MALORIE BY ​JOSH MALERMAN

‘Malorie’, sequel to ‘Birdbox’, fails to reach the heights of its predecessor

The release of Birdbox in 2015 heralded one of the most original literary talents of the last decade and in the subsequent five years Josh Malerman’s creativity has dazzled the horror world. But did Birdbox genuinely need a sequel or is it simply a cash-in following the hugely successful Netflix film of the same name? Malerman has said Malorie’s story was unfinished business and so we head back to the same postapocalyptic world, with sequel Malorie, where dangerous strange creatures roam freely and if sighted make the majority of those who see them go mad, kill themselves, those close to them them, or all three.
 
I read Birdbox when it was brand new and over the years have used it for my senior school book club twice, where we held both our discussions blindfolded! Hell, as far as I know, I might even have invented the ‘Bird Box Challenge’ which was hyped when the film was released. Over the past few years, I have enjoyed watching the novel spread out from being a popular horror story in the horror community into an international bestseller and Josh Malerman, who is an aimable and charming guy who knows the genre inside out, deserves every success the book and film brings. But the million-dollar question is a big one: is Malorie any good?
 
First up, it is impossible to recreate the freshness, fear factor or sheer freshness of Birdbox, and to be fair to Malorie does not attempt to, it merely continues the story of main character Malorie a couple of years later. Interestingly, it seems to have been written in such a way that if you have only seen the film then you could probably follow the thread of this outing easily enough. It goes without saying though, reading this without having devoured the predecessor would be the height of stupidity. There are countless references to the characters in Birdbox and what happened, so Malorie is a much richer experience for having read book one.  Another notable difference is that this new book only has one linear plotline, rather than the narratives which were split over two time periods in the original, this fact alone makes Birdbox a more complex and challenging read.
 
Although Malorie was an entertaining page-turner, ultimately it lacked the ambition of Birdbox and seemed rather short, with quite a simplistic storyline which was little more than a journey. Most of the action is set ten years after the conclusion of the previous book, seventeen years after the initial appearance of the creatures, Malorie is living in an isolated summer camp and rarely sees any other people. She lives with her two children Olympia and Tom who are now sixteen who know nothing of the world except what she has told them. But they are teenagers, not exactly rebellious, but want to branch out, Tom especially, longs for freedom and enjoys inventing things and has a deep fascination for the creatures. 
 
For Malorie things take an uncomfortable turn when a census-taker turns up at their camp and although she refuse to talk to him, the man leaves a list of notes and names which detail recorded encounters with the creatures and other information, which leads to Malorie having to make a decision which could potentially change their lives forever. This symbolised the first seed of a possible return to civilisation and the census guy reminded me of the conman pretending to deliver letters in David Brin’s post-apocalyptic masterpiece The Postman. And the fact that a long (but fascinating) sequence of the novel is set on a train reinforces that idea, reminding me of Alden Bell’s zombie classic The Reapers are the Angels, where teenage Temple sees her first train, symbolising something similar, the possible return of the old ways. 
 
Malorie just does not do enough to truly grab me. The creatures are no longer genuinely scary as this time out we realise all they are ever going to do is going to lurk in the background, benign, and rather dull. The mounting dread of Birdbox is also sadly absent. Also, if you are looking for any resolution about the creatures, their motives, origins, or anything else, you are going to be sadly disappointed. I think this was a missed opportunity and the chance to take the story in a new direction, instead Malerman opted to play it safe. Very safe.

The story is told in the third person from Malorie, Tom and Olympia’s point of view, with a couple of smaller characters thrown in. One of the strongest aspects of the book is the contrast between Malorie and the two teenagers, who see their mother as the equivalent of an old granny from a different era. They have grown up in the world full of creatures and have almost superhuman hearing, Malorie on the other hand not only wears a blindfold, but a hood also. Her children rebel against this strict and tiresome regime which they see as over the top. Teenagers will be teenagers. These contrasts were fascinating; as for them survival is not enough, they want to live. These developments kept the book going, the creatures merely blended into the background like wallpaper.
 
I am sure many readers will be delighted with this return to the Birdbox world, but we are talking about Josh Malerman here, an unpredictable author renowned for taking chances with his fiction. I have read everything he has published except Pig, and even if I have not connected with all his fiction, one cannot ever question his vision, originality and desire to push literary boundaries. Malorie is a decent sequel, but it lacks the qualities which attracted me to Josh Malerman in the first place. It is too ‘safe’, not a word I ever expected to use when referring to an author known for originality and fiction which is impossible to categorise.
 
3/5
 
Tony Jones

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