The story

The original story of Bird Box ended Malorie finally finding sanctuary in Jane Tucker school for blind after years of isolation. But peace is not to last. Malorie starts with violent confrontation two years later when insanity and death reaches perimeters of school, forcing Malorie to flee with six-year-old Tom and Olympia in middle of murder and chaos. The start of Malorie is somewhat straight jump to action. If you have seen movie ”28 Weeks Later” you know what we are talking about.

After epilogue story jumps ten years in time where Malorie lives with sixteen-year-old Tom and Olympia at Camp Yadin, isolated again from any other people. Malorie is adamant about security, forcing children to use blindfolds almost all the time in case creatures find their way into the camp.

Their day-to-day living is disturbed when stranger knocks on their door. By accident Malorie finds out that her parents may be alive in other town which sends them into dangereous, blindfolded travel to strange town, hoping to find Malorie’s parents who have never seen their grandchild.

Growth pains

Malorie’s theme is largely set in conflict between Malorie’s over-protective parenthood of her children where everything is forbidden in fear of horrible things.  But teenagers want to have their independence even after the world ends. After all, the teenagers have only heard stories of the world Malorie used to live in. They have always lived with monsters. Malorie is also still traumatized of Gary who is always in Malorie’s fears, watching and grinning at them. These tensions lead into conflict between Malorie and children: the children want to move on in life but Malorie does not want to let go of the past. This can be seen as post-apocalyptic version about struggles of growing up and adulthood.

The writing

The outside world is created well in the book. Many years have passed after events in Bird Box and people have somewhat regrouped in small groups and towns and have even tried to study the monsters. Even though this would be somewhat expected, it also removes the terror of blindness that was in Bird Box. Now being blindfolded is mundane thing. 

The story is well written and Malorie’s struggles in the world full of monsters is pleasant to read. The only problem in the book is that the ending feels really rushed which might be unsatisfying to some readers.