A review by bookshelfjpg
Bird Box by Josh Malerman

4.0

Actual rating: 4.5/ish

*yes, spoilers ahead*

This one was easily worth the long wait at the library. I’ll start by saying, I wanted to make sure I read it before the Netflix rendition came out. And it did not disappoint.

The premise and idea behind the book is unique and has a cool dystopian/sci-if/horror feel to it all, simply because we never find out what the “creatures” actually are. I was a little discouraged by the ending because of the loose ends it seemed to have/more so no REAL ending. But I also can enjoy that fact that you, as the reader, are just figuring things out at the same time as the characters as you go along. This is especially true at the end, where you’re left wondering what WAS out there. There’s something gnarly about feeling like you’re without one of your senses. Any book that uses this to their advantage (and does it well) is automatically a great thriller read.

Pros: awesome story idea, quick and captivating read, very dystopian-type characters (boy/girl/etc), terrifyingly accurate descriptions. Honestly might keep me up at night wondering why Olympia thought the creature was so freaking beautiful.

Cons: the ending was a pretty standard dystopian future ending (long journey, finds other survivors, joins new self-sustaining community - etc). I think I’m still just bitter that I’ll never know what creature was actually out there. I’m all honesty, not sure how else they would have wrapped up this story though.

Will be excited to see this transformed into a Netflix rendition! I’m excited to pass this one on to the remaining 21 people who have this on hold at our local library.