Reviews tagging 'Schizophrenia/Psychosis '

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

14 reviews

j9kaltz's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.75

There are certain points where the tension building felt gratuitous, however I devoured this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Blood, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy

nickoliver's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I am actually pleasantly surprised by this? I read it for the first time in 2018 and found it a bit underwhelming and not scary at all, which I wouldn't agree with anymore. I don't know if it's because I last read it while I still lived at home, so there was always someone home, while this time, I read it alone in my own apartment? Or maybe I'd stressed through the book last time, since I seemed to have read the majority of it in one day. 
Who's to say. Though I do think that reading this book post-2020 gave it a certain realism that reading it pre-2020 wouldn't have done.
In any way, I found a lot of the scenes quite intense, and still remembering the majority of it (or at least a mix of the book and the movie) didn't change that at all.
The only thing I'd still criticise is how unexplained a lot of it was. It didn't bother me too much that the creatures themselves weren't explained, I felt that made sense. But there were other things that confused me - like the animals, for example, who all seemed to go crazy only when it was plot-relevant but could otherwise spend hours outside with no problem. Or

Gary's ability to see when no one else could.

That also could've been explored a bit better. While again, it technically made sense to not have an answer to those things, since the whole world was confused as to what was going on and had differing opinions, it did hinder my enjoyment at a certain point.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Suicide, Grief, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis and Alcohol

Also technically CW for child abuse, but it's not being seen as such -

Malorie hits the children, but it's in the name of training them to be her ears

btemplet's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy

emilyceratops's review against another edition

challenging 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? No

4.0

Was a bit more gory than I expected. Enjoyed the intensity and suspense though!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Suicide, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture, Excrement, Vomit, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

dev921's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This really had me on the edge of my seat, and it's so courageous that someone thought to make a movie about a book where everyone is covering their eyes! Very creepy. I did wonder about some of the pregnancy-related facts though. Those bits seemed less plausible. Definitely extremely heckin gory though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Excrement, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic friendship

Minor: Child abuse, Vomit, Car accident, Death of parent, and Alcohol

foxybooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

5.0

Holy. Shit. Incredibly well written. Suspense. Mystery. Horror. So many feelings. So many fears. So many questions, most with horrifying answers, and the biggest question still lurking long after you've turned the last page. 

I spent 8 hours one day in early December 2019 reading the first half of this book. I couldn't sleep that night and had to put it away for two months. I picked it back up at the end of January 2020 and finished the second half in another 8 hour day. So I like to joke that "I finished it in two days but it took me two months to do it." 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Animal death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy

chezler24's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Bird Box was a thrilling read. After finishing The Day of the Triffids, it was interesting to read another book where the loss of sight plays a part in the apocalyptic scenario at hand. Bird Box plays out a bit more intimately than the book I just compared it to. It focuses on Malorie, a woman who discovers that she is pregnant while these unusual, gruesome scenarios are popping up all over the globe. There is no hope for military intervention and Malorie has a small pool of characters she interacts with throughout her journey. The story is told where each chapter shifts back and forth on Malorie's timeline between the onset of the apocalypse where she is carrying the child and trying to find her way to a safe house nearby to the present scenario four years later where she is caring for hers and another woman's child (referred to as Boy and Girl throughout the majority of the events). The author handled this chronological back and forth well so the reader was never completely out of the loop or bored with understanding how things would come about in the flashback scenes. The book is a bit gruesome; however, it is a unique sort of horror because all of the scenes are either dictated from the point of view of someone who is only hearing and smelling what is going on or from the aftermath of a scene left behind ages ago. The absence of the character's sight does not hamper the reader's ability to experience what is going on in the scenes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy

Moderate: Blood and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Grief

viireads's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Stalking, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

purplesky25276's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

10 out of 10!! This book was so much better than the movie! Oh! And you have to listen with the audio book! This narrative for the audio will have you so caught up in the story that it will make it harder to put down. This book gave a wide range of emotions. It was like I was right there with the Malorie!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail