Enjoyable, but I can't shake the feeling that it just wasn't needed I loved Bird Box and this felt as if it took away all the mystery from it.

Malorie by Josh Malerman
I give this audiobook 4 stars
In the 17 years since the 'creatures' appeared,Malorie has raised her two children - Olympia and Tom on the run then in hiding.
When a census-taker leaves a list of names of survivors there are 2 names Malorie knows.
2 names for whom she'll break every rule, and take her children across the wilderness, in the hope of becoming a family again..
Narrated by Katherine Mangold.
This sequel is told from Malorie,Tom and Olympias point of view.l found myself being swept along listening to the frightening,thrilling and dramatic storyline and l loved Malermans detailed description and characters.A gripping dystopian horror that l finished in 2 sittings.Well worth waiting for,a superbly satisfying audiobook !
Highly recommended
Thanks to Netgalley, the Author and the Publisher for my chance to read and review this book

AUDIO BOOK DID NOT DOWNLOAD
Due to issues with the new Netgalley shelf app the book did not download to my phone and has now been archived so I am unable to review the book.

I decided to rewrite my review as I don’t feel that my previous review was good enough for this fantastic read.

I was a huge fan of Bird box when it came out, it ticked all the boxes for my kind of read, so when I discovered there was a sequel called Malorie I was so excited and immediately requested it as an ARC in both as an ebook and an audiobook in the hope that I would be accepted for one of them. I was delighted to discover Id been granted the audiobook and boy what a book!

The story began just a couple of years after Malorie and the children arrived at the school for the blind, chaos had arrived at the school and they were forced to flee. Fast forward 10 years and the trio are living at an abandoned campsite and were surviving by abiding to by strict rules, living by the fold and never, never looking. One day a stranger arrived at the camp claiming to be completing a census, despite being turned away he leaves literature that contains some potentially life changing information, this causes Malorie and the children to take risks they would never have considered before.

An exhilarating and exciting read, I found that there were many “what!!” Moments and at times I would rewind to confirm what I had just heard. Listening at night in the dark, I found it to be quite creepy and frightening, helped by the narrators chilling voice.
5 well earned stars, a gripping story from beginning to end.

Unfortunately, Malorie was the sequel no one knew was coming….

And it was completely unnecessary.

Malorie’s kids are now teenagers/young adults, boy and girl, Tom and Olympia, and after many years of living in ‘darkness’, blind to the world, they get a sudden ‘ray of hope’ that there is safe place where they can go to, where there are survivors. Malorie ignores this news at first until she discovers that in the list of survivors are 2 familiar names: her parents, who she had assumed to be dead over a decade ago since this all started.

After much persuasion from her kids, they eventually board this train that will take them to this so-called safe place where the survivors live in peace away from the ‘creatures’….

Honestly, I didn’t see the point of this book. It was, essentially 2 teens rebelling for most of the time, Malorie complaining for the majority of the time as well and then the ending was so rushed that it just didn’t pay off.

Also, the fact that they ‘personified’ what was happening and simply name them ‘creatures’, makes it feel a bit too… alien like in my opinion.

We find out Tom is a creative little inventor, Olympia is immune to these… creatures since the day she was born (so the blindfold was useless for her), and then all this just so Malorie eventually gets reunited with her father and takes off her blindfold for the first time in many many years…. And it ends.

The mystery, the unknown of Bird Box, the fact no one knew what was causing this madness, chaos and death, was what made it suspenseful and somewhat scary.

What they did in the sequel completely took away from that mystery of Bird Box.

I just feel this sequel shouldn’t exist. I’m sorry, but there was just no point to it. I expected more and it didn’t pay off.

#Malorie #NetGalley

I really enjoyed Bird Box but I think I enjoyed this more. Bird Box was a difficult read for me, having two small children, so Malorie - set 10+ years later was much more bearable.
The book starts off with chaos and yet again Malorie and the kids are forced to find another home and safe haven.
With an equally perilous journey as Bird Box Malorie, this time had the help but also the drama that teenage children bring - the battling of wills and needs for independence teemed with Malorie's distrust and paranoia made for an interesting dynamic.
This was a great read but not quite as 'edge of your seat' reading as Bird Box.

