters, and somehow the terror is more acute when our brain does not have a shape, an entity to project our fear onto. Our mounting terror is allowed to gallop unrestrained, and each of us conjures our own version of a terrifying specter.
”You add the details, she thinks. It’s your idea of what they look like, and details are added to a body and a shape that you have no concept of. To a face that might have no face at all.”
Malerman has created a dystopia that will play on all your fears and will stir up all your insecurities. You will question whether you can live in a world where one glimpse of a sun dappled street might cost you your life. Highly recommended for those that like books that will cost them some sleep.
As a companion volume read
Blindness by Jose Saramago
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit
http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:
https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten -
5/5 ⭐
Full review on my Blog:
The Dacian She-Wolf 🐺
This book, this fabulous book (that made me cover my windows with some thick curtains when outside is broad daylight and forced me to double-check my desire to leave the house and also my sanity) just had me hooked until the end. Bird Box, you did things to my brain I didn’t know something could do. Congrats, you little biscuit!
I am going to begin with a fact: this book scared the shit out of me sometimes. It is this kind of book that uses that extra-sensorial capacity of yours of feeling something creepy breathing down your neck. Hell, it is an apocalyptic dystopian book after all, what was I expecting? Nothing but the best, right?
The way the novel is composed is a bit frustrating, because, unlike other novels, the lack of details at the beginning is present throughout the narration, details being revealed later, as the plot moves on. The chapters are quite short (for which I am very grateful!) and succeed each other in a race of past and present, in a time interval of almost 5 years. It shows the evolution of the fate of humanity and also, an evolution of a particular person: Malorie.
“You are saving their lives for a life not worth living.”
The book is a mother’s destiny. It is every mother’s sacrifice for her children, pushed to the extreme, because, sometimes, being a mother means to make the deadliest sacrifices and to make the most dangerous decisions in order to keep your children safe. But, in an abnormal world, what would those sacrifices evolve into? How far must mothers like Malorie go?
Everything is constructed around Malorie’s destiny, past, present and future. Everything seems to concentrate on her like the Universe put its own faith on her shoulders. Malorie seems like is somehow "punished" to live in a world where you are warned about the danger, you know there is danger, but you are not able to see the danger. And this makes things difficult because the sight is the most dominant sense of a living creature, the one a living creature depends on the most. Without it, the adaption to life is just so much harder. Just think of a world in which you are constantly threatened and you have to learn how to defend yourself without seeing what you are fighting. Now, take that and add two four-year-olds. Do you know what does that equal? Even a more profound danger and fear than before. A desire to live, but also to die. And this is what Malorie has to face. To save herself and her two four-years-old children from something that they can’t name, but they know it is there. Survival, but next level.
“How can she expect her children to dream big as the stars if they can’t lift their heads to gaze upon them?”
How can a mother bear the feeling to desire to save her children when there is no desire for living in a wicked world like that? What kind of internal passion do you need to have to do that? What does it take to never give up hope? To still fight for something?
We will never know for sure, but we always must keep going. There will be always something to fight for. -
Close your eyes and imagine the basso sound of voiceover icon Don LaFontaine intoning, “In a world gone mad…” and that is pretty much where Bird Box begins. Open your eyes and go mad. Kill others, yourself. Can you keep from peeking? For how long? In Josh Malerman’s post-apocalyptic, eye-opening scare-scape, something happened. An invasion? Some natural phenomenon? No one is really certain. But what has become clear is that anyone who steps outside with their eyes open goes insane, not just gibbering or confused, but violently and destructively, homicidally mad.
From the film
In the near-future today of the story, Malorie is a young mother, with two small children in her charge. She has been training them for over four years, to hear, with a sensitivity and acuity more usually associated with flying mammals. They embark on a river journey to what she hopes is a safe haven, twenty miles away, blindfolded. Any noise could be someone, or something following them. She must rely on the skill she has rigorously drilled into the boy and girl every day to help guide them, and alert them to danger. And we must wonder if the destination she aims for will offer relief or some version of
Mistah Kurtz.
Chapters alternate, mostly, between the river journey and Malorie’s back story. We follow her from when The Problem began, seeing death and destruction in first a few isolated locations, then spreading everywhere, seeing loved ones succumb, then finding a place to live, a refuge, with others, and watch as they cope, or fail.
In horror stories, it helps to have an appealing hero. I am sure most of us have seen our share of splatter films in which the demise of each obnoxious teen is met with cheers rather than with dismay. The other sort is of the Wait until Dark variety, in which our heart goes out to the Audrey Hepburn character beset by dark forces. Bird Box is the latter type. Malorie is a very sympathetic character, an everywoman trying her best under ridiculous circumstances, more the Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) of Nightmare On Elm Street or the Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) of Halloween, than the Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) of Alien, but Malorie does what she must to survive and to prepare with patience and diligence to sally forth against the unknown.
Josh Malerman - image taken from
This Is Horror
Malerman was bitten by the horror bug as an early teen:My big introduction wasTwilight Zone: the Movie, the first horror movie I ever saw. After that came Saturday Shockers and sneaking in whatever I could at a friend’s house (Faces of Death, Psycho… Blacula…Prom Night.) I was also reading a lot. There’s a great period of horror fiction history, before the novel-boom of the 70’s spearheaded by Rosemary’s Baby, The Other, and The Exorcist, in which the short story ruled the genre. That period is golden and completely bursting with ideas. I read M.R. James, H.P. Lovecraft, Poe, Blackwood, Bierce, et al. When you first approach it, the genre, it feels infinite, but it’s not. So, come high school, I was trying to write my own scary stories, weird poems, strange tales. (from Detroit CBS Local news interview)
He likes to write with horror movie soundtracks on. And he is a musical sort as well, singing and playing in the band The High Strung. In fact, fans of Shameless, on Showtime, have already been exposed to Malerman’s work, as the writer and performer of that show’s theme song.
The dynamics of the house-full of refugees in the back story will feel familiar. Who to let in, or not, concerns over sharing limited resources, discussions over what adventuresome risks might or might not be worth taking re looking toward the future, or in trying to learn more about the cause of their situation. One might be forgiven for seeing here a societal microcosm, but I do not really think this was what Malerman was on about. He does offer a bit of a larger, thematic view though, tied to the central image of the book, which definitely adds to the heft of the story. A wondering at more existential questionsShe thinks of the house as one big box. She wants out of this box. Tom and Jules, outside, are still in this box. The entire globe is shut in. The world is confined to the same cardboard box that houses the birds outside. Malorie understands that Tom is looking for a way to open the lid. He’s looking for a way out. But she wonders if there’s not a second lid above this one, then a third above that.
You really want Malorie to reach safety with the children, but there is a gauntlet to be run, and there is no certainty that any of them will make it. The dangers are human, natural and eldritch, and I mean that in a very Lovecraftian way.
Boxed in, she thinks. Forever.
From the film
You will definitely not want to put Bird Box down once you pick it up. This is a very scary, and gripping novel. If you are reading on the train, you may miss your stop. If you are reading at bedtime, you will definitely miss a few winks, and might want to sleep with the lights on after you finish.I think some horror authors are trying to scare you, but with me, I’m as scared as the reader is of the story. I’ve always been that way, since watching the Twilight Zone movie — watching Firestarter when my parents were out, or sneaking out to watch A Nightmare on Elm Street at a friend’s house because I couldn’t watch it at my house. That makes you doubly scared — of the movie, and of the possibility of Mom finding out. (from Metrotimes interview)
A generic problem I have with the book is that the dark elements here sometimes tend to step back when they have decided advantages, failing to make the most (or worst as the case may be) of their positions. It was not obvious to me that there was some point being made by these unexpected choices. Nevertheless, Malerman takes the notion of the unseen and pushes readers to create the scariest thing of all, that which lurks in the imagination.
It is not at all dangerous to see how much fun this book is. Usually it is considered a good thing to think outside the box, but in this case it is clearly a far, far better thing that Malerman has done his thinking inside one.
The film, starring Sandra Bullock, was release on November 12, 2018
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Interviews
JM on
Huffington Post
Detroit CBL Local News
Metro Times
FB
The High Strung on
FB
July 23, 2020 - Crimereads - Nice, short piece by Malerman on the importance of scenario as at least equal to and maybe more important than character -
What We Relate To When We Relate to Books -
UPDATE: $2.99 Kindle US 10/26/20
Holy crap on a cracker, y'all! This book! Creepsville!! AND I LOVE IT!!
Don't freaking go outside without your blindfold or you might open your eyes.
I must say, if I had to choose what apocalypse I would be in, I would pick the zombies because at least you can go outside and see them and kill them. Unless you're blind and then your up sh•t creek.
One day they start getting reports of people seeing things and then turning violent and killing people and themselves. And of course you start thinking, wth?
Malorie was with her sister when these events started happening and she also found out she was pregnant. Oh happy day!
Malorie ends up with some people in a house and they only go outside when they need to look for more food. They make sure they are blindfolded and stuff. Sometimes when you're out there you feel something touch you. Or is that your imagination.
Then of course you freak out some more. People, I would never exist for more than a second in this world!
I liked some of the people Malorie was living with and they were doing okay, until . . . that one day they let the wrong person in. . . sigh. . . . . .
I mean you have a nice little set up with your dogs and birds and food and then, BAM! Anyhoo, none of that happens until later on during a very crazy night. That's all I'm saying.
Malorie lives in a house for 4 years. She raises children. Then what happens? Read the book and find out =)
MY BLOG:
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Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾 -
Hold on tight...this trip is going to blow your mind!
Horror is a genre that I normally avoid completely, but with the rave reviews from my GR friends for this book I felt I needed to step out and give it a try. And it was so incredibly good! Oh my God!
Malorie and her sister Shannon move in together in Detroit. Life immediately throws her a curve ball. Malorie learns she's pregnant from a brief encounter with someone she didn't know well, and thinks this is as bad as it gets. Not even close! Something is out there causing people from all over the world to take their own lives. One look at this unknown entity is all it takes. Soon the world around her goes silent. Has everyone succumbed to this strange phenomenon?
Malorie embarks on a journey to find a safe haven and any survivors.
What do you fear most, the known danger of man or the unknown?
Heart pounding, reading furiously.
This book actually scared the crap out of me! Yet like a moth to a flame I was drawn back. I was so engrossed in this book I barely took a breath, was completely caught up in the action. My husband sitting next to me quietly reading (a tame David Baldacci novel) suddenly sneezed! He spent the next few minutes peeling me off the ceiling fan!
