Number 51 - Malorie - Josh Malerman

This has to be my most anticipated book of the year, in fact of the last two years.  It was originally slated for release last year but Josh Malerman is a perfectionist when he wants to be and it was held back while he gave it those last few tweaks.

The big question is of course - was it worth the wait?

There's a danger inherent in looking forward to a new book, or film, or whatever, that you'll build it up so much in your mind that the real thing can never compare.

Judging by the fact that this is the fourth Malerman book I've reviewed this year (and I think the 8th since I started this blog). any regular readers out there will be able to guess how high my hopes were for this book.

And it not only lived up to, but exceeded them.


The story picks up a few years after the ending of Birdbox, and then jumps another ten for the main body of the novel.

Seventeen years have now passed since the creatures arrived.  Malorie is still living with the two children, now on the cusp of adulthood.  When she finds out that her parents may still be alive, she sets out on a quest to find them.

Josh Malerman is a world-builder.  In each of his full length works he's created distinct strange, warped realities that work on their own terms.  The world he created in Bird box is nightmarish and claustophobic in the extreme.

I've seen negative reviews of Bird box, claimig the science is hokey.  Of course it is.  It's not a scientific treatise.  The central characeter isn't some scientific genius trying to piece together how and what went wrong, she's a terrified woman trying to survive a danger that can't even be looked at safely. How and why it's happening isn't important.  It is happening.  That's what we need to know. The point of the story isn't to be scientifically accurate, it's to create tension and make us scared for this woman and these two children.  And by god he did that in spades in the first book.

He keeps that going in Malorie too.  We also see chapters from the points of view of young Tom and Olympia. The relationships between the characters are strained - two teenagers and the ultimate in strict moms.   These are scared people trying to survive a world that human's don't seem equipped for any more. Is survival all it's cracked up to be? Shouldn't people be trying to move on? As Tom yells at his mother at one point "All we ever do is survive!"

There are segments in this book so intense that I physically forgot to breathe while I was reading it. The set pieces are startlingly good.

There are minor flaws.  A character they meet along the way (I won't name because - spoilers)  is allowed to fade out of the story just as he was becoming an interesting protagonist in his own right.  There are a few coincidences that seemed a bit too convenient.  But these are minor quibbles in an otherwise excellent book.

This is a worthy follow up to Bird Box.  It builds on the mythology of the first book.  We find out how people have been trying to move on in a world where survival is a skill in itself.  Malorie has kept her small family apart from the world and it's through hers and the children's perceptions that we encounter the changed landscape of the world.

Last but not least - check out that gorgeous cover.

Easy 8/10

Available from any place you can buy books.  Try to support your local bookstore.  Jeff Bezos doesn't need any more money.