Bird Box

Its not often I read a book where you get grabbed roughly in the first couple of paragraphs and then forcefully dragged along until the very end. Starting this on a Sunday afternoon meant I was missing some serious sleep on Monday morning. :)

I am an odd fan of horror, if you can actually call me that. The usual horror tropes I find to be dull, boring, unimaginative, and frankly an insult to my intelligence most of the time. I think its because they tend to lean too heavily on the tropes without adding any creativity to the mix.

Someone passing out or dying from fright because they are in a graveyard (yes I have read this!) makes me roll my eyes. I spent a good chunk of my childhood family vacations in county court houses and graveyards because my mother was into genealogy. I played games among the headstones. They are not scary or spooky. They are calm, peaceful, and somewhat sad.

Death and the dead do not frighten me. I have sat by too many death beds in my lifetime. I have held the hands of dead family members, kissed their cheeks before the coffin lids were closed.
I know exactly what the skin of a corpse feels like. Death is not scary, it is just sad.

I am not afraid of ghosts, goblins, demons, or similar. Maybe its my SF/F background where those very types of characters can be the PoV/heroes.

Monsters: if it can be identified, it can be defeated. Period. Maybe its the SF/F background again.

So yeah, assuming I will get all scared and similar because a demon popped up in the middle of the room . . . sorry ain't enough for me. My first reaction is, well is it going to do anything? Perhaps its its turn to buy drinks? In my opinion its a very lazy author who assumes something will be frightening or unsettling or spooky all by itself with no effort on their end.

Bird Box is NOT one of these books. Nothing is visible. Nothing is identified. Nothing is known. All we see are the effects, what happens to the people who see . . . something. Something which drives them utterly insane, to murder, to suicide.

Its the terror of the unknown. The claustrophobic environment. Keep your doors closed and locked. Keep your windows closed, blinds closed, drapes closed, blocked by cardboard and wood and beds and anything else that can be found. Keep your eyes closed.

Hunger, exhaustion, loneliness, fear. Terror of the unknown, the undefined, the unknowable. Now that can be scary, that can be spooky.

Now imagine being a mother with 2 small children all alone in this environment. That is terrifying.