I don't know if I have ever felt so spent at the end of a book. I just had to sit quietly and digest the whole thing. Absolutely speechless and exhausted. I recommend to anyone that enjoys a horror / post-apocalyptic book. Even if you have never tried one...venture out over the edge a little! I am so glad I did!
Blindfolds off…take a breath…it will be OK…wait!! Did you hear that??? -
But...but...what? No that can’t be the end. The disappointment is real.
"They'll eventually get us...there's no reason to think otherwise. It's end times, people. And if it's a matter of a creature our brains are incapable of comprehending, then we deserve it. I always assumed the end would come because of our own stupidity."
Ok then.... so this was going REALLY well! I was sufficiently creeped out. The world has gone bonkers due to something (no one knows what) that is causing people to go insane and kill other people and themselves. The only thing they know is that peoples minds' become unhinged when they SEE these things. So the world has gone into hiding. Everyone blocks up their windows and wears a blindfold if they have to go outside.
We follow Malorie, a mother with 2 children fleeing her home to find a safer place for her kids. We then also have flashback chapters to when she was pregnant, and living in a houseshare with 6 others.
My main problem lied with the ending. When it comes to thrillers I like everything ironed out, but with this ending So the whole end just left me deflated.
I know I'm in the minority here, and loads of people loved this book. It was a solid 4 star read up until that point so I'll give it 3.5.
"Man is the creature he fears."
*****************************************
Who decided that letting my scaredy cat ass get this out of the library was a good idea!?!?!
Wish me luck guys -
I made the mistake of watching the film first, but I still absolutely loved this book!
Bird Box follows Malorie and her two children as they try to survive in a world that has completely changed. Creatures roam the planet, but one look at them causes you to become incredibly violent.
This is one of the most unique concepts I’ve ever heard of and I absolutely love it. Malerman manages to transport the reader to a truly horrifying world, and really makes you question what you would do in the characters situation. I ended up really connecting to Tom and Jules, I loved their sacrifice and bravery for the greater good. I did struggle to connect with Malorie because of her brusque nature, but it was also necessary in order to protect herself and the children.
Although I was not scared by this novel (it seems it is quite a hard feat to be able to scare me) I was thoroughly engrossed in every page. The rising tension and short chapters kept me reading much longer than I should have been. What I did not expect, was the tears that came to my eyes in the last couple of chapters. I found myself feeling incredibly emotional and had to pop the book down so I could gather myself. I would recommend holding out on watching the movie adaptation until after you have read this as it did lessen one of the ‘twists’ for me. Overall, this is an incredibly engrossing and tense read that I will never forget!
I recommend this book to any fans of an apocalyptic thriller/horror. -
(3.5) I feel like this isn't the most popular opinion but I thought this was overall okay.
A great premise, I loved the flashbacks but I hate with a burning passion when things are left opened. If it's aliens, tell me and I'll love it. If you leave things unsaid, I'll assume you had no idea how to finish your book. The ending wasn't as shocking as others have said. Overall a bit underwhelming after seeing all the rave.
In light of the movie I thought I would update this review. The movie absolutely did justice to the book. In fact, I liked it more than the book. The flashbacks are terrifying and the present time scenes are much better.
I still think it's worth a read. I definitely could feel a sense of dread at times while reading it! -
I’m ###typing% this with a frigging scarf* over£ my eyEs, so pLease# forgive @any typos+
Please, please don't do what I did, my fellow bookaneers.
Do NOT watch the movie first.
This is a big mistake; one to be avoided at all costs.
The story began pulse-like. Staccato sentences that suited the stop/start tempo of a life lived in fear. Malerman's Morse code narrative drew me in from the start.
In an apocalyptic alternative reality, an abstract thing inhabits our planet; a demonic indescribable entity that, if gazed upon, will send a human to his or her death.
Malorie, our beleaguered heroine, has no option but to embark on a twenty-mile river trip to possible safety, blindfolded and in a small rowing boat. To make matters worse, she has two small children on board who are also blindfolded. The kids, used to living life under instruction, never complain. They just do what they're told. Kept in the dark for much of their young lives, the children's hearing is acute and so the river becomes their amphitheatre.
And this is where the book knocks spots off the movie. The book's raison d’être that humans must not see in order to survive is compromised in movie format because we, the viewer, can see, and so the fear of the unknown becomes diluted. Sound becomes so much a part of the book's DNA that I was almost listening to the pages!
Though not usually a lover of lean prose and meagre character development, this book kept me in its thrall. And hats off to the author for imagining such an original and terrifying premise.
Granted, it has its inconsistencies, but the story was fraught, sensory and claustrophobic. I applaud John Malerman for hitting the ground running with a nail-biting debut horror-thriller and I dearly wish I hadn't seen the movie first. -
4.4/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“It's better to face madness with a plan than to sit still and let it take you in pieces.”
The ultimate binge worthy experience. I read and listened to this whole thing from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m on a rainy non-work day. Yes, of course I couldn't sleep afterwards. And I fucking loved it. Let me guide you through my hefty experience with this book. There was a movie in 2018 called Bird Box. Very indie shit, no one knew about it, you know the jazz (yes if you haven't got it already, I'm being sarcastic). I was on a weird binge that year, to buy all books from tv shows and movies I liked in paperback media tie-in versions. I have a bunch of them, trying to get through them all after like... 2 years of owning them. You know how it is with finding good paperback books for like... 8 euros. Fucking world changing. I didn't like the movie a lot, and after a while in my mind it was just a meme, but i decided to pick it up out of curiosity. And I was hooked.
