Hello Beautiful People! Welcome back to another Baddie Book Review! I’ve been getting in the spooky feeling since we are getting into fall so I found I’ve been reading a lot of horror/thriller books recently.
I’ve had Bird Box by Josh Malerman on the list ever since I saw the movie. I don’t usually like to watch the movie before the book, but when I watched the movie and enjoyed it so much I knew I had to read the book. I really enjoyed this book. It was a quick read and one that was hard to put down. I think I enjoyed the book more than the movie, to be honest.
Band of Characters:
- Malorie – Most of the book is from her perspective, mother to boy and girl
- Boy and Girl – Malorie’s children
- Shannon – Malorie’s sister
- Victor, Felix, Tom, Don, Cheryl, and Olympia – Malorie’s housemates once the world goes to shit
- Gary – Crazy man
My Review
I have to give this book a 9/10. Even though I already knew how things went because I had seen the movie I still found myself being drawn in by the book. It may have been because I saw the movie so long ago but I felt like I was able to create a very definite picture of all of the characters, and I even had this very vivid picture of what the house would look like due to Malerman’s writing. I also found that even though Malerman interchanged the story from the present, past, and further past, I didn’t find it confusing or hard to follow. He didn’t dwell on subplots or things that weren’t significant to the story which I very much appreciated.
I will say something I didn’t expect though was that I would enjoy the past and further past sections more than the present. I honestly found myself trying to rush through the river scenes to get back to the past and find out what was happening in the house. In the further past, Malorie was in the early stages of her pregnancy, in the past the end stages, and in the present, the children are 4. These parts definitely had the most action and drama which was probably why I enjoyed them the most.
Something I found really interesting as well was Malerman’s ability to write a book where for large chunks the main characters cannot see. For those who don’t know the premise of the book, it’s based in an apocalyptic world where when people look outside they are driven to insanity and to kill themselves. Due to this those living in this world wear blindfolds when outside in order to not see whatever it is that drives people to do this. Despite this Malerman has the ability to tune the reader into what is going on by only describing things like sounds and feelings. I just thought this was very unique and something that would be hard to do.
Summary and Commentary
***Please be aware this section has spoilers***
The book starts off in the present with Malorie. Her children are asleep and she describes the state of the house to us. It’s one in which she has tried to hide horrors and sadness from the children for the past four years. The children have never been out of the house grounds. Malorie describes her worries about taking the children on a 20-mile river trip, one that she’s not even sure will be successful. Malorie wakes the children and starts to get them ready. We learn the children’s names are Boy and Girl, and her relationship with them is tough. It’s clear she loves these children very much and would do anything for them. However, it’s clear she worries about their longevity in this world and she does keep somewhat of a distance emotionally . I mean she didn’t even bother to give them names so it’s clear she’s been waiting for the day when things go wrong for all of them. She has a strict relationship with the kids, one I am sure has never had much comfort. I also understand this though because she wants them to be tough, prepared, and able to survive. She clearly also feels guilt for them having to grow up in this world, stuck in the house all the time, never getting to see outside. Then they head off down the river.
We now get a look into Malorie’s life just as she became pregnant. She’s living with her sister Shannon who is keeping up with the weird things happening on the news. There’s been a few cases in which people are changing suddenly, hurting the people around them, and then ending their own lives. Shannon is very attached to the story and is keeping up with it and seems worried. Malorie isn’t overly worried about it and doesn’t pay any attention. As she and Shannon are out one day they notice that many people are starting to cover up their windows. It seems that people have come to the consensus that looking outside is what’s causing these things to happen. While they were out the two picked up some pregnancy tests and it’s positive Malorie is pregnant. The sisters debate on what it is people see before they go insane but no one has any real idea. 6 months later the two have been living as shut-ins like everyone else in the world. Malorie goes to find Shannon one day and she is dead upstairs in the room when a blanket slips off the window. Malorie is thrown with the severity of what she is dealing with now that Shannon is dead and she is alone. She goes to find the newspaper which has an ad for a safe house. I thought it was interesting too that Shannon who did all the precautions was the first to die. Back at the river, we get a quick look at the ways Malorie has trained the children for this world. The kids have impeccable hearing skills and can tell what things are/where they are from miles away.
