“Tom is getting water from the well.”

From Josh Malerman’s Malorie.

Ten years after their safe haven is attacked and the mysterious creatures began touching people to send them into murderous madness, Malorie and her children, Tom and Olympia, are still living with blindfolds and caution.  The trio has been living at the long-abandoned Camp Yadin, but thankfully, Malorie’s fears and precautions have kept them alive and safe.  Now sixteen, Tom is growing tired of the rules that his mother has forced the family to abide by and her continuous rejection to let him create tools to improve their lives.  However, when a man arrives with information gathered from a census, the wealth of information that he leaves behind is too much for dreamer Tom and adventure-seeking Olympia.  A list of survivors from around the country also sparks Malorie’s interest more than she ever thought possible because her parents are listed as alive in Michigan.  After believing her parents to have been dead for over sixteen years, Malorie decides to risk everything and take her family in search of her long lost parents.  Malorie and her teens leave their home in search of a blind train that is rumored to slowly travel up and down the state of Michigan.  Along the way, Malorie, Tom, and Olympia all struggles between the strict rules that have kept them alive and the possibilities introduced by other survivors, but nothing could have prepared them for what they all find along the way… both about themselves and the world around them.

The terrifying world that Malerman created in Bird Box is again brought to life with the mystery of the creatures developed even more.  The constant internal struggle of the narrators is often annoying.  Malorie moves quickly and creates an interesting story that’s a must-read for fans of the first book.