I read and enjoyed Bird box when it came out and was excited to hear that Malorie was coming. I was unsure how Malories would stand up again Bird box but I really enjoyed it as a follow on. I have to say I still prefer Bird Box the most though. I enjoyed the Narration, it was very easy listening.

While nowhere near as good as Bird Box, this was a solid book, enjoyable and tense. Naively I was going for Sandra Bullock to narrate the audiobook!

This book was archived almost as soon as I was accepted for it, as a result I did not have time to download it and therefore cannot read it.

The narrator for this one did a great job. I enjoyed this continuation of the story of Malorie from Bird Box. It had just the right mixture of mystery and spooky vibes, without being too scary. The surprises this one brought were nice! I enjoyed learning more about Olympia and Tom. Overall an enjoyable listen.

I listened to Malorie on audio thanks to @netgalley sending me an advanced copy back in July.
I honestly hadn't been too fussed about reading Malorie as I didn't think it could improve upon Bird Box which I really loved. But I got swept along with the hype and to be honest I wish I hadn't bothered 🙄. This was a thoroughly disappointing sequel to what was a thrilling, pacy, and at times terrifying predecessor.
Malorie started off well, throwing you right into the action but it very quickly settled into a slow, meandering story that added nothing to its originator.
The characters were so one dimensional, especially 'The Teens' Tom & Olympia. They may be two of the most annoying characters ever!! 😒
There was no suspense and although this is a short book it felt like it went on and on forever. The ending was way too rushed and convenient, really not what I was expecting at all.
Everything that made Bird Box so great like the creeping terror, the mysterious nature of the creatures, the investment in the characters that was all missing from this lackluster sequel 😟.
So all in all a definite loser for me. I originally gave it three stars but on reflection it's more of a two. Let's try and forget this ever happened, ok? 😭😭

I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. I don't think Bird Box really needed a sequel although I was exciting when I first heard one was coming out.

Unfortunately I am unable to review as never received this on my Netgalley shelf.
Unfortunately I am unable to review as never received this on my Netgalley shelf.

A creepy way to spend a rainy afternoon in lockdown.

Malorie and her kids have been holed up, away from the evil creatures, for a long time. But then a stranger arrives and everything is suddenly upside down!

Everyone knows the Bird Box legend, and just what these creatures are supposedly capable of if someone lifts their blindfold and takes a peek. This sequel moves similarly to the original: it's pacey, reflective, lots of character nuance... Malorie's kids take centre stage here and they're well-crafted offspring with their own responses to a dark, dark, world.

The narration was good, if a little dictatorial sounding. The vocal has quite an edge to it, which sometimes turns what might be quietly haunting into something a bit sharper. Overall, though, a decent listen and easy to get lost in.

I read and loved BIRD BOX by Josh Malerman last year so I was excited to hear that there was a follow up novel coming. At the same time I was a bit apprehensive to see if MALORIE would live up to the first book.

In BIRD BOX, we met Malorie and her two children living in a world inhabited by creatures that if seen drive a person into violent madness. We learned of Malorie’s backstory and how the world came to be as it is. People have adapted to this world by wearing blindfolds anytime they venture outdoors and their lives are essentially lived in the dark. As a result the creatures outside are really the unknown and characters never know if one might be standing right next to them as they venture out for necessities.

In MALORIE, the book begins not long after BIRD BOX ends, but soon events transpire that send our title character back out into the world. This is followed by a forward jump in time so this story does bring new developments to the world as people have had more time to adapt and find new ways of living.

I really enjoyed MALORIE a lot. I think the author did a fantastic job of creating a logical next step in the series and the forward jump in time allowed for new ideas and ventures to explore. It is hard to say a lot about the plot of this one without giving spoilers for the first book and I absolutely recommend going into that one blind (pun… mostly unintentional?).

