Bird Box: The Inspiration for the Film, a Gripping Post-Apocalyptic Thriller with a Heart-Pounding Twist
“[A] chilling debut . . . Malerman . . keeps us tinglingly on edge with his cool, merciless storytelling. . . . This earns comparisons to Hitchcock’s The Birds, as well as the finer efforts of Stephen King and cult sci-fi fantasist Jonathan Carroll.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Written with the narrative tension of The Road and the exquisite terror of classic Stephen King, Bird Box is a propulsive, edge-of-your-seat psychological horror thriller, set in an apocalyptic near-future where an unimaginable, incomprehensible, and invisible foe lurks in the shadows—now available as a Harper Perennial Olive Edition
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. 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 of survival—a trip that takes her into an unseen world and back into the past, to the companions who once saved her. Malerman’s breathtaking debut novel is a horrific and gripping snapshot of a world unraveled that will have you racing to the final page.
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Readers say *Bird Box* delivers a gripping, tension-filled story that expertly captures fear of the unknown without relying on gore or jump scares. Ma...
With this one I found myself sayig, “But that is not how it happened in the movie!” in the best possible way. While the plot of the story and many of the characters were of the same nature, the book just added more details as usual. It was nice to see more depth to the characters where the reader got to know them as well as they got to know the main character, Malorie. The author also switched between Malorie’s time in the house with her “housemates” as well as her time on the river with “Boy” and “Girl” whereas in the movie it went straight through if I’m remembering correctly. I felt this added depth as well and kept the reader interested instead of just one long mundane story of strangers being brought together in an attempt of survival from something that cannot be seen or you otherwise go “mad.”
I rated “Bird Box” four out of five because while I enjoyed the story line and movement of the plot, there were a few chapters where I had to figure out WHO was speaking. The author threw in a couple chapters where someone other than Malorie was telling the story, and while I understand WHY those parts were important, it would have been nice to have a header or indicator that another character was speaking so the reader didn’t have to figure out while Malorie was doing what she was doing when it really wasn’t her at all.
All in all I will be reading the sequel once I read one other book I have queued for the month of February!
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