I truly believe my rating would have been higher, if I hadn't seen the movie first. I knew mostly everything that would happen. At first, I had forgotten about it completely and I was glad but you know this little annoying shit that happens where when you forget about something, a show or a movie or a book, and you deep your fingers into it again, you remember the most excruciating details about it? Yup. And I mostly love it when it happens, but right now not so much. So anyway.
It started a tiny bit slow. The first 100 pages where a process to get through. But then you start to get the groove, the characters. It picks up pace and then you just can't let it go. It's fast, it's scary, it's haunting, you FEEL like you're blindfolded like them and you can't see shit. The audiobook experience was amazing too, in that regard. There are some parts, especially during the end, where SO much shit is happening and having the speed to 2.5 and the woman speaking fast and fast and fast and everything was happening SO MUCH, I couldn't catch my breath. It was just so surreal and intense. I was there. Nothing else existed at that moment.
I adore dystopian novels. I love how prophetic they can be sometimes. But they also scare me. This book didn't scare me in the regard that this particular situation could happen in our world, but I was scared for the characters themselves. And I was terrified by the possibility that something similar to this, not so sci-fi but similar could happen at some point. Just fucking petrifying.
All in all, a very on-the-edge-of-your-seat, type of novel, with some interesting characters and some not and a very intriguing and haunting subject matter. Would totally recommend, if you don't want to sleep at night. I've heard there's gonna be a next book, gonna definitely buy this shit. So, for now K BYE! -
Sister Read Review by Norma & Brenda
Update: I watched the Netflix adaptation of this book and absolutely loved it but I was definitely more scared and creeped out while reading the book though.
Holy Shooty Balls this was one heck of a creepy book!
5 creeped out Stars for Norma & 4 freaking out Stars for Brenda!
So for the purpose of this Sister Read it gets a combined rating of 4.5 Stars!
BIRD BOX by JOSH MALERMAN is a wonderfully creepy, scary, eerie, and downright terrifying tale that grabbed our attention right from the very start to the heart-pounding finish. This book was extremely hard to put down!
BIRD BOX made us both feel fearful of the unknown and we could definitely feel the eerie presence of the mysterious creatures in all of the surroundings while we were totally engrossed in this novel. We couldn’t even imagine living and carrying on everyday life blindfolded or with our eyes closed.
To sum it all up it was an extremely entertaining, unsettling, interesting, and fast-paced read that left us both a little fearful of leaving the house without a blindfold. Highly recommend!!!
Review written and posted on our themed book blog Two Sisters Lost In A Coulee Reading.
https://twosisterslostinacoulee.com
Coulee: a term applied rather loosely to different landforms, all of which refer to a kind of valley. -
**Update: It's awesome to see the movie adaptation bring deserved attention to this book! I read it over a year ago and it hasn't left my mind since. Haven't seen the movie yet because I was scared they would ruin a masterpiece, but it sounds like Netflix did it justice. Here's my original review:
So glad to be recommended this book! Would never have picked it up otherwise. The cover art looks like a tacky mystery, but it's actually a character-driven horror story!
The fear of the unknown is ever-present and done better than perhaps I've ever read. Our most basic fears--darkness, of being watched, of monsters lurking--are amplified so well within the confines of this plot that it's hard to imagine them done any scarier. Nearly as creepy is the human component, man's own insanity under pressure. Lots of end-of-the-world books show us what insanity may befall society when all is lost, but this one does so in a more subtle way. For the most part it's optimistic, but again that impending doom is always looming over your shoulder. Great stuff all around! Check it out. -
Creepy, tense, scary! (The below lines are kind of spoilerish . . . but nothing the description on Goodreads doesn't already mention)
Unable to use your eyes for fear of madness . . .
Unseen and unknown terrors roaming outside . . .
Trapped inside with the windows covered . . .
The sanity of your companions in question . . .
Running out of supplies . . .
Seeking salvation, but not sure where to find it or who to trust . . .
Pregnant . . .
This was intense and a must read for horror and thriller fans everywhere. -
‘in a world where you cant open your eyes, isnt a blindfold all you could ever hope for?’
welcome to creepsville, usa
population: this book
boy, what a trip. although i wouldnt personally consider this a horror (only because it didnt scare me), it is definitely a spooky story. i really enjoyed the unique premise, the atmospheric writing, and how much it made me think.
but i thought the most compelling part of this story was actually malorie and her constant worry about her kids. sometimes it felt like her fear for her children was greater than her fear of the unknown creatures. not being a mother, i can only imagine the strength of those emotions she experienced for years.the regret and bitterness - ‘how can she expect her children to dream as big as the stars if they cant lift their heads to gaze upon them?’
the hopelessness - ‘she was saving their lives for a life not worth living.’
the trust and reliance - ‘your child is smarter than you think.’
i thought malories drive and motivation to survive for her children was the true highlight of the story.
my only complaint about this book is its a little too short for my liking. there is quite a lot left open to be explored, many questions which could use some answers, and there is definitely enough material to write a sequel. i doubt that will happen, but a girl can wish.
overall, this is a very chilling and frightfully entertaining story. guess its time to go watch the movie now!
