Malorie

Honestly this might not deserve this high a rating because it is worse than Birdbox and at times the prose is leaning in too hard to Malorie's nonsense but I still couldn't put it down, so here we are. There weren't moments that took my breath away, but some of the twists were unexpected in a fun way.
Ending was kind of anticlimactic but I wasn't sure if I felt that fit, thematically; at the time I read it I really messed with it, but now, a tad removed, I feel like it didn't land right.

1: Bird Box ★★★★★
#2: Malorie ★★.5

Bird Box was a 5-star read for me, but Malorie didn't really live up to that. to be fair, this was incredibly readable and i got through it in just a day. the story itself felt repetitive and the ending was way too tidy. i had an inkling that this might just be a cash grab of sorts and my reading experienced really reinforced that. the weirdest part was Malerman's afterword/acknowledgements section where he goes on for paragraphs about how he's a ‘Prolific' which just means that he writes constantly and doesn't edit. idk.

Hmm, this was good but I don't feel it lived up to its predecessor. There were some cool reveals and worldbuilding, and some terrifying set pieces that really built some tension, but it fell a little flat for me. I also felt the ending fizzled out a bit. Malerman is still a fantastic writer, and I still think this is a compelling world, it just didn't work for me as much this time around. 3 blind trains out of 5.

I enjoyed Bird Box a lot more. this one was soooo slow paced. it got so much better near the end

I enjoyed it. We really don't get any answers as to what these things are. But, she has become extremely protective of Tom and Olympia. But, I did enjoy being back in her world for a bit.

Mean mom is still mean and even more annoying

HOLY SHIT!!!!!!! That was a FANTASTIC sequel to Bird Box!!!!!!! I will admit that for the Majority of the book, I really hated Malorie as a character, her choices and the way she treated her kids Pissed me off. However, she did Slightly (only slightly) redeem herself by the end!!! I absolutely ADORED Olympia though, and Loved hearing more about her!!!!! Overall I really REALLY liked this, this is still one of the best horror plots I've ever read!!!!!!

Note: spoilers for Birdbox

What I loved so much about Birdbox was that out encompassed everything I like about horror. So much is unknown. We don't know what they are, how many of them there are, why they are here, where they came from, what are their motivations, do they even notice us or are we as inconsequential as a small ant on the wall? All that is known is that looking at them will cause you to go violently insane. That in my mind is horror. The mind goes wild imagining the possibilities, terror building at every second.

And, in the end, it ended like a good horror book should end. Perhaps safety, but no answers. If you've got answers, you lose so much of the terror.

This book, while good, was missing some of the magic of the first.

Olympia being immune seemed too convenient. Tom's mirrored glasses took away too much of the unknown. And the known just doesn't hold the same terror.

So yeah, I was a little disappointed. However the scene in the pit was downright excellent. I would be tempted to rate this as 3 stars, but that one scene brings it back to 4.

DNF at about one third of the way in.
Malorie and her kids have to escape the school for the blind and then they spend a good decade in a former summer camp doing not much, until one day a man shows up. He is supposedly a census man, leaves them a book with a bunch of information about other survivors and the things they tried to do to get an explanation to the creatures and to adjust to a new life. This makes the characters want to move, to get to the supposed new civilisation and to see what is going on there.

I don't like Malerman's writing. I didn't like The Bird Box and I don't like this thing. There is nothing satisfying about him going on and on about random things, about what Malorie feels again and again without a conclusion. Without anything every being found out. Just cluelessly wandering around, being scared and being volatile. It feels like this whole thing leads nowhere and we will have another meaningless chapter where the characters go to a freaking well for water and putting on protective gear.
It's trying to be very artistic. It says random things that are supposed to feel like you can connect to the characters and events intimately, while to me they were more like random, useless pieces of information that lead nowhere. Malorie and her sister snuck into an adult movie and her sister fell asleep. That's cool and all, but it says nothing that would add to the development of the story, just Malorie thinking of useless junk.

Tom is the only character who actually wants to be proactive, who wants to develop and do things and Malorie just tells him no. Again, I am sure this was meant to be poignant in some way, but to me it felt frustrating. I'm sure someone will come and explain to me I just don't understand the intricate, deep things about this. But to hell with that, I am not going to try and rationalise the supposed greatness of a book that annoys me and doesn't give me a pleasant reading experience.

I'm admittedly not the hugest horror fan. What I like is building pressure and some sort of a catharsis at the end when either a satisfying conclusion happens or... shit just goes off the rails completely. These books have nothing like that, it just feels like it's slow and dragging and then by the end I want it to end, not because I care all that much, but because I still hope something will be resolved, when it doesn't happen.
It's frustrating, more than anything.

I personally wouldn't recommend these books. I have no clue why they became such hyped things, because I don't find the ideas unique, nor was the way they were handled. I guess they are short and easy to read? I don't know, I don't care at this point.
Doubtful that I will ever feel like reading anything other than this from the author, he is just not to my taste.

Because Tom has been looking for a reason to leave this cabin since the moment she said they wouldn't be leaving it anymore. Because Tom is at that damnable age where he believes he must resist every f*cking thing his mother tells him.

do you really want me to believe only a 16-year old boy thought of an invention that would help the see the creature without going mad?

It's fine. It's fast. But it didn't have the disturbing beautiful magic of it's predecessor. It was, honestly, unnecessary.

Edit: Actually, I just finished telling my wife about it, literally fine minutes after I was done, and I have to take away a start. The more I discussed it, the worse it got. Just nonsense. And so anticlimactic. And Gary? Really? That was so absurd. His acknowledgements were written with more thought than the book.

4.5✨ my full thoughts can be found in this reading vlog https://youtu.be/O1cBuAoUMS0

Birdbox was amazing. The sequel was almost as good.

The horrors were more psychological in this one, and you get to deal with the added bonus that is teen angst and anxious parenting (both with good reason). This diluted the experience quite a bit for me as it made it more of a YA novel than a thriller.

The book tied up the teen angst sufficiently well but it left me aching for the mother (and the kids) for what she put herself through and what she had to put the kids through. But she helped them survive all those years so maybe it was all worth it.

Turns out insanity is not just something the insane undergo. It might very well be a human trait.

(Not in the literal sense, please put down your pitchforks).

*4.5 stars. After reading Bird Box long before the great Netflix adaptation, I was an instant Malerman fan. The story was unique, the fear and sense of claustrophobia exceptional, and the characters well drawn. For the most part, his following novels disappointed. Great premises but they were missing that magic. Malorie represents Malerman's return to that magic, revisiting his incredible female lead in what is a study in mental strength, madness, deprivation and the will to survive and protect those you love. A few minor hang ups kept me from a full-fledged 5 stars, including a little too much repetition outside of the necessary repetition of a mind trapped in it. Otherwise, I was turning pages as quickly as I could. It also bears mentioning that the parallels to the global pandemic we are all facing were not lost on me and seemed to capture the same choices facing the world's population today, of course, crafted before COVID-19 was something to consider. Well done, Josh Malerman.

I have a few mixed feelings after finishing up the book. I enjoyed the opening but the journey seemed to fizzle quite a bit after the first few chapters. The plot device used to move the story along felt tired and the rush of excitement on what the world promised ahead was not that releavatory in the end. You always want more of what the original offers much like your favorite movies but this feels less original and more like fluff. Walking dead was interesting in the beginning but became much to repetitive. I fear that this story is going down that same path. It feels like it was written by committee. Less about fleshing out the original and more about call backs.