(Review) Bird Box – Josh Malerman 🎃

This, this, this book impressed me. It’s the kind of book that makes you afraid of something completely normal to you. It’s the kind of book that changes you, the way you think. It’s one of those books that deal with such an interesting topic that you would’ve loved to come up with that yourself. I tremendously enjoyed this novel and I will definitely read another Josh Malerman book soon. You can quote me on that.

BIRD BOX has two timelines – the present and the past. Malorie didn’t always live in this different world. In the world where you could see something that drives you mad. Where you have to wear blindfolds every time of the day and night when you go outside. Nobody knows what exactly it is that makes you crazy. But it does. And it’s there. The PRESENT timeline deals with Malorie and her two children living in a house, waiting for the best day to start their journey on the river. The PAST timeline deals with the start of that phenomenon and how everything unraveled for Malorie and her sister.

I haven’t read THAT many Thriller and Horror novels but if this gem is an indication for what’s in store for me then I definitely need to read more of that genre. This was truly so very fascinating. I loved the overall plot of the story and the development of the story fragments themselves. But the one thing that absolutely made me adore this book were: the questions that entered my mind after thinking about the whole concept.

It was genuinely scary with what Josh Malerman (and my mind) came up with. Scary because it’s realistic in its descriptions of human behavior; scary because it makes us question our own perception, our own senses. Like we can’t trust ourselves anymore. Like we don’t know what’s real, fake. It’s terrifying. 

There was THIS ONE MOMENT that I will not forget. That moment made me feel incredibly vulnerable. It put me in that characters shoes, made me think about how scared and lonely I would feel in that instance. How it would frighten me. How my heart would pump eratically and my pulse would be racing. How I would want to run away. How I would like to open my eyes – just to know what it is that makes me so scared. But I can’t. I can’t and I don’t know if that’s better or worse. 

BIRD BOX made me think and feel. It fascinated me, kept me engaged and interested. It was one of those books that make you so damn glad that you’re a reader. That you read this book in particular, at this special moment in your life. And I can’t say that I’m sad that I haven’t read this sooner because I really needed it right now. At this time.

Book cover from Goodreads. 

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