↠ 4 stars -
2.5 stars.
I would not last in the apocalyptic world set out in this book. My dad used to say I had nose problems because let's face it. I have to know what's going on. Walking around for 4 years with a blindfold on every time I went outside? Yeah, dead in less than 60 seconds.
Not this kind of blindfolded either.
This book doesn't give the reader many answers. I do know what the author was going for. The whole scary in the mind of the reader thing. The thing is I need some answers. I get all antsy and shit if I don't have them.
I don't like thinking of things that I don't know what is sneaking up on me.
I did finish the book. I will give it that. The writing sometimes did make my teeth grate together though. I think this author likes the apostrophe more than I do..and I ain't an author.
Would I recommend this book? Who knows. Several people like it. -
Where the hell do I start with reviewing this book? Unlike nothing I've read in a long time this one is a stand out read like no other for me this year. I had wanted to read this for ages and so glad I finally did.
Emotions stirred reading this book I think covered them all, I noted how on edge I was constantly reading this novel. From early pages to the last I was fixated, addicted and full of tension, bordering on fear at times.
Something is out there, something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse of it, 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 remains, 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's 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. Something is following them all the while, but is it man, animal, or monster?
The book interweaves past and present and whilst both aspects are critical and important I have to admit to loving the "past" moments. The chill factor was high.
You cannot really say what this book is about which is why it's sheer genius. You don't know what they are all afraid of and fear of the unknown is often the worst type of fear at all.
What can lead human beings to cover their eyes permanently? What is it that people see that causes personal hell? Nobody can tell because if you see "it" you are no longer around to share what you saw.
Aspects of these book almost feel post-apocalyptic as survivors huddle together to try to survive. The dynamics between the survivors focused on in the book is brilliant and complex. Who do you trust? What would you do?
Scenes had my heart in my mouth, terror in my mind and tension in my body. It really was a book that genuinely scared me. Therefore I loved it! Brilliant and clever plot along with a mix if broken, damaged characters made for great reading.
But the main driver behind reading page after page?
Desperation to know what "it" was.
A truly stunning book in so many ways. How some rate this 1 or 2 stars stuns me. It really does. I can't recommend enough and I give it 5 big Booklover Catlady paw prints.
Don't uncover your eyes, no matter what you do, even better, get rid if your own eyes to be safe...
After you’ve read the book don’t miss the movie!
Thanks so much for reading my review! Join me as a friend or follower and feel free to browse my shelves for your next great book! Do share your comments on this book.
You will always get very honest reviews from me. Remember..a book a day keeps brain fog away.😻
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Jaw dropping, to say the least!!
A friend who I trust implicitly, recently listened to this book, loved it, and mentioned it was made into a movie. So of course, I had to give it a whirl and go in completely blind, pun completely intended.
The first few pages had me asking myself, “What the ‘CRAZY WHAT’ is going on here?” Believe me it got crazier, more intense and more chilling with each chapter.
The book itself has been out for a number of years, but as per usual, I was late to the party, but glad I finally read my first post-apocalyptic thriller. I don’t think my wimpy self could actually ‘listen’ to this, as it was shuddering enough to take it all in on the black and white pages.
...it’s better to face madness with a plan than to sit still and let it take you in pieces.
However, I do wish my main question was answered.
Talk about a nail biter. This author has quite the imagination!! -
The Written Review
Halloween is just around the corner and it's time for some spooky books - but which ones are worth your time? Check out this
BookTube Video for answers!
Oh man. Netflix did this book right.
Audiobook Comments
Read by Cassandra Campbell - and she did an amazing job with the tone and variation. She nailed the emotion/terror in the characters.Other Booktube videos featuring this one!
New week,
New BookTube Video - all about the best (and worst) literary apocalypses to live through!
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Amazing, Fantastic, Eerie, Atmospheric, chilling, engrossing....WOW!
Eerie, Atmospheric, chilling, engrossing. These are the words I would use to describe this book. For those who enjoy derie and dark books, this book will be a perfect fit. This is a horror type book but without the gore. There are some plot holes but you forgive the first time Author that for his originality and heart he put into this book. It's getting a lot of buzz right now and it deserves it. It's not for everyone but most people I know have loved it.
Something is out there. Something so terrible that once it is seen, it causes people to commit terrible acts of violence. What could be so bad? We never know as the Author never shows us the Monster(s) in this book. The horrible "Something" that is out there is never described. The reader just knows that it is so terrible it is causing those who see it to go insane. Survivors have to cover their eyes with blindfolds to protect themselves. They have to walk around blindly trying to find food and water. Malorie and her two young children are the main characters who are tying to survive in a horrible world. Through the storytelling we learn what Malorie is experiencing both before and after the children are born. When the children are old enough, Malorie decides to go down the river in search of others. Will they make it? Will they survive? Read and find out.
This is the perfect book to read on a dark night! Eerie and Dark.
Loved it!
See more of my reviews at
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Wow! Just wow! Bird Box was amazing! This definitely lived up to the hype that everyone spoke of. I highly recommend this book if you want your mind to be twisted and turned in ways you can't imagine. Creepy, terrifying, horrid, and downright scary! Loved it! Would make an interesting movie......
