Suspense novel 'Bird Box' leaves readers wanting more... substance

What would life be like if you couldn’t open your eyes? If one day, the chirping of birds and the sound of light rain, sounds that normally bring calm and even lull some of us to sleep, were omens of bad things to come? If you experienced the end of the world, knowing that you would only survive if you could control your will enough to remain in the dark? Do you think you could handle it? Would you survive?

During new suspense/thriller novel Bird Box, written by Josh Malerman, readers can experience these things firsthand along with brave protagonist Malorie and her two children. Featuring flashbacks to a tortured past, this novel delves into the story of her harrowing journey as she attempts to make it out of her home alive, steer a rickety boat through rushing waters, and eventually make it to a safehouse where she and her children can finally rest… All while blindfolded.

What could possibly possess a person to take on this monumental challenge? How bad could opening her eyes really be? In Malerman’s artfully created world, this struggle is brought on by the appearance of horrid “creatures”, alien beings that, once seen, drive both people and animals to brutal violence. Anyone who sets eyes on the beasts, no matter their level of sanity or intelligence, faces the same fate: the savage murder of their friends, companions, or loved ones by their own hand followed by their own suicide.

That doesn’t sound very desirable, does it?

Heralded as one of 43 books readers won't be able to stop talking about

by Buzzfeed Books Newsletter and earning an incredible 4.5/5 star review on Barnes and Noble’s website, Bird Box was a book that I dug into with relatively high hopes. Through reading it, however, it became unclear to me what exactly readers should be discussing about it: the good aspects or those that were not quite as appealing.

Published in 2014, this book is the extremely successful debut novel for the new author. Malerman, also the lead singer for a rock group called “The High Strung”, resides in Michigan and has earned several awards for his work. Rightfully so; Bird Box has a wonderfully constructed premise and delightful prose that leaves readers across the globe in awe.

That said, though, there were also many faults I found within the novel. Though some of these can be chalked up to rookie mistakes or even matters of preference, I found quite a few problems that turned me off from reading his work.

The first and most prominent of these problems occurs in the fact that two of the main characters are simply not given names. Girl and Boy, the son and daughter of the protagonist, are four-year-olds who have grown up knowing only the future Malerman has constructed. They’ve been trained from birth to keep their eyes closed and rely on their hearing for any important cues- you’d think that actual names would be a pretty good way to let them know they’re being spoken to. The reason for their namelessness supposedly resides in the fact that their mother was more focused on function and survivability than on pleasing syllables, but the lack of aesthetically pleasing character names, for me, made the book that much harder to get into.

Another problem that might confuse readers is the frequency with which the book goes from present to past tense and events. Without a steady rhythm, it became almost impossible to perceive during which time period and in which place each chapter’s events were occurring.

Finally, the truth is that readers are extremely limited by Malorie’s experiences; in my opinion, it would have been much more interesting to see the world through the eyes of someone who had become deranged. What were their thought processes? Did they simply lose control of their bodies or were they consciously committing these acts of violence? And what in the world did the “creatures” truly look like? Instead, readers only experience a fraction of what the world Malerman created has to offer, and I think the quality of the novel suffers for that.

All in all, the enjoyment of the novel is simply a matter of opinion. Readers who think this sounds like an interesting concept should go out and buy or rent the novel; they might love it just as much as all of the literary critics who lauded it at its release. Just remember, while you’re reading, keep your minds open and your eyes closed. After all, you never know what you’ll end up seeing.