Of the two, I preferred BIRD BOX as it was much more close focused on Malorie and her story. I think the more closed setting of the first book and the isolation inside Malorie’s head added a lot to the creepiness of the first book. That said, I did enjoy the new twists and turns of MALORIE and learning more about the wider world. I worried that the sequel would give us too much information about the creatures and the world outside and I think it managed to walk the line well between revealing more and revealing too much.

I absolutely recommend BIRD BOX if you haven’t picked that one up, and the follow up MALORIE is for sure worth a read next! The audio for both was absolutely worth picking up as well!

When I saw this book, I saw something that I never do: I read the sequel without having read the first book. Like most folks with Netflix, I have seen the film based on the first book so I knew roughly what had happened although I feel like I missed some of the more subtle callbacks.

This book starts out really high energy with a very dramatic opening which drew my in immediately. The shift to a slow tense novel after such an impactful opening was a bit jarring after that but it somehow still works.

There is a definite feeling of being unsure who is right running through this book which makes the ending so satisfying.

I went into this book very skeptical as I wasn't sure what else there was to tell of this story and ended-up really enjoying this book.

I felt as though the ending was a little rushed but beyond that a really great read.

We all know that the NetGalley audiobook feature and app are new! Unfortunately this also means there are a few bumps along the way, for me this included being unable to actually download this audiobook. Or any audiobooks to be honest. Now that it's been archived it will be impossible to do so.

I've given the average rating so that you can see this feedback and know there is an issue!

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Hachette Audio UK in exchange for an honest review.

SPOILERS FOR BIRDBOX AHEAD.

I wasn't sure what to expect from a Birdbox sequel. The first book ended so perfectly that, while I was excited for this book, I wasn't entirely sure it needed to exist. Malorie opens by undoing the positive ending of Birdbox rather abruptly which was jarring, but thankfully it was all uphill from there.

Malorie is interestingly named because really it's the story of her and her children. We initially pick up two years after where Birdbox ended, followed quickly by a ten year time skip. Olympia and Tom are now 16 year old teenagers with stronger opinions and thoughts of their own. Tom in particular is beginning to doubt his mother's view of the creatures and thinks there might be another way to live his life rather than in fear of them. When Malorie gets some news which causes them to consider venturing out from their home, Tom's new rebellious streak only continues to grow.

I was really surprised by how much I ended up loving this book. I genuinely think it improves upon the first as it expands the world, raises the stakes and crafts a far less predictable story (in my eyes). I had no idea where this story was going to go and it was exciting to see how certain things developed. The tension built throughout the story and I loved the new characters and new elements of the world we were introduced to. I only really had one criticism and that's that certain aspects of the ending felt a bit too contrived. There was one story element I was enjoying and it was a key part of Malorie's paranoia, but then this element gets pushed too far and I feel it was a little hard to swallow. It's a shame because it was the only thing that got in the way of me enjoying it really. I really enjoyed the narrator of the audiobook as well and I felt she added a lot to the story.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by Malorie. I'm so happy that I got the chance to read a sequel to a book I really enjoyed and that it managed to expand upon and continue the story in such a satisfying way. This is definitely worth a read if you've been sitting on the fence about it and the audiobook is a great way to experience it.

Overall Rating: 4.5/5 stars

I received an advance copy of this audiobook from Netgalley. The audiobook function is new on Netgalley and is very much in the beta stages. I was unable to download this or another audiobook using the iPhone app and ultimately had to download to my work Android phone. Not ideal.

If I thought finishing Station Eleven while a pandemic hit was bizarre, I have no words for reading a post-apocalyptic novel. In Josh Malerman's Malorie (sequel to Bird Box) our protagonist talks about people mourning the world they have lost, meanwhile in the real world, we've learned that it doesn't take an apocalypse to lose a way of life.

Malorie is set 17 years after apocalypse, a decade after the events in Bird Box. Boy and Girl, Tom and Olympia, are teenagers now and if you think the post-apocalypse will protect parents from teenage rebellion, think again.