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Don't open your eyes warns the cover of the book, but instead I didn't close mine as I finished this treasure in one night. Bird Box is such an original premise and is written so very well, its author creates a world of people driven mad by what they see, so seeing itself becomes forbidden. I don't usually read horror, but I am glad I made an exception for this gift box.
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4.5 stars
Whoah. This is some really good shit. Color me very impressed. I'm not sure what I was expecting when I picked this one up, but it totally delivered on tension and suspense, a palpable dread, and a suffocating sense of doom.
Just as a launching off point I'm going to throw two pop culture references at you that I couldn't stop thinking about while reading this book. The first is the
music video "Just" by Radiohead. Remember that's the one where there's this guy who just lies down in the street for no apparent reason and when this other guy starts screaming for a reason why he's done this and when the man finally tells him, everyone who is in earshot lies down too, as if whatever he's said is just too huge and overwhelming for the mind to process that the only human response is to collapse.
The second reference I'm going to throw at you is a Twilight Zone episode from the '80s called
"Need to Know" where everyone starts going insane in this small town and it's eventually discovered that the source of the problem is not a physical disease, but an idea, a single short phrase, that is being passed from person to person by word of mouth. That horrible phrase is nothing more or less than the purpose and meaning of existence; the moral of the story being -- Knowledge we are not ready to receive will drive us mad.
I freaking love that Radiohead video and I was twelve years old when I saw that Twilight Zone episode and it scared the crap out of me (which is Trudi speak for I loved it). So in a lot of ways I was already primed to love this book where a mysterious pandemic plague is causing the "infected" to go on homicidal killing sprees before killing themselves. In the escalating chaos and confusion, the source of the infection is identified as having seen something the human mind cannot fathom, a creature that is so beyond our comprehension we are literally driven mad by it. But who is to know for sure, since no one has survived to confirm what it is that they saw.
Your only defence is to close your eyes, and keep them closed.
Humans hide in houses behind windows that are painted, covered with blankets or boarded up. They dare not venture outside for water or food unless they are blindfolded. If you thought surviving the end of days was tough with all of your faculties and sight, try doing it completely blind and feeling hunted and watched the entire time.
I love survival stories of all kinds: but an apocalypse scenario where the group must survive together is my favorite. And it's done so well here, I really can't stress that enough. The way the tension builds gradually as the unknowable threat outside the doors of the safe house becomes more menacing and tangible. How so much is implied rather than relying on big gushy scenes of gore and explicit violence. How the daily trek to the well blindfolded to get fresh water becomes an exercise in exquisite pulse-pounding suspense to unnerve the most steely-nerved of all readers.
Did you hear that? Sssshhhhh. I think it came from behind you. Whatever you do, don't open your eyes.
Readers who have a perpetual desire for answers and reasons may find the lack of explanation here troubling. I didn't. I was okay that we really don't know what the hell is going on and can only guess (and imagine our worst fears). If something like this ever goes down for real we'll be just as much in the dark as the characters in Bird Box discovering we are as much at the mercy of our ignorance and fear of the unknown as anything that may or may not be hunting us. -
Bird Box offers a well-known premise - the world as we know it suddenly coming to an end, and the few who survived trying to cope with the new reality - but with an interesting twist (certainly a desirable addition to the formula which, much as I enjoy it, is now beginning to resemble a really dead horse). This is both a good, and a bad thing - and the book is also both these things, as it began well but ended up being disappointing.
The hook of Bird Box is, like in much post-apocalyptic fiction, The Event: a phenomenon which single-handedly destroys the old world order, and usually also depopulates most of the planet*. A typical example of The Event is the Pandemic - such as the flu outbreak in
The Stand. The Cold War brough about the very real fear of a Nuclear Holocaust, when the possibility of nuclear powers annihilating one another and the world with them seemed very real. A great example of this is Nevil Shute'
On the Beach - a moving novel, set in Australia after the nuclear world war which destroyed the northern hemisphere, and where the protagonists can only wait for the cloud of nuclear dust to reach the southern hemisphere and claim them too.
There are other causes, of course, but these are easily the most popular.
*A relatively common variant of depopulation has most people not actually dying, but losing their humanity and turning into strange creatures hostile to humans. A classic example is the global pandemic turning all of humanity into vampires in Richard Matheson's great
I Am Legend, whose protagonist - Robert Neville - is literally the last (hu)man on earth.
Bird Box, although set in Michigan, begins with a series of events in eastern Russia - first reports of people inexplicably attacking others and murdering them, and taking their own lives afterwards. There seems to be no link between these events and people, except for one thing - all of them apparently saw something which affected them so badly that they completely lost their minds. Expectably, the phenomenon spreads across the Bering Strait and first reports from Alaska soon follow - and soon it's chaos and death everywhere.
We met the protagonist, Malorie, a young mother hiding with two small children in a house somewhere in the suburbs of Detroit. The children have never seen the outside world - Malorie has been training them for over four years to hear and understand many different sounds, and be able to orient themselves with only their hearing, because she will need their ears to help guide them all on a journey across the river, towards what she believes to be a safe haven. To survive they must tie blindfolds across their eyes and not look at the world, where something might be waiting - something which only a sight of is enough to drive a person to insanity and murder.
