Bird Box

Bird Box
by Josh Malerman

A few months ago, I watched the Netflix film, Bird Box.  There were memes all over Facebook making fun of the movie for a while.  It was actually a pretty good movie; Sandra Bullock did a good job.  Anyway, after that I wanted to read the book.

Marlorie lives with her sister when something starts going wrong in the world.  People are hurting themselves.  At first they hear stories once or twice a week, then once or twice a day as it spreads, and then it's nonstop on the news for a while.

There is something out there, when you see it you go crazy and hurt yourself until you die. It is very disturbing.  And scary since you can't see what it is.  

Malorie is pregnant and finds a house with other survivors.  They have to go out to get more water from the well blindfolded.  A few time some of them are going around town scavenging for stuff blindfolded.  They decide on a group if they should let a person in that knocks on the door.  It's not often, but it is a big decision.  

Then it jumps five years and it's Malorie and two small children trying to cross down the river to safety.  She heard a radio message years ago of survivors down the road. And how much do we rely on our sight.  Very much so.  It's scary trying to maneuver down a river blindfolded. 

There are details I never thought of.  When the babies are born, she must immediately cover their eyes.  As they are newborns she has to train them to wake with their eyes open.  She trains the children to listen to the sounds around them, since they must grow up learning to listen to their ears since they can't use their eyes. 

This was scary, I think I'm still scared since I finished last night.  It was well written, it flip flopped between present day and five years ago and sometimes that can be confusing of where you are, but I was never confused of which timeline a chapter was in.  I was happy to see this author has several other books so I can add those to my reading list. .