Bird Box: A Novel Kindle Edition

I felt the book answered questions and gave me more questions. The Netflix movie did a fair job at reproducing this book. Highly recommend Book then Movie.

Bird Box by John Malerman is absolutely one of the most tensely claustrophobic horror novels I've ever read. Some horror is based on fear of things you see. And some horror is based on fear of things you don't see. Bird Box has a different kind of horror going on - a fear of things that you must not see.Malorie lives in rural Michigan, in a run-down house with two small children. The three of them have not seen or spoken to another human being in four years. All of the windows and doors have been carefully covered over with blankets, tape, paper, tarps, anything to prevent any possibility of ever glimpsing anything outside the house, even by accident. When Malorie has to go outside, she wears a blindfold tied tightly in place. The children sleep with blindfolds in carefully covered pens. Because there are _things_ out there, and to see them, even for a second, means madness and painful torturous death. But the day has come when Malorie and the two children must leave the house, feel their way to a boat on the river, and then blindly make their way down the river, in the hope that maybe, just maybe, there's a place of safety that still exists in the world.The chapters alternate, sometimes in the present, more often in the past as we learn about the events of the preceding five years that led to Malorie's current situation. A lot of what makes Bird Box work is the atmosphere Malerman creates for the reader where he immerses you into a world where there's something out there, something that if seen, even by accident, even for a second, results in murderous insanity and death. Something that no one knows what it looks like because no one who sees it, even indirectly, survives intact to describe it. And you can feel Malorie's mounting apprehension early on in flashbacks as the outside world grows more and more ominous:"It is six months before the children are born. Malorie is showing. Blankets cover every window in the house. The front door is never left unlocked and never left open. Reports of unexplainable events have been surfacing with an alarming frequency. What was once breaking news twice a week now develops every day. Government officials are interviewed on television. Stories from as far east as Maine, as far south as Florida, have both sisters now taking precautions. Shannon, who visits dozens of blogs daily, fears a mishmash of ideas, a little bit of everything she reads. Malorie doesn't know what to believe. New stories appear hourly online. It's the only thing anybody talks about on social media and it's the only topic on the news pages. New websites are devoted entirely to the evolution of information on the subject. One site features only a global map, with small red faces placed upon the cities in which something occurred. Last time Malorie checked, there were more than three hundred faces. Online, they are calling it 'the Problem.' There exists the widespread communal belief that whatever 'the Problem' is, it definitely begins when a person _sees_ something.-- Malorie resisted believing it as long as she could. The sisters argued constantly, Malorie citing the pages the derided mass hysteria, Shannon citing everything else. But soon Malorie had to relent, when the pages she frequented began to run stories about their own loved ones, and the authors of these pages stepped forward to admit some concern.-- Cracks, Malorie thought then. Showing even in the skeptics.-- Days passed in which Malorie experienced a sort of double life. Neither sister left the house anymore. Both made sure the windows were covered. They watched CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News until they physically couldn't watch the same stories repeating themselves. And while Shannon grew more serious, and even grave, Malorie held on toe a pinch of hope that this would all simply go away.-- But it didn't. And it got worse.-- Three months into living like shut-ins, Malorie and Shannon's worse fears came true when their parents stopped answering their phone. They didn't answer e-mails either.-- Malorie wanted to drive north to the Upper Peninsula. But Shannon refused.-- "We're just going to have to hope they're being safe, Malorie. We're going to have to hope their phone was shut off. Driving anywhere right now would be dumb. Even to the store, and driving nine hours would be suicide."-- 'The Problem' always resulted in suicide. Fox News had reported the word so often that they were now using synonyms. 'Self-destruction.' 'Self-immolation.' 'Hari-Kari.' One anchorman described it as 'personal erasing,' a phrase that did not catch on. Instructions from the government were reprinted on the screen. A national curfew was mandated. People were advised to lock their doors, cover their windows, and, above all, not to look outside. On the radio, music was replaced entirely with discussions.-- A blackout, Malorie thinks. The world, the outdoors, is being shut down."What's even more remarkable about Bird Box is that it's Malerman's first novel. It was nominated this year for the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel, a nomination that was well deserved.Highly, highly recommended for anyone who enjoys a novel that will literally make you afraid to look up or turn around.

Although I’m not a big fan of “dystopian world” stories, this one was not bad at all. I give it 3.5 Stars, rounded up to 4 Stars for GR rating purposes.SUMMARYMalorie and her sister have just moved into a house in a Detroit suburb together and are ready to begin adulting. Soon after the move, Malorie discovers she is pregnant from a one night stand. Then a rash of crazy violent suicides starts spreading across the world. No one knows exactly how it’s happening, but it is believed there is some sort of creature that looks a person in the eye and that person becomes immediately suicidal. People stop leaving their houses. Society breaks down. People nail layers of blankets up over their windows, leave the house wearing blindfolds to scavenge for food. Pretty soon there is no TV, lots of people are without phones and electricity. One day pregnant Malorie wakes up to find her sister dead and she sets out to find a group home she read about. Can she find them without coming face to face with the monster? Can she survive this new horrible world? Is it worth surviving?WHAT I LOVEDAlthough this is not my typical genre, I found myself getting sucked in, caring deeply about the survival of Malorie and her children. The story was well written, suspenseful and while it sounds pretty unbelievable, it was believable.WHAT I DIDN’T LOVEIt’s just not really my kind of book. I find this genre kind of depressing and stressful to read.OVERALLI don’t seek dystopian society books out but this one was a gift. I don’t regret reading it, I did like it, but most likely won’t read the next in the series even though I am a little curious about Malorie’s life moving forward.

Super thrilling and well written.

[lu en anglais] j'étais sceptique au départ vu tout le tintouin fait autour du film de Netflix et je ne m'attendais pas à grand chose.En vérité ce premier roman de Malerman est remarquablement bien écrit avec une plume minimaliste qui rend l'ambiance encore plus angoissante. Ça faisait longtemps que je n'avais pas été aussi éprouvée pendant une lecture.Le film par contre ne vaut pas grand chose puisque le fait de voir est totalement contradictoire avec ce qui fait la terreur de ce livre.

Hay algo allá afuera; si lo ves, mueres. Ya no puedes usar la vista! ya eso es suficiente terror si eres de los que hasta lavarte la cara te da miedo por los segundos en que no puedes abrir los ojos.

The book was delivered fast and in great quality. My friend encouraged me to read it, saying it was better then the movie. I hope so.

The most claustrophobic and suspensful novel I've read in a long, long time. It will tear your heart out and leave you breathless with its profound humanity and relentless pace. Not only a real page-turner but a passionate and compassionate tale. A tremendous achievement.