The novel alternates between the present day and Malorie leaving the house and rowing across the river, and flashback chapters which tell the story of how she came to be in the house with the children in the first place. She was pregnant when the chaos began to unfold, and through personal effort found solace with fellow survivors who barred their windows shut and covered them with carpets to block the insanity of the outside world. What follows is a typical societal microcosm - cabin fever, worry over dependence on shared resources, discussions on the nature of the horror. There's an existential question or two thrown into the mix, but it's all neither very deep or new - it's just another trope of this genre, its obligatory element.
I purposefully avoided reading anything about Bird Box prior to reading it, and while I appreciate the author's creative idea - being forced to retire your sight and have to move about a hostile world depending entirely on hearing, smell and touch is terrifying as we realize how we depend on one sense almost entirely on one sense and understand the feeling of being blind. The threat of a something so inexplicably horrifying that the mere sight of it is enough to turn anyone insane is reminiscent of Lovecraft and his creations. All the factors are there - so why the low rating?
To say it best, the novel simply didn't work for me as a novel. When I was a young boy I adored listening to radio theater - ofen when I was supposed to be asleep I'd smuggle my walkman in bed with me and put the earplugs in my ears, very late at night, to listen to the performance (to the big annoyance of my even younger brother, with whom I shared a room and who was just a kid who wanted to sleep). Being in the dark in a quiet house heightened my sense of hearing, and I could hear things I would otherwise be unable to notice. This is why I think Bird Box would be a much better audio experience - especially when created specifically as a dramatization, with all the proper sound effects in their place. I would love to listen to a project like this - close my eyes and stop seeing, be unnerved, frightened and shocked by what I only could hear. It was especially interesting to learn that the author is a musician, someone who deals with and specializes in sound - just think of the possibilities!
But this is obviously not the case, and as soon the novelty of the idea wore down, it became obvious that the book will not be a compelling study of fear and how it is manifested, but rather a pretty standard horror story depending on shock and plenty of "boo!" moments, when we're constantly going to be told how something unbearably scary is just around the corner. But this jack won't pop up from its box; while Lovecraft created an entire universe around his Elder Gods, the things which are happening in the book are purposefully left almost entirely to the reader's imagination. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but in a novel based largely on the build up of suspense I found it to not be acceptable. I didn't demand a revelation, but I could take a few gospels - something to give momentum to my imagination, to let it spin. What I got was an ending which was too neatly tied, too ideal,too perfect; it felt like a cop out, an anticlimatic cheat. Perhaps I've been reading too much Cormier?
To sum up - while Bird Box is a book which shows promise, it unfortunately falls squarely into the box of those which didn't deliver. It's not a bad book, certainly not bad for a debut, but it marks more of the same territory - and we've been there and we've seen it before. For an intriguing novel which features creative and original take on blindness and its impact on human personality, please do check out Rupert Thomson's great and underrated
The Insult - one of the eeriest and weirdest novels I've ever read, and one of my personal favorites. -
Wow, what a book! Seriously scary and creepy. You just have to keep reading to know how it ends. At least, I had to.... Who can think of such a story...
Suspension and creepiness from start to end, intriguing story. What's going on? What happened leading up to this situation? Will she and kids survive? .... Wew.... one h*ll of a story.
I say, this is also a seriously impressive case of woman power! Great, great, entertaining book.
AB: Looking back at my books in 2015, upgraded this one to five stars. Seriously, this book is a great read. Wew... creepy.. -
I am reading before I am watching this.
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4 Unsettling Stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟
don’t open your eyes!
What the **** did I just read? This book was NOT what I was expecting... at all! It was disturbing, creepy, and kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time.... just going to put it out there if I were in this situation, in this post apocalyptic world, I would so be gone in the first day.... just saying....
Something is out there, something that makes you go mad if you lay your eyes on it.... mad to the point you will kill others, yourself, or both.... mad to the point of no return.... so how do you survive? You board up your house with cardboard and cloth, you never go outside unless completely necessary, and then you wear a blindfold.... sounds fun, right? Oh yes and I forgot to mention sometimes when you’re outside you will feel or sense whatever is out there around you...... creepy!
Mallory the protagonist in this book was a quietly strong woman.... when things started going completely sideways not only did she find her way to a safe place, but she was also pregnant.... The story is told in alternating time periods... Mallory on a river trip trying to find her way to an even safer place... and Malory‘s backstory.... I have to give it to Mallory... not only did she have herself to take care of but two young children who she needed to train to escape and survive....
I’d recommend if you like postapocalyptic books, creepy books, or are just in the mood to be freaked out....
🎧🎧🎧5 huge stars for the audiobook narration by Cassandra Campbell... I absolutely 100% enjoyed this book more because of her fantastic narration, she made me feel as though I was there on that rowboat with her going down that river....
