Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

20 reviews

emilyceratops's review

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, Murder, Confinement, Death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide

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

kirstenpod_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pregnancy, Death, Suicide, Violence, and Animal death

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Death of parent, Vomit, and Child death

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

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

asourceoffiction's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I am reeling from this story, possibly because I devoured it in 24 hours which made it quite an immersive experience. Bird Box is in my head.

From the very beginning we are drip-fed a mystery which is never explained or solved. It's a seemingly outlandish scenario which results in clusters of survivors who must stay indoors and forever hide their eyes from what lurks outside. There's a faint sense of the ridiculous, but the fear that gripped the characters, of what cannot be seen or known, was enough to completely engross me. Add to that a desperate, isolated mother raising her children to be constantly afraid and never look outside, and I just could not put it down.

The writing is incredibly clever. With my eyes wide open I felt completely exposed while reading, and the tension that builds slowly throughout the book became a physical sensation for me by the end. I finished the book with clenched fists; every horror that Malorie experiences, she does so through her other senses. What she cannot see she must assume, and the cause of it all remains unknowable. I absolutely loved it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Confinement, Suicide, Child abuse, Murder, Gore, and Child death

katyannreads's review

mysterious tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Animal death, Murder, and Self harm

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

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

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

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

afion's review against another edition

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Suicide, Child abuse, Pregnancy, Animal death, Murder, Body horror, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Ableism and Grief

Minor: Vomit and Sexism