Reviews tagging 'Schizophrenia/Psychosis '

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

17 reviews

mossy_rock's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Could drag at times. Less scary than expected

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Toxic friendship

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Vomit, Alcohol

stephanieanneauthor's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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The movie may have become a Netflix sensation and sparked countless memes, but the book is so much better! It's dark and beautifully written, and my heart was racing by the final chapters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic

felyn's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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I'm not really sure if I truly *enjoyed* this book, but it's definitely going to leave a lasting impression. It's well-written, with just the right amount of tension and horror without being overly graphic or stressful.

I want more answers about Gary.

Also, if you're one of those people that needs to know about the welfare of the animals in movies/books:

Victor the dog dies on-page and it's awful; the 2 huskies Tom and Jules bring home also die, but off-page. There's also a scene near the end where a large number of birds die, also on-page. I'm sorry.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy

Moderate: Confinement, Violence, Murder, Toxic friendship

Minor: Vomit, Death of parent

j9kaltz's review against another edition

4.75

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

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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 , Pregnancy

nickoliver's review against another edition

3.5

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

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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, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , 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

4.75

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

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Content Warnings

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

emilyceratops's review against another edition

4.0

challenging tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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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, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture, Excrement, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis

dev921's review against another edition

5.0

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

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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, Pandemic/Epidemic

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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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, Pandemic/Epidemic

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

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

foxybooks's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

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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, Blood

Moderate: Animal death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy