📑 Review: Bird Box by Josh Malerman

What if, in order to survive, you have to isolate yourself completely in darkness. What are the chances of you going mad before you end up surviving (that is if you make it). How far would you go to survive, what if there is more at stake than you could have ever imagined. Now, to make matters even more complicated, add a few more innocent lives and characters that you care about. BAM! You’ve got Bird box.

Now naturally when any chaotic event sweeps over a nation or country, you observe the news channels and notice that people go mad, whether you want to call it mental degeneration or just sheer panic. Human beings have proven (through pop culture and on the news) that no matter what horrors we can witness, it is always people that are unpredictable and that idea within itself, is scary.

This novel brushes on some of that insanity, and the will to survive and overcome this unseen threat that lurks in the daylight, and forces our characters into the darkness. The simple idea of going against our natural habits, and adapting to new ways in order to live is interesting at first, but as time goes by, you begin to notice how this ability that was impressive at a point, slowly takes its toll on the characters in the story, and just how long will they be able to take it.

The writer, Josh Malerman, created an amalgamation of Stephen King’s the Mist, M. Night Shaymalan’s film the Happening (2008) and Matt Reeve’s Cloverfield (2008), and Supernatural’s Croatoan virus.

So in order to keep this spoiler free and brief, in short: This is Malorie's story and it is told from three points in time: life before the event, after the event, and her attempt to escape and survive the trip to a safe haven.

Malerman successfully puts you on the edge of your seat, but the whole time I kept thinking alright the end is nigh and that we were in the middle of it, but I need more. I felt that the writing could have been better, descriptions and further use of vocabulary would have painted a more horrific picture for a world that seems so bleak and hopeless.

Nevertheless, it is an interesting take on a fast paced, action packed premise. Some might call it a story of survival, but I felt let down. Getting to the safe house, now that was an adventure that kept me on the edge of my seat, but still.. the end didn't completely satisfy me and there were many questions left unanswered.