First off, thanks to the publisher and author for an advanced reading copy of Unbury Carol in exchange for an honest review.

Hell’s Heaven this was an interesting read and I’ll pigshit you not, these two (2) phrases are used quite a bit throughout. Think of it not really as a horror novel, but more of a weird western with some ‘true grit’. A novel where the girl on the cover isn’t really the emphasis of the story, but it is the cast of characters surrounding her condition and their motivations that shine through the oil and smoke.

Carol Evers has an interesting condition. Think of her as sleeping beauty with the ability to wake up after a few days without the need of a kiss from a handsome prince. While she is in this comatose state, the world around her continues on at its normal pace, and all she feels is the constant sensation of falling…falling…falling. Unlucky for her, only a couple of people know about her condition; one of them has just died and another is out of state and out of mind, mostly. Lucky for her husband, Dwight, Carol has just gone under and the only person in town that knows she is still alive is him. What awaits him is a promised land of riches. What awaits Carol is six feet of dirt and only hours of oxygen.

Malerman is the author of one of my favorite novels, Bird Box, which just so happened to be one of my Top Reads of 2017 and is being made into a film on Netflix. It releases on December 21st, 2018 and stars Sandra Bullock, Sarah Paulson, and John Malkovich, among others. To be honest, Bird Box put Malerman on my ‘must-read’ list for all future releases because it was just THAT GOOD, so I was happy to get a copy of Unbury Carol for review. Though it is vastly different, being in a western setting vs that of a post-apocalyptic, we do get another strong female character as our main protagonist and the writer does a fine job of instantly connecting her with the reader.

What really drives the interest in the novel is the character development of our villains and “prince charming”, if you will. Seeing all of the events unfold from these different vantage points adds so much dramatic tension and excitement to the novel, but also to the world in which Carol is rarely ever apart of throughout the story. Also, I really enjoyed the development of ‘The Trail’ which does give us a little bit of world-building along our journey. To be honest, my favorite part out of everything was the main villain, Smoke. His character arc has to be one of the finest I’ve seen in a while and his tunes will forever live in the back of my mind.

Overall, if you are a fan of Malerman, you’ll more than likely pick up a copy of Unbury Carol; but I urge those of you who like your fiction a little on the weird or western side of things to give it a shot. The author truly knows how to create interesting worlds and characters and I for one cannot wait to see what’s next.

Holy crap this book is creepy. Could not put it down!!!!

Malerman is the author of one of the greatest must-read horror novels of the decade (Bird-Box), and now he's back with a a wild, wonderful, and daring novel. A mish-mash of genres that refuses to be pegged in any one. The western genre may try to claim this as its own. There is the western dialect, the characters, the setting, the mythical 'trail' where outlaws ride upon with fantastical tales. The horror genre will object, and claim Unbury Carol as its own. There's the Edgar Alan Poe-esque fear of being buried alive, the graphic horror of being burned alive, and the villain who is truly horrific (not to mention Malerman's body of work). One thing for sure is that Malerman has flexed his literally muscles, and plotted a wonderful tale. The notion of having a consciousness but being trapped in a powerless body in a hostile universe is perhaps the horror of our age. Look to "Get Out" and at least two episodes of Netflix's Black Mirror.

This is a story to be read aloud, by a campfire, after a day of riding and your body aching. The night's too dark for stars, the campfire has jumped its pit, and the flames have followed a trail straight to your oil-drenched body. Best to have your grave freshly dug nearby.

Although this book was about a woman in a supernatural coma, it actually had quite a bit going on. I struggled with the slow pace at first, but I got more invested as the story went on and the plot lines for all the characters started converging and it really became a race against time. Would Carol wake up before her burial? Would her ex-lover James get there in time to stop the burial if she didn’t? Would Smoke, the triggerman hired to kill James, succeed before James got there? Would Dwight, Carol’s no-good, scheming husband who was using her condition to finally get rid of her, lose his mind or incriminate himself somehow? Would Sheriff Opal figure out what was going on?

