Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

41 reviews

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

kstericker's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Gore and Grief

Minor: Child death, Vomit, and Death of parent

cams_all_booked's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I really liked the concept. The world building was interesting and I was invested. The main character was flat, so that sucked. But otherwise, I liked it. I probably won't be reading the sequel, though

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, and Suicide

Moderate: Child death, Violence, and Pregnancy

Minor: Child abuse, Blood, and Grief

emmaward55's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The parallels between this book and the current pandemic genuinely took me by surprise as I read it. A life-changing event that forces people inside, time meaning nothing, schools and wider infrastructure shutting down, tragedy dominating the news... We all recognise these things as part of our own 'new world'.

What unnerves me the most, however, are the conspiracy theorists. The people like 

Greg and Don

  who become convinced that safety precautions are unnecessary, that they are smart enough to see this event for what it really is - and who eventually endanger others. Just like the anti-vaxxers who gather together to protest lockdowns, these people come into contact with others and try to take their safety precautions - in this case blindfolds instead of masks - and throw them to the wolves of this changed world.

I couldn't relax my shoulders for the last ten chapters of this book. It was tense, unsettling and morbidly fascinating. If I ever reread it, it'll be when the pandemic is years in the past. For now, I'll think of how the book ends, with strangers coming together to rebuild their world.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Suicide, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Child abuse, Violence, Blood, Vomit, and Grief

Info on child abuse:

Characters discuss blinding babies as a protective measure to prevent them going insane.

emma2578's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I’ve never seen the film, but I’ve heard a lot about it, so when I saw this at the thrift store I was excited to read it. To say the least, it was a bit of a disappointment. The pace of the book was weird, the characters were shallow, and the end was just odd. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Violence, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

xphilphil's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, and Death

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Blood and Grief

lorie336's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I do love dystopia tales and this did not disappoint. I like how this tale goes back and forth with present and past, it was a page turner. Malorie, unexpectedly becomes pregnant, as the world basically goes to hell. People are going mad at the sight of creatures, from where, we are not sure, could be aliens, many theories to these creatures that the author lets us use our imagination which depending on one's imagination can make it that more creepier and scarier. 

We read on how Malorie comes to the house she is now alone in with her two children, how she decided to journey onto the river, and what happened to the fate of her housemates, how she cared and trained her children to be able to hear better than any human can now. The trials and tribulations Malorie endured was a testament to her inner strength, as a mother, and a survivor in a world where being able to see can get you killed. As a mom this is a harrowing tale, but to go through pregnant just made it even scarier because knowing the feeling of carrying life and delivering two (not at the same time), it can be rough even with today's technology, but having to do that like our ancestors that's always something worrisome because anything can go wrong. 

I am looking forward to reading the sequel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Blood, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Animal death and Murder

Minor: Child death and Grief

judereadsalot's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Pregnancy

v171's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

 I don't often read suspense/horror books because I'm not a huge fan of extreme violence/gore, and while this book did include an amount of that, I did enjoy it. As opposed to some other reviews I've read, I really appreciated, the fact that the creatures are never revealed to the reader. It was evident that the creatures took a back seat to the common zombie/dystopia/horror trope of "man is the real monster," and that theme was emphasized by not distracting with the nature of the cosmic horror. In fact, I found the scenes with Gary far more tense and suspenseful than, say, the bar scene or the river scenes. It would have been easy for the author to acquiesce the readers by throwing in an Annihilation-esque reveal, but I applaud him for holding back. While the book wasn't anything groundbreaking with regard to apocalyptical horror, I found it an enjoyable read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, and Grief

Moderate: Excrement and Vomit

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Suicide, and Grief

Minor: Child death, Blood, and Vomit