Bird Box

I'm not sure if it was just through the writing or the voice of the narrator (Cassandra Campbell) of the audiobook I was listening to, but one of my favourite things about this book was the way it establishes a sort of dreary tone that hangs over the whole thing. The suspenseful moments work well and you can feel the discomfort and fear of the characters.

There are some weird story beats and expository details that took me a bit out of the book as I wondered if they really made any logical sense, but the story kind of innately has a built-in way to dismiss people acting in such ways. And there are some moments and decisions that really do land well.

Definitely enjoyed it overall, curious to see how Netflix managed to adapt it.

It's definitely scary to imagine it, but for some reason or may be due to too much hype, I haven't felt anything great about this.
But Kudos to author for trying this kind of subject!

Malerman mastered the atmosphere here and really had me nervous at times. I sort of wish there had been more of a conclusion, but I also believe that would've made this book lose rereadability for me. As it stands, I think I could reread it and still feel unnerved.

This has been on my TBR for a while but I was never in a hurry to get to it until I saw that the movie was being released on Netflix on the 21st of this month. I immediately looked on Scribd to see if it was available and luckily for me it was.

This book alternates between the past when everything is just starting to happen and to the present day which I think is 4 years later. Normally when I read books like this I struggle to keep up between all the switching back and forth but I didn't have that issue with this book.

Every review that I have read on this book says something along the lines of it being a scary book or creepy etc. Scary things usually don't scare me because they are so predictable and laughable but I totally get the creep factor with this. I mean imagine not being able to open your eyes for the simplest things. I think listening to the audiobook added to the creepiness and suspense of the story.

I think the author did an amazing job building the suspense of the story but I was left a little unsatisfied once I finished. I wanted to know more about the “creatures” that were causing all the trouble. There were several things left un answered which is why I couldn't give this 5 stars. If a sequel gets released I would definitely read it.

This is normally not a genre I'd read, but I first saw the preview for the movie on Netflix. Then my sister insisted that I read the book and I'm so glad I did. I love that the author didn't feel the need to explain the entire world or the creatures. He just created a creepy and character-driven story that kept me up all night until I finished the book. I love how simple the story from the river is told between the backstory, it keeps you hooked and curious until the very end. Overall I really enjoyed this one.

Ah, I really loved this. I mixed it up and did some on audio and read some (mostly because I didn't want to waste gas driving around listening to another chapter, lol).
I'm late to the game on this one and I couldn't help but compare it to A Quiet Place. There are a lot of parallels here: death caused by the use of a human trait (sight and making sound), children in peril, agonizing home births, and microphones and amplifiers. Good god, I will never forget that chapter in the bar.
There are some truly terrifying moments in this book. I couldn't put it down.
I was struck over and over again by Malorie's determination to live, the situation was so dire that I could understand people giving up hope.

This was an excellent read, and had me in total suspense the whole way through.

First, what I didn't like. I would have liked more development of the supporting characters, but I feel like this was sacrificed in the interest of pace, and it really was so perfectly paced so I can't complain too much. I think stopping to spend more time fleshing them out would have thrown the balance off, but it did leave my wanting more.

Next, one of the character's dialogue is written in a way that felt quite out of tone with the rest of the novel and came across almost cartoonish. But, so much else was happening that it didn't give me time to dwell on it, so it wasn't so bad.

Lastly for what I didn't like, the ending was a bit cumbersome to me. It was ultimately satisfying but awkward. It was like it needed to be either streamlined a bit or explored more. It seemed like the author wanted to introduce a few last ideas, which were definitely interesting, but we didn't get to explore them, and they felt a little dropped in your lap.

These are truly very small quibbles, because I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The author builds tension in such a perfect and careful way, and when things hit fever pitch, it just gets absolutely terrifying. The atmosphere of mystery and foreboding is expertly crafted and never lets up, pushing into overdrive in a few of the horrifying and ghoulish setpieces.

Switching back and forth between the past and present was a genius approach and serves to keep the reader guessing and at what Malorie has endured, and how she had ended up in the situation she finds herself in.

Malorie is beautifully and sparingly written. The author allows us to experience her fear, her anxiety, her pain, and vulnerability, but we never lose sense of her courage, her drive to survive and her fierce and protective nurturing for the children, even when it drives her to do things that seem brutal at first.

I thoroughly recommend this to anyone who's looking for a book with a tight, thrilling story, and a tight, foreboding atmosphere, and enjoy books that pose more questions than they answer.

