Bird Box by Josh Malarian
Ecco, 2014, 1st edition, hardcover
Special cut-out dust jacket
Special cover, 262pp
A Review by Gene Stewart
Malorie and her two kids, a boy and a girl, are left alone by a deeply unnerving plague of sorts. Perhaps it’s an alien invasion. Maybe it is supernatural. Maybe nature herself is taking revenge. No one knows.
All anyone knows is, a glimpse of these shadowy intruders is enough to drive you mad. You will try to kill others and yourself with wild violence. If you glimpse one of them, what ever they are, you will have no hope.
Oddly, these things do not intrude into houses, unless there is an opening. Openings are shut, windows blocked, doors locked and guarded. No one dares look out. Yet some must fetch water from a well. Some must seek loved ones stranded where ever they may have been when the things came.
If the are even things.
Malorie raises her children with them all wearing blindfolds. She teaches them to listen, developing their hearing and refining it until they can identify things to an amazing degree. They are stuck in a house lucky enough to have a well. Her forays to fetch water, blindfolded, feeling her way, terrified of encountering the things, are epic tests of nerve she does not always pass.
Food become scarce. They need to go find others. Safety in numbers. She has heard a few snippets on radio that works less and less. She has even received startling phone calls. Some are from desperate, dying people. Others offer shelter. Try to get here, they urge.
To walk to the house next door, not knowing what is there, whether the things have gotten in, not knowing if it’s booby-trapped, knowing only it is dangerous to do this blind, is what Malorie determines to do. She wants to see if she can find food or other useful items.
This novel is beyond nerve-wracking. It is a conceptual nightmare executed carefully. Malerman’s writing is taut and precise. He gets details right, with the eye of a poet. Or ear. Or touch.
Other people are found, or find Malorie. She takes a harrowing trip on the river, her children listening for things, telling her what they hear. Sometimes they don’t know. Other times it is crazy people seeking to kill or be killed.
How or even if she and her kids get through this ordeal, where they might even go to escape a world gone dark and dangerous, is something you’ll have to read for yourself.
Know that Bird Box, and yes, there is reason for the title you will not guess, beyond the metaphorical aspect, is well worth reading. Spectacular horror dark fantasy suspense mystery science fiction Malerman debut.
/// /// ///