The characters were interesting, and each one was unique. I liked Carol for how, even stuck in a coma-like state, she kept fighting, trying to move, trying to do something to save herself. Dwight was a scumbag who was trying to kill his wife, so obviously I didn’t like him, but I did wonder what he might do as he got more and more panicked and anxious. Then there was Smoke, who was so villainous he made Dwight’s murder scheme look like child’s play. Smoke was messed up and used his specially made lower leg prosthetics to spill oil around and burn people alive. Last but not least, there was James. I didn’t like that he left Carol all those years ago just because he couldn’t handle her condition, but he felt guilty about that and set out to help her when she needed it. And really, who doesn’t like a mysterious outlaw with a good heart? ;-) I even liked Sheriff Opal for how he didn’t immediately jump to conclusions but was rightfully suspicious and not an idiot about things either.

One thing I didn’t like though was the head-hopping/omniscience. I found myself getting confused sometimes when I thought I was in one character’s head only to suddenly be told another character’s thoughts in the next sentence. And there were a lot of characters whose thoughts/POVs we got even though they didn’t all seem necessary.

I’m also disappointed that a certain carrot was dangled in front of the readers throughout the entire book, but then we never got an answer. I guess that was the point, to keep the reader wondering, but I found it frustrating.

Something that could go either way for readers was the supernatural aspect. It was written in a way that made me unsure what was real and what was just happening in characters’ heads. But I think it was meant to be this way, I felt like it made more sense as the story continued, and it’s the kind of thing each reader will come to their own conclusion about.

Overall though, this was a unique paranormal western story with some mystery, some magic, some darkness, and some outlaws, and you just might be surprised at who the real hero turns out to be.

I have been hyped up on the Malerman this year after having read Bird Box. When I heard what Unbury Carol was going to be about, I could not have been more excited about it.

The Strengths

The premise of Unbury Carol was unique and interesting. The main character Carol slips into comas that make her appear to be dead. Carol's husband decided to use the opportunity to pass her off as dead so he could bury her and steal her fortune.

The scenes I enjoyed most were told from Carol’s perspective. Unfortunately, these were not the focus of Unbury Carol, and I would have loved to have more from Carol.

Even when I knew Unbury Carol wasn’t working for me, it was able to hold my attention.

The Weaknesses

There wasn’t a lot of character development for any of the characters so I was frustrated with their actions and confused about their motivations. I had no reason to root for Carol. I still don’t know her even after having read the book.

The pacing was slow until the halfway point, but it did finally pick up and hold until the end.

The most interesting part of the ending (Carol’s fate) was told to the reader. I would have loved a lot more show throughout the book.

After the intense reading experience of Bird Box and the assumption that being buried alive would be a large focus of this one, I was disappointed that Unbury Carol wasn’t a suspenseful read. The western aspect took me by surprise.

I wish there had been a lot more world building both inside Carol’s coma world and outside in this western setting. I would have loved to know more about the coma world just because I was fascinated by it, but I needed more information about the outside world just to understand the setting.

Overall, Unbury Carol was a miss for me, but Josh Malerman is still on my must read list.

3/10: Didn't Work For Me

3.5 stars!

Hell's Heaven! I haven't been this torn about a book in a long while. UNBURY CAROL was brave in exploring new territory, (weird western, I'd call it), while at the same time it wallowed in repetition.

Carol has a rare condition which causes her to fall into a coma for days at the drop of a hat. To anyone unfamiliar with her disease, she appears to be dead. It's important for at least <i> someone </i> to know what's going on with her so that she doesn't get buried alive by mistake. However, Carol is reluctant to tell many people for fear of rejection, and in one case, the departure of her true love who just didn't want to deal with the responsibility. Will she ever find true love again? Will there ever be a cure for her malady? You'll have to read this book to find out.

