Title: Malorie
Author: Josh Malerman
Series: Bird Box (#2)
Genre: Science Fiction/Horror
Number of Pages: 320
Rating: B-
Recommended?: Yes
Entertaining, but not as good as Bird Box.
Twelve years after the events of the first book, Malorie’s kids Tom and Olympia are now seventeen years old and they’re holed up in isolation, hiding from the creatures that drive you insane if you look at them. Tom is rebelling against his mom and hope to invent a device he can safely look at the outside world through.
Then a census taker comes to the door and Malorie discovers her long-lost parents, who she’d assumed were dead for many years, might in fact be alive. Hoping against hope that the census taker is right, Malorie takes Tom and Olympia on the ‘blind train’ on a mission to reunite her family. The blind train is the only mode of transportation for miles around and the people riding on it seem to be calm to the point of being complacent, feeling protected within its walls. But is it really safe? Malorie, who has spent so much time fighting for survival, doesn’t think so. She wants her kids to have their defenses up but Tom has other ideas.
The beginning of this book was really info dump-y and there was a lot of exposition. The writing sometimes felt stilted and awkward. The story was good but Tom really got on my nerves. He was always dissing his mom for being overprotective and paranoid and criticizing her way of doing things. I was like ‘bitch, she kept you alive for seventeen years and you’re going to whine and complain about her methods being ‘excessive?’‘ Malorie did the seemingly impossible by keeping two infants alive in this world and raising them into functioning young adults and Tom’s going to be a dick about feeling like she’s a helicopter mom.
The whole thing with Gary (the human antagonist from the first book) felt a little forced and the way his storyline got resolved also felt rushed, like everything just got thrown together at the end. Malorie is still an awesome character and a great protagonist to return to. I also liked Olympia and her imaginative, bookish personality and level-headed way of dealing with conflict. Overall, it felt like a slightly unnecessary sequel but it still brought some satisfying answers and closure to the series.
Sarah's Corner 