A census man arrives on the doorstep where Malorie and the teens are hiding out only to be chased away by a terrified Malorie. He departs, leaving documents on the porch.

It is in these documents, disturbing glimpses into a world that they dare not see, that Malorie discovers that her parents Sam and Mary Walsh might be alive.

It took years to prepare for their journey down the river at the end of Bird Box but the maddening allure of the possibility of her parents being alive drives the family out into the world and on to the fabled Blind Train, travelling towards where the Walshes were last recorded.

I absolutely loved Bird Box, giving it a glowing 5 star review back in 2014 and remarking that it "couldn't be creepier if it was woven together with cobwebs and dust using rodent bones as needles". I want to say that I had high expectations for Malorie but the truth is that I didn't think Bird Box needed a sequel and I was happy to just read Malerman's other works instead (A House at the Bottom of a Lake is particularly good).

It turns out that my instincts were partially correct and I'm going to base my rating based on an average of several factors.

As a sequel to Bird Box

Two stars. Malorie definitely wasn't as good as Bird Box. Where Bird Box hinted and implied, Malorie told and explained. Bird Box was creepy, interesting and terrifying, Malorie rehashed a lot of what we knew already and was often dull.

As a horror story

Two stars. Bird Box terrified me. It was the scariest book I'd ever read, Malorie was not.

As a standalone post-apocalyptic novel

Three stars. Had I read this on its own, without expecting it to be particularly scary or live up to its predecessor, I would have rated it above The Road which I couldn't finish but far below The Walking Dead, The Survival Game or Wye. It's quite an interesting (albeit slow) quest, traversing a post-apocalyptic landscape while blindfolded and landing up on a Blind Train.

As a young adult novel (which it unexpectedly became)

Three stars. This is a strange addition but so much in Malorie focuses on Tom and Olympia, their rebelliousness and their desperation to see the world they have grown up in that I figured it deserved a rating as a YA novel and it does okay on this level.

On average, I give Malorie an okay two-and-a-half out of five stars, rounded up to three stars. I'm not entirely sure I'd recommend it but I'd definitely recommend Malerman's other works.

I listened to Malorie on audiobook narrated by Katherine Mangold who did a great job of capturing Malorie's fear and desperation as well as capturing distinct voices for the other characters.

<i>A huge thanks to the publisher, Netgalley for the audio, and Edelweiss for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.</i>

Well. This was a huge disappointment. Not going to lie, I didn't have the highest expectations going in, given my feelings about Bird Box, but I had questions at the end of that, and had hoped to get answers in this sequel.

Instead, I got a flimsy excuse for Malorie and her kids to leave the school for the blind, and a 10 year time jump. It truly felt like Malerman just wanted to cash in on Bird Box' success while not really having a proper story in mind.

Don't get me wrong, the time jump was a good idea. Getting to see from Tom and Olympia's POVs was a definite positive of this book, and I related to Tom a lot. Because he was as annoyed and frustrated with Malorie as I was. As I am. Because Malorie is the absolute worst character ever. She is so whiny it made me want to scream. The narrator just makes it worse, just like with Bird Box.

But those POVs are the only positive thing I can think of, because if I had to spend this entire book in Malorie's head, I think <i>I</i> would have been the one going mad. This entire book is just flimsy and slow and just outright maddening. I wanted to scream multiple times. It was predictable, in the worst way imaginable. If this wasn't an ARC, I would have DNFed. Even now, I was incredibly. tempted.

And even with those POVs, things are hidden from you, adding some unreliable narrator to the already awful mix.

I just- don't do it, folks. It's not worth it. I promise you it's not. Not even the ending. It might just be 320 pages, but all 320 of them are wholly unnecessary and don't add anything to the original novel. Which already wasn't great, in my opinion. I fear for the day this book becomes a movie, knowing I'll watch it just to see how they deal with the unreliable narrator. Just to be even more annoyed. Because I'm a masochist.

So basically what I'm saying is, don't be like me. Stay away.