I've seen quite a bit of mixed reviews with this one. So I was always curious what I was going to think of it. I really enjoyed it! I'm always a big fan of books/movies that know that the monster you can't see is more terrifying than the one you can. So a novel about a creature that drives you crazy if you look at it? Right up my alley! Only critique I felt about it was that it was too short, and the characters didn't feel fleshed out enough. Beyond that, I truly loved this book and will recommend it to many a horror fan!

''There are things out there that will hurt you.''

Even though thrillers aren't among my favourite reads, this one had all the right ingredients. A mix of Dystopian Fiction with a healthy dose of Paranormal and two extremely interesting main characters. It was creepy and fascinating.

News of a series of completely abnormal action begin to reach the USA. In a contemporary world, violent deaths start from an area in Russia and escalate, spreading everywhere. What is it that makes these deaths horrifying? They take place without a reason. Everyday people, citizens of quiet towns, people like us start attacking others and kill them in terrifying ways. They attack family and friends. They know no boundaries and then they kill themselves. And the explanation can be found in a source that is even more terrifying than the deaths. Something they saw turned ordinary people into vicious murderers. What is it? Nobody knows. Are they creatures? Is it a virus? No matter the cause, the result is a world that is now empty, devoid of life and time. Everything we've ever known falls into darkness because to open your eyes means death.

''The world, the outdoors, is being shut down.''

The story itself is the main reason I enjoyed Bird Box so much. Malorie, the main charcater, is a young mother of two unnamed children. They're just called Boy and Girl. They only know the house they were born into as their world. In this house, Malorie found a refuge four years ago, along with a few people who wanted to survive, each one having gone through a terrible loss. I don't know what kind of environment could be more claustrophobic and nerve-wrecking. Is there anything more valuable than our sight? Imagine a world where we are forbidden to look outside, to look at a fellow human being, our own family...In this house, the characters toy with their lives. Each day, each passing moment. It is a fight for everything. To bring water into the house, to make sure every possible opening is covered. There is fear and there are questions that can't be answered. And I couldn't help but anticipate danger from every person we met. When would madness strike?Who could possibly have the weakest composure to jeopardize everyone's survival?

One of the things that prevent me from appreciating thrillers is the lack of developed characters and the cliché  dialogue. This novel is different, in my opinion. Malorie is a really well-written character, one I could see as realistic and a leader, with her feet firmly on the ground. Her actions were fully justified. Everyone would have acted in the same way if we had been in her situation. I pray we never will....And Tom is a character I was interested in from his first appearance. Both the characters and the dialogue were really satisfying, in my opinion, and combined with the haunting prose they created an extremely memorable read.

I don't need to feel frightened in order to like a book. If the story is properly put together and the characters are interesting and as realistic as possible, I am satisfied. With Bird Box, I wasn't frightened per se but I felt anxious, nervous and, yes, there were a few moments when my blood froze a little. I found the concept creepy and the execution successful. You know there is danger out, in the open, but you don't know what it is. If you don't know what threatens you, how can you fight it? So, I don't think it can get scarier than that....

''And what scares you more? The creatures or yourself, as the memories of a million sights and colours come, flooding towards you? What scares you more?''

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com

I have been hearing great things about this book and decided to listen to the audio version. It did not disappoint. It was very creepy and atmospheric and gave me some Walking Dead vibes. I enjoyed the alternating storytelling between the past and the present as well as an ending that was more satisfying than I expected after reading other reviews. Highly recommend for lovers of suspense or horror.

While I found the prose and phraseology occasionally jarring, the premise of the story is a very interesting one and I think Malerman has done well to leave a lot to one's imagination - much like the characters you aren't given all the information and you end up wondering.

The main character, Malorie, I didn't engage with very well as you see so many different facets to her in such a short period of time it is difficult to latch on to just one. The character of Tom is only presented as one version of himself so he's a lot easier to engage with.

The story itself feels quite compact and short (regardless of page counts) and the frequent ‘chapter' breaks make it easy to read a little bit in short bursts. There are better composed novels admittedly; and this one is still worth reading. If you have a completionist mentality, it might nag at you all the things that are not answered in the book. That is the point, though.

Bird Box is like a classic zombie apocalypse story with an interesting twist: instead of monsters destroying the world, humans go mad and kill each other upon seeing something outside. The problem is, no one knows what it is that these people see, so the few survivors that are left shut themselves indoors and only travel outside with a blindfold.

It's a bit like A Quiet Place, but with a focus on sight instead of sound.