We now get a look back into the past. Malorie has been driving (with the top of her vision obscured) to find the safe house. When she gets there not everyone at the house is quick to invite her in. They eventually let her into the home, and we find a group of random people who have come together. The original owner of the home died while trying to experiment with ways to deal with the problem (they call the illness or monster the problem). The housemates originally are distressed by Malorie’s pregnancy, but once they see she is a woman who is afraid and alone the walls drop. I thought the housemates were cool because they were all just average people. Sometimes when we get these apocalypse stories the characters in it are like a doctor, surgeon, mechanic, all these sorts of things. I mean essentially just every skill and person you could need in a situation like this. However in this book, everyone is just an average person, no one has all these extraordinary skills or talents, and everyone is just normal. Malorie early on takes a liking to Tom, as did I. Tom is the character who brings this air of level-headedness and logic to the group. He’s calm and always brings that to hectic situations. Tom tells her that the phones and lights still work in the home, but they aren’t sure how much longer that will be. They call random numbers in the hopes of reaching people but haven’t reached anyone yet. Tom tells her that he believes that it’s a creature that people see because the man who owned the house said he saw one before he died.
Tom tells her that in the house they cling to time to stay sane. They keep track of the calendar and the hours in order to maintain some level of normalcy in their lives. I thought this was interesting because even though the worry is losing sanity outside, there also are worries about losing sanity in. Tom sees that if they don’t keep their minds healthy in the house that it won’t matter whether they look outside or not. Tom tells Malorie that his daughter killed herself, but he’s not certain if she looked outside or just got tired. This made me sad but was something I wondered about from the start. I mean how many people were dying because they looked outside instead of those who died because they couldn’t be outside anymore? Back in the present on the river Malorie and the kids run into another person who is on a boat on the river. The man tries to convince them to take off their blindfolds as he doesn’t have one and is totally fine. The man tells her that she is a prisoner to worry and that if she stops worrying things will be fine. Malorie doesn’t go for it and tells the children to keep them on. He asks her who has really gone mad? Is it he who lives free and at peace with the creatures, or her who hides from something she has never seen? I wondered a bit if this man was actually ever there or if it was their consciousness creating this fear, and Malorie questioning herself.
Back in the past at the house, it’s been two weeks since Malorie has been at the home. One night the house gets a knock at the door. It’s the next-door neighbour Olympia. Her husband hasn’t returned and presumes he’s dead. Along with that Olympia is four months pregnant just like Malorie. While Malorie is happy to have someone like her in the house this puts a lot of stress on the housemates. They already struggled to let one pregnant woman stay, and now two? Honestly, I lowkey get this. If I was ever in an apocalypse I would stay far away from anyone pregnant. At this point I realized that both of Malorie’s children were not hers, one must be Olympia’s. I hadn’t really thought about it yet but I guess I just thought she had twins. I didn’t remember this part from the movie so I was surprised. One day at the house Felix goes to get some water. He starts freaking out because he’s hearing noises that he believes to mean someone is nearby. I thought this was interesting because I feel like if I lived in this world this would be me. My mind would constantly be trying to play tricks on me building a story from sounds I am hearing. At one part Felix hears footsteps and feels like there’s someone thing in the water but I am not totally convinced that there’s anything actually ever there. But isn’t that supposed to be the scariest part about all of this? No one actually has any clue what it is they are shielding themselves from. Everyone tries to determine if it was maybe a deer or something, or if the monsters are getting bolder and approaching people when they are blindfolded.
