“Malorie stands in the kitchen, thinking.”

From Josh Malerman’s Bird Box.

When an unexplainable phenomenon washes over the world causing people to kill themselves (and anyone near them) when they see an unknown creature, the world quickly dons blindfolds and blacks out all the windows in their homes.  After her sister dies, the pregnant Malorie decides to answers an old ad in the newspaper and heads to a home for safety where she meets her new housemates: Don, Tom, Jules, Felix, Cheryl, and Olympia.  The safety of the house does little though to protect Malorie from the terrifying reality of the new world.  As the months go by, supplies dwindle down, which causes the stressed-out housemates to venture outside more and more in search of supplies and a way to survive against the unknown monsters that lurk outside.  The arrival of Gary (a man with a dark story) complicates the relationships of all those in the house, further dividing the housemates on what to do and how to cope in this new world.  Things go from bad to worse to unimaginable for Malorie and the others so much so that the house no longer offers any protection for the people trapped inside.  The promise of safety looms a short distance away, but as the sanity of the world slowly slips, Malorie will have to decide if the journey may cost more than she is willing to pay.

While the first few chapters of this Netflix movie inspiration are slow and confusing, once you move past the beginning, readers will not be able to put the book down.  Malerman does a good job of creating a terrifying world that introduces an idea and leaves the bulk of the work to the imagination (which is the best way to impact each individual reader).  Bird Box is an edge-of-your-seat read that will stay with readers long after the story ends.