Bird Box is a tense, gripping and truly original story. Malorie is the sequel I didn't need.
However, I will say that this book may have given me a greBird Box is a tense, gripping and truly original story. Malorie is the sequel I didn't need.
However, I will say that this book may have given me a greater appreciation of what Bird Box does. It is a clever book that is so effective and frightening precisely because it is a plethora of unanswered questions. The not knowing is what creates the fear and tension.
This book is not really about that. It is not scary. Malorie's kids are now teenagers pushing against her authority because they're teenagers. After Malorie recognises two names on a census of survivors, they all set out on a journey to find them. Tom is determined not to listen to his mother and-- surprise, surprise --trouble ensues as a result. Much of what happens here is the opposite of unknown... it is completely predictable.
Bird Box left me wide-eyed and wondering what happens next. This book made me realise that sometimes it's a good thing to be left wondering....more
Bird Box is a brilliant horror. It's scary and compelling but different from the norm. Malerman's idea to write Why did I wait ten years to read this?
Bird Box is a brilliant horror. It's scary and compelling but different from the norm. Malerman's idea to write an entire novel about a horror the characters physically cannot look upon is genius. Is there anything scarier than the unknown? Can the most vividly described horror ever compete with what lurks in the shadows of our imagination? I don't think so.
Malerman doesn't spend time describing his monsters because the monster in this book is our own fear and uncertainty. It's the creak on the stairs, the feeling that something is there.
The story begins with Malorie and her two kids. They live an isolated existence in a house with blacked out windows and must wear a blindfold when going outside. They see no one else. And they're always listening.
Told between the present where Malorie plans a perilous journey and the past where we discover how she came to be living this way, the tension genuinely never ceases. I cared about the characters, even minor ones, and grieved the losses we experienced.
This is a book that will comes back to haunt me on sleepless nights, I'm sure....more
There is a decent story buried in here, but all the weird porny moments took away far more than they added.
Hell House delivers some classic horror in There is a decent story buried in here, but all the weird porny moments took away far more than they added.
Hell House delivers some classic horror in the form of a supposedly haunted house. Past attempts to discover the house's secrets have led to the bizarre and brutal deaths of all those who entered, except one-- Ben Fischer, a professional medium.
Now, funded by a rich dying man who wants to know if there's an afterlife before he passes, Ben is headed back to the house with three others. There's the medium Florence Tanner who believes she can free the unruly spirits trapped in the house, Dr. Lionel Barrett, a scientist who believes the observed phenomena are being caused by residual energy, and his wife, Edith.
Chairs rocking on their own, doors locking themselves, strange noises and even stranger behaviour from the guests... just what is going on?
I wouldn't say it's overly scary, but I did find it quite engrossing. Barrett's scientific arguments vs Florence's spirituality were fun to ponder, and I wanted to discover whose theory would be the correct one. There is also exciting mystery surrounding the house's former owner, Belasco, and the existence of his son.
Though the weakness of the story was the completely gratuitous use of rapes and the weird hyper-sexualization of the female characters. The two women can't seem to keep their clothes on, with breasts spilling out everywhere and nipples being tweaked and bitten by the ghost of orgies past. The men don't seem to have the same problem and, instead, are usually the poor well-meaning victims of these sex-possessed harlots. Even with the threat of death hanging over her, Edith can still imagine no fate more horrifying than being a lesbian.
This made the whole thing slightly ludicrous, especially Edith's terror that she might get it on with a woman. I mean, I know this is the seventies, but come on-- that's your biggest concern right now?
A salty liquid trickles down my throat. The outside is crunchy cartilage. I jam it into my left cheek and bite down with my molars; jellylike matte
A salty liquid trickles down my throat. The outside is crunchy cartilage. I jam it into my left cheek and bite down with my molars; jellylike matter explodes within my mouth.
3 1/2 stars. There is a part of me that wants to give this book five stars for being one of the most terrif
Once they’re in, they never leave . . .
