Bird Box - John Malerman

[goodreads]

Title: Bird Box
Author: Josh Malerman
Genre: Suspense
Rating: 1.5/5
# pages: Audiobook ~8hrs
Date read: January 2015

Most people ignored the outrageous reports on the news. But they became too frequent, they became too real. And soon, they began happening down the street. Then the Internet died. The television and radio went silent. The phones stopped ringing. And we couldn't look outside anymore. Malorie raises the children the only way she can; indoors. The house is quiet. The doors are locked, the curtains are closed, mattresses are nailed over the windows. They are out there. She might let them in. The children sleep in the bedroom across the hall. Soon she will have to wake them. Soon she will have to blindfold them. Today they must leave the house. Today they will risk everything.

Just 1.5 stars. I didn't dislike it, but I'm not sure I would even go as far as to say it was okay.

I had a lot of problems with this book. The premise sounded fascinating - somewhat similar to M. Night Shyamalan's movie "The Happening". In retrospect that should have given me pause, as I didn't care much for that movie either. I guess the best thing I can say about the book is that at least it's not that bad.

The book jumps back and forth in time. That doesn't usually bother me, but here it seemed as if the entire book was a prologue, and that the plot itself - you know, the part where all the questions are answered? - didn't even get started until the last 10 minutes... after which it ended without answering any questions whatsoever.

It seemed as if Josh Malerman found an interesting writing prompt ("Imagine that you have to live your life blindfolded") and then just went with it, without putting too much thought into the explanation of WHY the characters had to live their lives blindfolded - not the deeper reason, anyway. I don't mind unanswered questions in books, but I do mind it when the main premise itself is left a mystery.

I 'read' this as an audiobook (narrated by Katharine Mangold - not the best narrator ever, but not the worst either), which may have swayed my opinion slightly to the negative. I might not have gotten as frustrated by it, if I hadn't wasted as much time on it.