“Bird Box” — The Book Version

I’ve not watched Netflix’s new “original” film, which has amassed record numbers of viewers since its release, but I have read the book (by Josh Malerman).

The book version of “Bird Box” is alright — a glowing review, right? — it reads much less like horror or mystery and more like dystopia. (I think that’s indicative of the fact that the book version really doesn’t spend a lot of time focusing on Malorie’s blindfolded trip down the river, which as I understand makes up a significant portion of the movie version. Rather, the book is spent — if I were to ‘guestimate’ — 90% in past scenes and elucidations…or at least it felt like that.)

While the book was alright and certainly worth the read, ultimately I just didn’t especially enjoy the ending (don’t worry, I won’t spoil anything). At the same time, how the heck do you properly end a dystopian novel in which the world has crumbled entirely?

But anyway, from everything I’ve read about the film, and from talking to a few friends about the film version, it seems as though viewers were not pleased or were overtly critical about “Bird Box” as a supposed horror film.

Where are the monsters? What is with this dumb blindfold gimmick if nothing bad is really happening — if there’s nothing bad to actually see?

Debates over these sort of questions, and many more, have seemingly taken over the internet landscape lately. It’s to the point where you could really spend several hours sifting through the various theories — or even the non-theories, like with this Mashable article that suggests we shouldn’t even try to explain the film’s meaning.

Now, while I don’t claim to know the meaning myself nor do I believe the book version of “Bird Box” delivers a definitive meaning from this story, I do think that if you’re someone interested in these sort of questions, you’ll likely gain more from the book than from reading internet theories. It doesn’t get any more clear than looking at the original source material. And contrary to what that Mashable article says, I think it’s perfectly healthy to search for meaning — what’s the point of life and literature if we’re not asking the bigger questions??

Even if you read the novel and don’t get the answers you’re looking for, I would just keep in mind that often books (or really any form of art) can give different people different interpretations. In other words, “Bird Box” might not (and probably doesn’t) have some neatly wrapped universal message. What the author intends people to take away from the novel, may not be what readers actually take away. (That’s what Stuart Hall’s ideas about encoding/decoding are all about.)

At any rate, while I don’t think “Bird Box” the novel is some masterpiece, soon to be canonized work of literature (or maybe it is, who knows?), I firmly believe that if you’ve seen the movie and are looking for more — more in terms of meaning or social commentary, then check out Malerman’s book. It’s a short read —

— and no, this is not an advertisement. But maybe just an endorsement to read more books.