Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

9 reviews

sweetbean's review

mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

I finished it in around 24 hours. I genuinely didn't think I'd like it, but the concept and children had me on edge.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness

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

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

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

chezler24's review against another edition

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

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Blood

Minor: Grief

purplesky25276's review

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

snarkandspark's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Alcohol, Animal death, Mental illness, Confinement, and Grief

goblinsd's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.25

This book really scared me despite having already seen the movie. The writing really enhanced the dread of not knowing your surroundings. 
The double timeline also worked great, both kept the tension really high.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Animal death, Child death, and Mental illness

inknosedowl's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I really enjoyed this book! If you’re looking for a good thriller this is it. Unfortunately I did watch the movie before I read this book, but it is very similar which I honestly appreciate. It is very well written and actually had me a bit nervous for the characters at multiple points which I feel is hard to find in books. Super short book so if you’re looking for a quick read this is also a good suggestion. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Murder, Mental illness, and Gore

judereadsalot's review

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

kitten_nuisance's review

adventurous dark hopeful 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

4.0

I reread this book in 2023 because I wanted to anyway, and to confirm that I actually liked Malorie better.  I did like Malorie better!  Though Bird Box is still a creepy and enjoyable read.  

Note for people who know me, there are some subjects in here that I typically don’t enjoy consuming in media, including harm to animals and mental health conditions as a threat to the main characters.  If you don’t enjoy those things either, you may want to overlook my endorsement.  It was a level I could tolerate in a book I found compelling and well written, though the animal thing in particular was upsetting.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Mental illness, Murder, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Child death, and Confinement

Moderate: Body horror