3.5 stars

Author Josh Malerman seizes on the natural human fears of the unknown and the dark to create a page-turner that will leave you looking over your shoulder and a wee bit jumpy.

*Something* is out there -- and it's everywhere. And when people see it, they go batsh*t (birdsh*t?) crazy. Not just regular crazy, but suicidal, homicidal Florida crazy. The only defense is stay inside with windows covered and boarded up -- and to navigate the world blindfolded when you must wander outside.

In this new world all regular activity soon ceases -- no radio or TV broadcasts, no running water, no essential services, etc.

Malerman takes us into the minds of his characters as they try to live this new existence. We see them try to form alliances and decide who they can trust -- and who is working against them. We also see them try to survive against the *thing* that's out there. Some of these scenes had me completely on edge.

The book was certainly creepy, but even a scaredy cat like me was able to read it without nightmares, so it isn't too terrifying. While some readers have liked the ending, this is one of the areas where the book lost points with me as I found it to be a bit anti-climactic. ( )

Bird Box is a post apocalyptic novel about people becoming violent to themselves and others after seeing something. The book follows Malorie as she and others try to survive. It has a dual timeline showing the start of the crisis and almost five years later.

It took me a while to get into the story, but I ended up really liking it. It has some moments that were pretty creepy, enough so that I quit reading this at night and only read it during the day. I'm a coward at night though, so your mileage may vary. ( )

At its best, creepy, disturbing, and makes you tense up like a snake's about to bite you. It makes you speculate and gives you enough information to be interesting but not enough to make it stop being interesting. Some of it I found unnecessarily heavy-handed (I find body horror to be gross, but not frightening). Still, better than 99% of the horror out there. ( )

So so creepy.

This isn’t my typical kind of book and because I read mostly before bed it took me forever to get through it because I didn’t want to read this particular book right before sleeping. ( )

I guess I found it compelling enough to read but really I'm still not sure what all the fuss is about.

Edit: I watched the movie. The movie was so much better honestly wondering why I read this at all. ( )