Bird Box kinda snuck up on me.
I heard about it when the Goodreads horror reading group voted to make it book of the month. I wondered what it was all about. After all, the title is so non-threatning. I downloaded the audio book from the Clevnet eMedia Collection and was blown away by both the story and the performance.
Malorie is alone with two children, Boy and Girl. She lives in a world where the only safe place is inside the house — with the windows completely covered and the door carefully opened so that nothing sneaks inside. Outside is the danger of the unknowable entities. To see one of them is to go dangerously insane. Victims go on murder sprees before taking their own lives.
A glimpse caught while driving or from the corner of the window covering that falls open can reveal the creature enough to damage the mind. At first the incidents of death and insanity ere sporadic. But they grew in frequency and all too soon, civilization crumbles under its weight.
Malorie has spent years preparing Boy and Girl for a dangerous trip that could save them — or kill them. They must travel by river, blindfolded, with only their hearing, taste, smell and touch to guide them. All around are feral animals, insane humans and — Malorie is sure of this — more of the creatures.
Her tale of flight is intersected with the story of how Malorie, pregnant, got to the safe-house, made friends with the other survivors there and built a life for herself, before it all came crumbling down.
This is a truly a suspenseful horror novel and one I would give to somebody who wants to read horror but is afraid of the blood and gore.
Cassandra Campbell read Bird Box. I remembered her from the time she read Mary Doria Russell’s heart-breaking A Thread of Grace. She did a stellar job here too. For part of the book she had a small group of people clustered in a house and each voice needed to be distinct enough that you could tell them apart when they talked to each other. She succeeded.
First time author Josh Malerman is also the lead guitarist and singer for a band called High Strung. You can check out their album Moxie Bravo from our webcatalog.
We have hardcover copies of Bird Box available, as well as book on CD. If you’re into digital formats, the CLEVNET eMedia Collection has the ebook and audio book formats available for download.
Read it or listen to it, you’re in for a suspenseful treat.