3 1/2 stars. There is a part of me that wants to give this book five stars for being one of the most terrifying horror stories I've ever read, and another part that wants to remove more stars for the thousand unanswered questions I have. Can we please get a sequel just to explain some shit?
I love a good scare and these days they're hard to come by. I've been reading/watching horror since I picked up the Goosebumps books when I was six, so I find I'm tough to really frighten. But, my god, THIS BOOK. Don't be fooled by that domestic thriller style cover-- this is pure horror.
It scared me in the middle of the day. And at night? I lay awake listening to every bump and creak in my house. It's certainly not conducive to a good night's sleep. That one scene in the attic was portrayed so vividly that I can still see it burned onto my eyelids every time I close my eyes.
The story is about young couple Eve and Charlie who flip houses. They've just bought a dilapidated old house (in the middle of nowhere, next to woods, with an attic AND a basement, because of course) with plans to renovate and sell. Then one night a family turn up at the front door. The father claims he lived in the house when he was a boy and asks if he might be able to look around. Just 15 minutes, then they'll be on their way.
Except, one thing after another keeps happening to extend their visit. And weird things start to happen around the house. Eve starts to see things, question reality. Is it her overactive imagination? Or do the family have no real intention of leaving?
Kliewer plays on many common thoughts that sit very close to reality. You misread something, misplace something, misremember. Nothing actually changed. Your phone didn't move; you just forgot you put it there... right?
The story also incorporates several very real phenomena that I can't think about for too long without feeling deeply unsettled. Sleep paralysis demons. Capgras syndrome (believing someone you know has been replaced by a doppelgänger.) Pareidolia (seeing meaningful things in abstract images - e.g. Rorschach tests.) The Mandela effect.
I think great horror writers do this-- weave their horror with truth, with the mundane, so it feels grounded in reality and therefore believable.
That being said, I cannot ignore the fact that I'm left with so many "What about...?" questions. The fact that I'm rounding up to 4 stars despite this should tell you just how gripping and scary I found the book.
Here are just a few of the questions I have (MAJOR SPOILERS): (view spoiler)[What do they want? Why are they doing this? Were the family also evil spirits or just Thomas? Why was Thomas screaming in the snow and why was he hitting himself? What was the whole thing about the circle symbol around the house? Was the link with the dad's band significant? What really happened to Alison? What was the deal in the neighbour's house? Why did the house number change? Did the mention of the missing 3708 house have any meaning? Who was the man in the cabin? How come we never revisited that? (hide spoiler)]
It's actually really disappointing that so many loose threads were left hanging because I would genuinely like to rate this higher. I feel some of this could easily be taken care of with another quick edit. Though the book doesn't publish for another three months so perhaps changes will be made between now and then....more
I think she’s getting closer. Even though she’s already in the house. Even though she sits next to me on my bed. Closer. That’s the word I think
I think she’s getting closer. Even though she’s already in the house. Even though she sits next to me on my bed. Closer. That’s the word I think of. She used to just stand in the closet and stare at me. Then she came out. Then she started talking. Then she started asking.
Yeah, I couldn't put this creepy book down.
When I read the description about "Other Mommy", my first thought was Coraline. But while both books are narrated by young girls who encounter a twisted malevolent version of their parents, Incidents Around the House is definitely not a book for children.
I didn't give it five stars because it got a little bit repetitive at one point in the middle, and (view spoiler)[the ending was predictable (hide spoiler)], but I came close a few times. The story is pretty much everything I look for in horror-- genuinely scary, hard to look away from even as I feared to turn the page, with weird and complex family dynamics playing out in the background.
I don't always love books from a young child's perspective but Malerman did a good job here. Eight-year-old Bela was realistically naive without being too annoying.
I also felt it created a very particular kind of suspense as Bela still lives in a child's world of fairy tales and magic and so does not react to the horror on the same level as the reader. It was somehow worse to watch her engage curiously with the terrifying "Other Mommy" while I was screaming "oh my god, run!"
I guess this means I should stop putting it off and finally read Bird Box....more
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