*** thank you so much to my amazing blog partner V, this is a Sunday Swap read and I probably would have never picked it up otherwise ***
📚🌹 find all my reviews on our lovely blog
https://audiokilledthebookmark.com/ -
After having this book so highly recommended to me by one of my friends on Goodreads, I decided to delve in to see what Josh Malerman might have to say in this twisted novel. Early into the story, Malerman introduces readers to his protagonist, Malorie, a young and somewhat fearful woman. Scrubbing the walls and carpets of blood stains, Malorie appears highly agitated and yet focussed on her task at hand, which serves only to up the ante of what is yet to come. The reader soon learns that something sinister is going on in the world; something that cannot be easily explained by anyone. It appears that out there, lurking in the open air, is something or some THINGS that will turn people mad simply by making eye contact. People are shut into their homes, covering windows and isolating themselves from the sights and sounds of the world beyond their doors. When venturing outside, blindfolds are used and aural stimulation becomes key. Malorie is set to challenge this world and after the death of her sister, answering the call in a newspaper, to find a group of people who are putting up a united front against whatever might be lurking. Arriving, Malorie makes the untimely admission that she is pregnant, wondering how she will raise a baby in these conditions and almost has herself ostracised before she enters the 'safe house'. As the group prepares to reach out with others in the world, everything around them is crumbling. Running water becomes more scarce, food is strictly found within one's pantries, and telephone lines begin to fizzle out. As the child inside her grows, Malorie encounters another woman who arrives at the safe house, also with child, and they work together to allay fears of the others that their offspring will not be detrimental to the greater whole, but a blessing. Trapped in their house as a bird might be in a cardboard box, Malorie and the others must find a way to subsist and not come into contact with the forces that could be anywhere at any given time. The narrative is interspersed with a 'flash-forward' of Malorie travelling in a boat with two small children who call her 'mommy', heading on an unknown adventure, though visual precautions are still high. What lies out there, in a world where a single twig cracking might mean imminent danger? Malerman offers readers little time to relax and ponder this, as things get more and more disturbing with each page-flip. A stellar piece that will keep readers up well into the night, for a multitude of reasons.
I'd not heard of this book before the other day, so when it received such hype, I had to see what Malerman might have done. The book reads very easily, though it is not 'simple', layering ideas and eerie thoughts between two time periods. Malorie is a well-developed character with complexities build into her backstory, as do some of the other characters that emerge as the story progresses. It is their individuality and the zig-zig pace of the narrative that gives this story some of its odd development, though one would be remiss not to think about the larger 'happenings' outside the four walls of the house. While there are some threads that remind me of Stephen King, more because of the odd way the characters act in the face of this unknown terror, Malerman stands firmly on his own two feet in his writing. Fair warning to the reader, once you start this book, you will find yourself enveloped in its progress and may find it hard to put it aside. It is that creepy that one must forge onwards, as Malorie and her children did in the boat, if only to see when and where terror might strike next. Beware and keep your eyes down, on the page (or the audiobook player, in my case) and do not interact with anyone until the final sentence. You'll be glad you followed this simple rule!
Kudos, Mr. Malerman for a stellar thriller. I will surely be putting this book out there for anyone who has an interest in the slightly (or extremely) eerie and psychologically stirring novel.
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Close your eyes. There’s something standing in front of you. Something so monstrous, and beyond human comprehension, that anyone who sees it goes insane and kills themselves and others. This is the new reality for a young mother, Malorie, and her two kids, as they navigate blindfolded down a river in an effort to reach what they hope will be a sanctuary. It’s part survival horror, and part scary as f*ck!
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Bird Box (Bird Box #1), Josh Malerman
Something is out there, something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse of it, 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 remains, 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's 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. Something is following them all the while, but is it man, animal, or monster?
Interweaving past and present, Bird Box is a snapshot of a world unraveled that will have you racing to the final page.
عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «کابوک (آشیانه مرغان)»؛ «جعبه ی پرنده»؛ «جعبه پرنده»؛ نویسنده: جاش مالرمن؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز هشتم ماه اکتبر سال2018میلادی
عنوان: کابوک (آشیانه مرغان)؛ نویسنده: جاش مالرمن؛ مترجم: دیاکو ابراهیمی؛ ویراستار نیما کهندانی؛ تهران: نشر باژ، سال1396؛ در390ص؛ شابک9786008939450؛ چاپ دوم سال1396؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده21م
عنوان: جعبهی پرنده؛ نویسنده: جاش ملرمن؛ مترجم: فاطمه جابیک؛ ویراستار: پوریا محمودی، از «ویراستارباشی»؛ تهران انتشارات میلکان، سال1398؛ در271ص؛ شابک9786008812494؛
عنوان: جعبه پرنده؛ نویسنده: جاش ملمر؛ مترجمها: نوگل رزاقی، شقایق داوطلب؛ ویراستار بابک حقایق؛ تهران آرشیو روز، سال1398؛ در280ص؛ شابک9786226877039؛.
داستانی آخر زمانی، که موجود، یا موجوداتی ماورائی، در کره ی زمین، نفوذ کرده اند، و هر کس به بیرون از محل زندگی خود نگاه کند، بلافاصله خودکشی میکند؛ در این میان عده ای بازمانده، برای زنده ماندن تلاش میکنند؛ مادر جوانی تلاش میکند تا دو فرزند خود را از راه رودخانه، به پناهگاه امنی برساند؛ این مادر به فرزندان خود آموخته، تا برای آگاهی از خطرات، از گوشهای خود به خوبی استفاده کنند؛ او چشمان خود و بچه هایش را با چشمبند هایی بسته است؛ داستان در آینده ای نزدیک رخ میدهد
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 10/07/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 17/02/1401هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
