Bird Box (Bird Box #1)

by Josh Malerman

Wires run from under the back door into the first-floor bedrooms, where amplifiers alert Malorie and the children to any sounds coming from outside the house. The three of them live this way. They do not go outside for long periods of time. When they do, they are blindfolded.

The world outside, the empty malls and restaurants, the thousands of unused vehicles, the forgotten products on idle store shelves, all of it presses in on the house. It all whispers of what awaits them.

How can she expect her children to dream as big as the stars if they can’t lift their heads to gaze upon them?

It talked about irreconcilable life-forms. Two worlds whose compounds were entirely foreign might cause damage to one another if they were to cross paths.

We left because some people choose to wait for news and others make their own.

The moment between deciding to open your eyes and then actually doing it is as scary a thing as there is in the new world.

In all this cold, painful world, the Boy, hearing her struggle, is helping her row.

It feels like a cage was lowered over them all. A cardboard box. A bird box. Blocking out the sun forever.

This action, this handing off of her child, will always shine to Malorie. The moment Olympia did right by her child despite having lost her mind.

it’s better to face madness with a plan than to sit still and let it take you in pieces.