Malorie gives us a look into how she had to raise the kids. She had to train them to wake up with their eyes closed. She did this by punishing them when they woke up with their eyes open. Eventually, the kids picked up on it though. She questions whether or not she is a good mother and is doing what is right. Back at the house in the past, everyone questioned whether the water was safe to drink since everyone thought that a monster may have been in it and contaminated it. We are back at this issue of everyone being very afraid of what they don’t know. Back on the river Malorie and the kids are attacked by wolves, Malorie is the only one hurt and the kids are okay. I honestly wasn’t sure what the point of this part in the book was, it was kind of irrelevant and didn’t add a lot to the book. If anything it just showed Malorie she needs to chill a bit and trust the kids. She ends up passing out because of a cut she got and when she wakes up the kids are paddling the boat. It just kind of felt unnecessary to me but it definitely did add to the drama of what was happening on the river.
Back at the house, Tom announces he wants to go look for more dogs. Jules’s dog Victor is with them and he helps by alerting them when they move blindly outside, and an alarm inside. Tom wants to find more so they can go and look for more food and supplies. The group questions whether or not dogs can go mad at seeing a monster. The truth is they don’t know. Tom hopes that dogs aren’t affected and by having more they will have more eyes on the outside. Tom and Jules go out to see what they can find. The night after they left Victor goes crazy and the housemates struggle to get him to calm down. Don asks Olympia and Malorie one night if they should think about blinding the babies once they are born. Olympia is horrified but Malorie considers it. She would have to worry so much less if the kids didn’t need to be blindfolded and just couldn’t see. She also knows that a child’s survival is all up to the adult for the first chunk of their lives, and this is how you survive now in this world. One night after the kids are born she almost does it, but can’t bring herself to do it. Tom and Jules arrive back at the house and had found two dogs. Along with that, they came back with a bird box. When passing a garage they found a box filled with birds and bird seed. Whenever you got closer to the box the birds got louder. They want to use it as an alarm of sorts. When the men were away they saw a lot of horrible things. They saw a child who had starved to death in his house, and a lot of dead people. They also ran into a tent in the middle of the street which is weird.
Late at night sometime after Tom and Jules return the housemates hear a knock at the door. It’s a man named Gary. He says he had to leave the last house he was in as the situation turned bad. The housemates feel like he must have known they were in the house but don’t know how he knows this. Everyone is skeptical about him and his situation. They let him into the house! I know in horror stuff the reader is always yelling to a character not to do it but I kept saying to them not to do it. It’s too sketchy to be a coincidence. Gary says a man in the house he was living in named Frank was starting to lose his sanity – not looking outside induced. He looked in Frank’s notebook and it was filled with radical ideas that people who are affected by looking outside are essentially small-brained. One day he left the home and took down all the drapes and left the doors open. He left with his notebook. Gary’s housemates wanted to find him and kill him and that’s when he decided to leave. One day when Cheryl is outside she thinks something touches her but there’s nothing there. Ever since Gary came everyone has been on edge. Malorie wonders if the thing they have been hiding from has finally been closing in on them.
Gary and Don spark up a friendship which is concerning to Malorie. Don tends to be the more radical housemate, and originally he was against Gary coming into the home, now they are bffs. I found this a bit odd too. The topics of their conversation are always concerning as well, as they are always discussing what’s outside. Malorie gets stuck on wanting to see what’s in Gary’s briefcase that he brought with him. Tom and Jules go out to look for supplies. That night when everyone is asleep Malorie goes to look in his briefcase and finds Frank’s journal. It’s not hard to see that Frank’s journal is not Frank’s its Gary’s. Gary ripped down the drapes in his old house and walked out. Gary believes that there’s nothing to be afraid of and that only the strong live at peace with the monster. Since Tom and Jules are gone she waits on what she knows. She worries that Gary is filling Don with all of his ideas because the two spend more and more time together. I saw this as a problem right quick. I mean Don is a vulnerable depressed man so it makes sense that he could be indoctrinated easily into what Gary is saying. Tom and Jules return and Malorie debates telling them but decides to wait. Then at dinner, it just spills out of her. They end up kicking him out of the house. The things that came from Don and Gary in the direction of Malorie was really weird…like they called her a whore. Those two have lost it for sure. Of course, Don is pissed about the choice and isolates himself from the group.