The story takes place in a suburban town in southeast Michigan, and most of this is set within the confines of a single house. As with many horror/suspense stories, the unknown parts of the setting are just as powerful as the known. There's an atmosphere of fear and dread throughout the entire story, even when there isn't much happening.

Malorie is just trying to survive and get her kids to safety. It's not easy raising children in a world where they can never look outside. Their entire world is limited to a single house, and Malorie has trained them since birth to have nearly superhuman hearing.

The story is split into two timelines. In the current timeline, Malorie is finally trying to escape her house to a better place. The only problem is that the better place is 20 miles downriver, and she has to navigate a post-apocalyptic world with her kids while blindfolded.

In the past timeline, Malorie learns she is pregnant just as news stories start to break about people going crazy and killing each other in horrific ways. She has to deal with the downfall of society and try to survive with the few sane people that remain.

Bird Box excels at creating a disturbing atmosphere. Every time someone has to go outside blind, even the most normal things are ominous. There's also some graphic and disturbing violence.

It's a little jarring when the narrative jumps back and forth in time, but this allows for certain plot points to be revealed in a more interesting way and maintains some mystery. Since many people go insane in this world, the nonlinear plot calls into question the sanity of the POV character at times.

You might enjoy this if you like your horror to focus on the unknown and the nature of human beings rather than the supernatural or high-intensity thrills. If you prefer a diverse and complex cast of characters, you might be disappointed. Malerman focused on nailing the atmosphere and tone of the book and only really fleshed out the main character and a couple of side characters. This is also not a book in which a lot happens, similar to scary movies where much of your fear comes from your own imagination.

Overall, this was a great book. I don't read much horror but I enjoyed this a lot. Even better, it was released as a Netflix movie starring Sandra Bullock in December 2018!

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Interesting concept executed pretty well, good atmosphere and writing. I don't have any major complaints, it just didn't blow me away. Pretty solid horror (ish?) novel.

An original, thrilling, and even, gasp, scary post-apocalyptic horror novel. It's rare for a book to keep me in its grip from the first chapter to the last.

Some months ago I listened to a half a dozen podcasts from the folks at BookRiot and after hearing them suggest this book three times, I added it to my maybe-list. And then I decided, what-the-hell, and snapped it up since it promised to be something weird and different. Well it sucked me right in. It was weird, different, creepy, suspenseful and awesome. People are seeing something outside that makes them either suicidal or homicidal and suicidal. And these things escalate until people are covering their windows and becoming shut-ins subsisting on hordes of canned food. If people dare to venture outside, they blindfold themselves. One young mother decides to venture 20 miles down a river with two four-year-old twins, all of them blindfolded. This story is told in simple language and sticks with you. I kinda loved it.

Josh Malerman is a master at creating tension. I have so many questions!

I am so conflicted about this book, so very conflicted. I am trying to read some more horror books, but apparently I'm way too picky and always find something I dislike. Almost always. This time it just lacked something. More of that later.

Malorie lives in a big house with her two children, Boy and Girl. They are 4, but never seen the outside world, but not because Malorie is some psycho. People who go outside with their eyes open will see things. We don't know what they are, but they make people go crazy, enough to make them murder and then kill themselves.
The story itself plays out in two different times; around the development of this problem, when Malorie finds a group of survivors to join and the present, with just her and her kids trying to find a new place, somewhere safer, with other humans around.

Don't get me wrong, I don't need a book to tell me everything, to explain all like I am a kid, but at the same time screw this for not explaining ANYTHING. Because newsflash, you will learn absolutely nothing about what the creatures are, what they want, how they ended up in our world, how they operate and WHY. Nothing.
Which makes the book end up being “Malorie is suffering, her life sucks, people die, so sad” and basically nothing else. Even the resolution is like a few pages long, doesn't solve the big problem and leaves you with a big “okay, but why??”.
I genuinely didn't expect big solutions. This is a short thing. I saw that. But frick, we spent pages discussing how the survivors went out to the well to get their water. Things like that, stuff not very interesting.
My issue is that I'm not sure even Mr. Malerman bothered to come up with any explanation or if he just went with something that sounded cool. Which is kinda sad, seriously. I am annoyed by authors not even bothering to build their worlds, because then I feel like I am expected to care more than they did about their own creation.

The characters are nothing special some people were kind of interesting and marginally likeable, but we are left with Malorie, who is nothing. I understand that the stress of surviving in such a very hostile environment is a pain, but it could have been embodied in some better what, I'm sure. I didn't like her, I didn't care about her too much.

