Title: Bird Box
My
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
“How can she expect her children to dream as big as the
stars if they can't lift their heads to gaze upon them?”
Book Description (Goodreads):
Something is out there, something terrifying that must not
be seen. One glimpse of it, 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 remains, 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. Now that the boy and girl are four, it's time to go, 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. Something is following them all the while, but is it man, animal, or monster?
Five years after it began, a handful of scattered survivors remains, 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. Now that the boy and girl are four, it's time to go, 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. Something is following them all the while, but is it man, animal, or monster?
My musings:
Wow – what an utterly compelling and at the same time terrifying
read! After shouting out on social media for recommendations from readers for a
good “creepy” book, Bird Box by Josh Malerman kept popping up everywhere, and I
can see why. I am so glad that I read it, and a big thank you to everyone who
recommended it to me.
Told in a dual timeframe, Bird Box tells the story of
Malorie and her two young children, who are prisoners in their own home to stay
safe from a terrifying presence outside which sends you crazy and kills you if
you as much as lay eyes on it. To protect themselves, they must wear a
blindfold at all times, navigating the hostile world they live in totally
blind, knowing that there is an evil presence out there wishing them harm. As
Malorie reflects on the time leading up to her present predicament, the reader
slowly finds out how the world ended up being such a dangerous, hostile place
for humans. With a constant thread of tension and danger lurking in the
background, the book held many absolutely bone chilling moments that made my
heart pound and my hair stand on end.
Bird Box is one of the most original stories I have read in
a long time, and whilst I am normally not a huge fan of dystopian horror, this
one had me captivated from page 1. I couldn’t put it down, and read it in one
massive four hour read-a-thon, despite getting in trouble with my family for
being totally unsociable. The thought of living in a dangerous world without
the benefit of sight to navigate me whilst carrying out chores to ensure my
daily survival was so terrifying that a sense of dread prevailed long after I
had turned the final page. Rarely does a book leave such a lasting impression
on me – I even dreamt about it that night!
Seeing that I don’t want to give any spoilers, I will just
leave it at: if you want an original and creepy book, Bird Box is a must-read!
Whilst I find many dystopian books either too depressing or too unbelievable,
Bird Box struck exactly the right balance to sneak its way into my psyche and
haunt me with its utterly terrifying premise. I also loved the way the author
did not have to resort to blood, guts and gore to get the heart pounding – the power
of the book really lies in the reader’s own imagination. Two days after reading
it I still marvel at the miracle of sight – the blue skies, the green grass –
knowing that I couldn’t survive without it. A brilliant book, very highly
recommended!
You may also enjoy:
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
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