A review by brooke_pearson
Bird Box by Josh Malerman

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

This book is written so beautifully!! From his wonderful description (other than the people's appe rances, I'll admit those weren't awesome) to how well he blended the past and present together in this book, Malerman has to be one of my new favorite authors. I can't wait to read the sequel and any other books he has in store.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Vomit, Stalking, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcohol

This might technically count as a spoiler, but I'm really just using this as a trigger/content warning. Pages 180-184 have a dog going crazy and killing itself, and while Malorie can't see it, the sounds are descriptive and you may need to skip it if that's not something you can handle (I personally could barely do it). If you do decide to skip this chapter, here's a happier version of what happens so you don't miss out on anything:

Malorie paints the windows of Cheryl's car black and, using a map and the cars odometer, she eventually finds her way to the bar (with a lot of trial and error). While Victor, sadly, saw one of the /things/, she is able to take some supplies like microphones and likely some speakers off of the bars stage and take them back to the car. She then returns home and is able to use those things for the security system.