In the river, Malorie starts thinking that Gary could be following them. I don’t talk a lot about the river parts because I found them fairly boring but I do think they show how much Malorie has declined mentally. She’s constantly looking for threats and attacks and jumping to crazy conclusions on things she hears and noise as it must be Gary four years after they banished him from the house. Back in the past at the house, Malorie talks about how Don has stayed isolated in the cellar from the rest of the house. Victor is freaking out at the cellar door and the housemates finally convince Don to come out. He looks terrible and it’s clear his mind is taking a toll on him. On the river Malorie and the kids are rowing along and all of a sudden all the birds in the sky just like drop dead and start falling from the sky. I wondered if birds were affected by the creatures too. It didn’t make sense that they would all just be dropping dead so they must have seen something. A bird wouldn’t have the ability to see a creature and say “Oh that’s not a creature usually in my ecosystem” so like what is it? All of the sudden Malorie starts hearing Tom’s voice, a recording of his voice being repeated. Malorie says they did this because they knew she would recognize that. Something starts to pull her blindfold off and she struggles to keep her eyes closed.
Back at the house in the past Malorie and Olympia go into labour at the same time. I honestly felt bad for all the characters when this happened. Pretty much the worst thing you could ask for in this situation. While the two are upstairs Malorie hears arguing downstairs, and Olympia is struggling to keep going. They find out that Don is upset. All of the sudden Cheryl is yelling that something is outside the house and Malorie can hear the birds freaking out. Then Gary enters the room while the whole house is freaking out. Malorie concludes why Victor was upset at the cellar door. Gary had never left and Don had been keeping him down there. We find out that Gary has been outside with his eyes open this whole time. He had a tent set up in the street and watched and followed Jules and Tom the first time they went out. Then he knew he had to convert the house and convince them that they would be fine like he was. Gary tells her that he has seen the creatures and many of them. He is immune. Malorie says he’s mad. I mean this would make sense. If Gary was already mentally unstable before the end of the world then maybe the creatures can’t affect him. His mind is already a mess. Or maybe he really is immune. I mean it’s like any illness, right? Some people are naturally immune to different things. I mean Gary could have realistically been the key to solving the problem but instead, he just wanted to convince people to try to be like him and fight it. Gary and Don have exposed everything downstairs. The housemates are dying. Gary says that they don’t have to go crazy but choose to, they can fight it if they want to. They go crazy because that’s what they think they are supposed to do.
Malorie keeps her eyes closed as a creature comes crashing into the room. Olympia does not. Malorie convinces Olympia to give Malorie her baby girl, Olympia won’t do it then does. A last bit of her sanity pulled through. Then Olympia jumps out the window. Everyone is dead other than Malorie and the babies, and Gary has left. Then the phone that they used to try numbers started to ring. A man named Rick calls to say he is in a secure facility and wants to ask to housemates to come. Malorie tells him what happened and that she is alone with the babies, and cannot come to him. Rick and she agree to call until the phones quit and until Malorie is ready to make the trip down the river to find them. So, now we know why she left in the first place. The phones stopped a few years before she made the trip, but she always hoped they would still be there.
At the end of the river is Rick and the facility. The facility used to be home for the blind, and Rick himself is blind. That’s why they survived for so long out there. The school has everything they need to survive. For the first time, Malorie names the children, Tom and Olympia, acknowledging for the first time in a while that they are finally no longer alone.
If you’re looking for an enjoyable spooky read this book should definitely be on the list. While I found some points in the book to not be needed there was way less in this book than many others I have read in the past. I think when we talk apocalypse-themed stuff we always think zombies or a virus or something but this book was a breath of fresh air in that genre. It brought a really new and unique idea to the table and one that would be hard to complete in book form.
I hope you enjoyed this review. I would love to hear some thoughts if you have ever checked out the book before. Be sure to check out my Instagram @baddiebookreviews to be kept up to date with when the next review is out!
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