Book Review: Bird Box

BIRD BOX | Josh Malerman
03.01.2014 | Ecco
Rating: 5/5 stars

Five years ago something started happening. People were seeing things. Things that caused them to go mad. Things that drove them to violence and suicide. No one knows what this thing is. No one has lived to tell the tale of what it looks like. No one knows where it came from.

It’s better to face madness with a plan than to sit still and let it take you in pieces.

Malorie and her two young children are amongst the survivors scattered across the world. They’re living in an abandoned house that holds many memories for Malorie. Memories of time spent with other survivors. Memories that have taught her how to stay alive. Now that the children are four, they need to move on. They can’t stay in this house. Malorie has a destination, but it’s going to require unbelievable feats to make it there. Malorie and her young children must make it to the river behind their home and travel twenty miles downriver in a row boat completely blindfolded. The children have never seen the world and Malorie has trained them to have exemplary hearing abilities, but will this be enough to get them safely to the destination?

In a world where you can’t open your eyes, isn’t a blindfold all you could hope for?

BIRD BOX is an epic, terrifying, and suspense-filled horror thriller. Malerman expertly intertwines chapters of Malorie’s present day and the look back on her journey to get here. The pace of these chapters is quick and each one seems to end at the height of suspense, which naturally means you have to keep reading! The character of Malorie is at the center of this story and she is easily one of the most relatable characters I’ve recently read about. The dystopian, post-apocalyptic setting Malerman has created is one that I struggled so hard to envision myself as a part of, but with the help of Malorie, who is an ordinary woman, I was able to relate to the decisions she made, the fears she had, and the actions she ultimately ended up taking. I loved everything about this novel! At the end of the day, my only complaint is that I didn’t want this book to end. I’m thrilled that BIRD BOX is being adapted into a movie and while I wait I’ll be recommending this book to everyone!