Aaaaaand we reached a point where I do what I do best; find the issues in books. In the past timeline there is a dog called Victor. Malorie first mentions him in connection with how the kids frightened the dog with their loud playing, which is impossible. The dog wasn't around when the kids were old enough to play loudly, or to play in any way, actually. Why do I always notice these things?

Don't get me wrong, some parts of the book were pretty good, I liked the whole idea with not looking at the things or shit goes down, but it lacked any actual substance and I feel disappointed by that. I wanted to read something that goes over the practical survival and plays with some ideas in connection with the issue causing the whole dystopia. I got none of that.
(Actually, one of the many issues with The Hunger Games was this same thing; we are shown a situation that never gets a proper explanation and it makes the world unbelievable, because we know nothing about the process of its formation. Oh, well.)

Would I recommend it? Meh. Possibly. It wasn't offensively bad. Will I enthusiastically push it on everyone, even risking being super annoying? NOPE.

Goodbye and live with your eyes shut this time!

Creepy right from the start. I liked it!

There's more that I would have liked to know, but the book was creepy and held my interest right from page one.

This is one of those books that people say is so good, but you're incredibly doubtful because you never think the books everyone else likes are good.

But it was so good.

It's amazing how terrifying something is when you can't see it. I thought that this book would drive me crazy because how is anything interesting when you can't see? But oh, it was so much better than that. It reminds me of the really great old horror movies that never actually show the monster. Your imagination is much worse than what the author can provide for you.

For me, this is a rare one that lived up to my expectations.

It was pretty awesome. Suspenseful and thrilling. Keeps you guessing even at the ending. Hopefully they put out the film soon.

La premisa que plantea este libro me fascinó desde el minuto uno y ha superado mis expectativas.
El hecho que el apocalipsis de la sociedad venga de mano de unas criaturas que hacen que la gente enloquezca solo con verlos, provocando que los supervivientes tengan que salir al mundo exterior con los ojos cerrados, a ciegas para sobrevivir, me parece original e innovador.
Además el autor consigue transmitir perfectamente la angustiosa sensación de no ver, la vulnerabilidad al entorno y la dependencia del resto de los sentidos, los cuales están mucho menos desarrollados que la vista.

Como me pasa en todas las películas y libros que tratan algún tipo de post-apocalipsis, me ha encantado la evolución y los cambios en los seres humanos, como pasan de ser personas “normales” a transformarse en seres fríos que dejan atrás los escrúpulos y los principios, estando dispuestos a todo con tal de seguir viviendo.
Me hubiera gustado que se hubiese extendido un poco más este aspecto, aunque estoy bastante satisfecha.

El ritmo de la novela es trepidante por lo que se lee enseguida, para mi gusto se hace demasiado corta, ya que hubiera sido interesante que se desarrollasen algunos temas. Por este motivo no se lleva las 5 estrellas (pero vamos que un 4,5/5 no está nada mal).

Lo recomiendo a todo al que le gusten las historias sobre el fin de la sociedad y el comportamiento humano cuando se le lleva al límite (y además le guste sufrir un poco).

2.5 really.

The unsettling tension created in the first 1/3 of the book rather dissipated thereafter, for me, and the end was relief from a touch of boredom not suspense.

The only reason I didn't read it in one sitting is that right in the middle of it, it was dinner time and my husband and kids frown on seeing me take a book to the table ;o)

Really 3.5

Incredible! It's been a long long time since I devoured a book as much as “Bird Box”. I couldn't put it down. I won't give too much away, because I think everyone should get into this without reading too much about it beforehand.

“Bird Box” creeped me out more than any other book so far. It's the combination of hopelessness and emptiness with the ever present danger waiting for you to lower your guard and make one small mistake. Just as the characters in the book, you never know what the danger is, but you sure as hell know there has to be something because people die horribly. So you'll have to barricade yourself, you have to put on a blindfold, and you have to try to leave the house as little as possible. But in the same time you want to fight it, you want to try and make sense of it, all while keeping your eyes closed.

And this abundance of sight that Josh Malerman introduces, is an incredible medium of horror. Every moment outside the house, from small visits to the well, to the incredible voyage on the river is pure terror. Outside of your blindfold is the beautiful world with its vibrant colors that you haven't experienced for years. But you know that it's empty of most human life. But there has to be something with you, because you can hear it...

The story follows a handful of survivors as they barricade themselves in a house and try to cope with their losses and the hopelessness of the future. The characters are strong and you can feel the heavy burden on all of their shoulders.

It all feels realistic. You can easily believe that it would all play out like this, in such a scenario. Hope, love, hate, distrust, anger...

For me one of the best books I've read in years.