A review by nickoliver
Bird Box by Josh Malerman

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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