I'm going to attempt to be honest here, while also attempting not to spoil anything. I feel obligated to mention the repetition of certain words and phrases. They had me rolling my eyes repeatedly. "Hell's Heaven" (!), is a phrase that nearly everyone uses to no end. It's this world's version of OMG, or Holy S**t, I guess. One overused word was "outlaw." (I get it. These are outlaws. We're in the west, they're wanted and/or BAD men.) Lastly "pig-shitt**s." Low down and dirty are the pig shitt**s. I get it. EVERYONE gets it. I'm speculating that the author used these words and phrases with the aim of world-building, and perhaps they helped to accomplish that...at first. After that, they just became so repetitious and irritating that it became kind of funny. (Or that could just be me, I'm told my sense of humor is off.)

Speaking of that world-building-I've read that the hardcover has a map of the Trail. (Everything that happens in this book happens along the Trail itself, or in the villages and towns located on the Trail.) That map is something I would like to see and I'd also like to read more about the Trail in the future. The villains in this book were interesting and a lot of fun, and they ALL had seemed to have some history that involved the Trail. In most cases, those people and the Trail's history were more interesting than the main characters-at least for me.

So, again, I am torn. I loved the creativity and imagination that went into Carol's disease and the building of this western world, while I was bothered by the repetition and what felt like an anti-climactic finale. Where does that leave us? At a 3.5/5 star rating. As always, your mileage may vary and I wold love to hear your thoughts on UNBURY CAROL when you're done!

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. This is it.*

A solid 3.5 star read. Had I been in the right mood, my feelings towards Unbury Carol might have been even more positive, but I had a hard time finding my footing when it came to this book, and I think its peculiar mix of genre elements might have been a contributing factor.

At the center of this story is a woman named Carol Evers, a woman with a very strange condition. Ever since she was a little girl, she has suffered from spells that send her collapsing into a coma-like state, except these comas are virtually indistinguishable from death and they can last for days. During her visits to Howltown—the name young Carol gave to these eerie episodes—she would be awake and aware inside her mind, despite her physical body lying inert. It is her deepest, darkest secret that only a few people other than Carol herself know the truth about, and after the deaths of her mother Hattie and her good friend John Bowie, only two remained. One was her husband, Dwight, an ambitious and conniving man who married Carol for her family’s fortune, and the second person was James Moxie, an old flame of Carol’s who went on to become one of the land’s most notorious outlaws.

However, since the last time Carol saw Moxie was more than twenty years ago, she begins to grow worried that should she lapse into another one of her death-like comas, only Dwight would know the truth of what was really happening to her. Her concerns came a bit too late though, as in fact her husband had been waiting patiently all these years for this exact moment. The next time Carol falls into Howltown, that’s when Dwight decides to strike, carrying out his plot to declare her dead and bury her as quickly as possible, even knowing full well she would be alive. Only through sheer luck does James Moxie manage to catch word of the impending funeral, and knowing what he does about Carol’s condition, it’s a race against time to save his lost love from a terrible fate.

I should have been all over this one: a paranormal Western featuring an outlaw Prince Charming who rides gallantly forth to rescue his Sleeping Beauty? But it actually took several false starts before I was drawn into the story, which opens with a focus on Carol but then over time gradually shifts to focus more on Moxie. The first quarter of the book was also bogged down by abstract descriptions of Howltown, convenient and not-too-convincing plot points, and hasty introductions to the characters that left me feeling neither here nor there about them. On top of this, there were the many flashbacks to contend with, and these would appear erratically throughout the narrative. With Josh Malerman at the helm, I also expected this to be a horror novel, but it’s really not. Instead, it feels more like a mix of dark fantasy combined with the supernatural set in a historical fiction context with a bit of a Western flavor, but because all of this is so haphazardly thrown together in the intro, I had a tough time pinning down the book’s tone and setting—at least in the beginning.

Fortunately, things improve once we get into the meat of the story, especially with James Moxie’s chapters coming to the forefront. A lot of important information is also revealed in the later flashback sections, filling in gaps in the characters’ personalities and motivations. There’s also the added factor of Smoke, a shadowy assassin dispatched to stop Moxie before he can reach Carol, as well as the demon-like antagonist known as Rot, who haunts our protagonists and pulls the strings from behind the scenes. Just as Moxie’s chapters held more action and agency than Carol’s, making him a lot more interesting to read about, Smoke and Rot were also more effective villains than Dwight, increasing the plot’s intensity once they entered the picture and the race against the clock got under way.

In the end, it’s Moxie’s adventures on “The Trail” that saved this book for me. Between the cat-and-mouse chase between him and Smoke and the fascinating personalities he meets while on his journey, Unbury Carol finally became something more than just a story about saving a damsel in distress. A part of me still wishes that Malerman had given the book’s titular character a little more power to influence the plot, but nonetheless I became invested in the story once I accepted the new direction.

In truth, Unbury Carol is a lot more than a Weird Western meets a twisted fairytale retelling, but I guess I’ll just go with that for lack of a better description. The story took its time getting off the ground, but personally speaking, sticking with it was an investment that paid off in the end. It certainly hasn’t put me off from reading more of Josh Malerman’s work, and I look forward to checking out more of his books in the future.

Unbury Carol can be described as a dark western with a horror/supernatural twist. This story is told from multiple points of view across a couple of days. It revolves around Carol, a woman who suffers from a condition where she randomly falls into a coma that can last multiple days. Her deceitful husband, Dwight, uses this latest episode as an opportunity to get rid of her by burying her alive. While Carol is in a coma, she enters a frightening world while trapped in her body. James Moxie, Carol's ex-lover turned outlaw, gets word of Dwight's evil plot and rides to the rescue. There are forces, both human and supernatural, preventing James from making this a smooth journey. The author was very good at capturing the dark sides of mankind. Smoke was the most creative take on a bad guy I have come across in some time. I really liked how the author was able to tell the story from multiple characters' points of view while bringing everything together. The world building was very creative and visionary. The author also tried to bring in dark humor and a love story that was outside the norm, which I think just made the story a bit more entertaining. I would definitely be interested in reading more from this author.

Josh Malerman is quickly becoming an author to look out for. While I've only read Bird Box previously, I loved it. Malerman's tone in that novel really resonated with me. So when I got the opportunity to review Unbury Carol, I was cautiously excited. As soon as I started reading, all caution was abandoned.

Unbury Carol is a sort of twisted retelling of the Sleeping Beauty legend. Carol Evers suffers from an unknown ailment which causes her to inexplicably slip into a death-like coma. The only two people who know of her situation are her husband and her ex-lover, an outlaw named James Moxie, several towns away. This time, as the coma grips her, her husband decides to take advantage of this lack of knowledge. And only her outlaw lover has the potential to save her from a fate worse than death...like, real, actual death!

The novel has a sepia-hued western tone, being something of a period piece, inspired by dark fairytale-esque themes. I felt a sort of Stephen King vibe to this, having some thematic similarities to the likes of Misery or Gerald's Game. It's a solid demonstration of Malerman's ability to write successfully in different styles. There's a fun dichotomy playing throughout the novel. Carol's plight is more intimate and explores the town and its residents. Whereas James Moxie's parallel story fleshes out the treacherous world outside, along The Trail. The details of how the underworld of outlaws functions and the twisted ways in which some of them work is just as entertaining and interesting. There's great balance in this novel. Malerman chooses his words wisely and is able to reveal just enough about a great many things without adding unnecessary page length. He has a gift for being descriptive without being wordy, which is a trait I greatly appreciate. The way he describes Carol's experience while in her coma is chilling and effective: hard to imagine yet clearly defined.

Unbury Carol is a fun, creepy adventure through a well realized, unique experience. Not quite horror, not quite a fairytale, with tints of a fable and the dust of a western, I'm looking forward to reading what comes next from the mind of Malerman.

This is one of those hard to place books. It is a western (horses, guns, etc). It is a fantasy (women who goes into a coma like death frequently, magical gunfighter, etc). There are four main characters:
Carol: who drops off into a coma like sleep that mimics death for days at a time.
Dwight: her evil husband who wants to bury her before she wakes up. He slowly unravels, Tale Tell Heart style, as the book progresses.
James Moxie: a gunfighter who once was in a relationship with Carol but left because her condition scare him. Now he is riding to save her from being buried alive.
Smoke: a really weird man who has been hired to stop James from reaching Carol. His favorite method of killing someone is by fire.
The story followed these main characters as they progress towards the moment of Carol's burial. And while they are interesting, the book did drag a bit. I wish Mr. Malerman had shortened that part of the book, because I got the point, and spent it on a preface. Maybe use those pages to start the story earlier so the reader sees the normal cycle of an episode. But overall it was a very engaging read.

while I appreciate Malermans writing, this story just didn’t do it for me and to be honest it’s my own fault. I went into this expecting a thriller along the same veins of Bird Box, and while there is some strange and eerie elements, this one is a much slower paced story. I put myself at a disadvantage expecting one thing, The story is more complex and has multiple points of view. I did find it interesting Carols “death” illness. I also didn’t really connect with Carol or any of the other characters very well. While I was supposed to feel something for Carol in her dire situation, I just didn’t. This one just went for me but I know it will be up some people’s alley, Think more western with eerie elements going into this.

Ahoy there me mateys! I received this fantasy eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. So here be me honest musings . . .

unbury carol (Josh Malerman)
Title: unbury carol
Author: Josh Malerman
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Del Ray
Publication Date: TODAY!!! (hardcover/e-book)
ISBN: 978-0399180163
Source: NetGalley

This book was an odd wonderful mix of western, fantasy, and magical realism with a dash or two of creepiness thrown in.

The story involves a woman named Carol who "dies" frequently and yet always has awakened. These deaths take the form of a coma where she appears to be dead but is instead transported into another place where she has the sensation of continuously falling, can't move, can't see, and yet can hear the conversations around her. She never knows how long these spells will last and has kept the condition a secret from everyone in her present and past except for her long-dead mother, her husband, and her recently deceased best friend.

With only her husband remaining, she goes into a coma only to realize that her husband has no intention of letting her come back to life. He declares her dead and Carol has no hope. Or so she thinks. But there was one other person who knew her secret long ago and ran away out of fear . . .

There are many aspects of the story that I loved. The setting was an enormous forest with one trail that is a menace to all travelers. The trail begins at one town and leads to series of others on a path, which eventually ends at another town far south. There is seemingly no other outlet to the outside world. These settlements feel like western towns complete with saloons, general stores, brothels, and lots of outlaws. Of course there are the other more genteel members of the towns with money as well. Carol being one of them.

The outlaws are the absolute fun of the novel. There is the notorious "magical" outlaw, James Moxie, who has been retired from the trail and is on a mission to redeem himself. There is the delightfully insane outlaw, Smoke, who has been hired to stop him and has definitely earned his name. There are several others who have individual quirks and fun perspectives. I very much enjoyed all of their viewpoints. There also be perspectives from Carol, her jerk of a husband, the sheriff, and others.

The novel takes place over the course of a couple of days and is mixture of quiet thoughtful sections and outlaw action vignettes. The downside of the novel for me was that Carol is almost a non-entity in the story due to being "dead." It's not her fault and makes sense in the novel but I would have liked for some true action from her. I also didn't love the conclusion of the novel. I did like the otherworldly elements and the lack of many good explanations though I can see how others wouldn't.

I am glad I read this hard-to-define zany novel and will be trying others by the author for sure.

So lastly . . .
Thank you Random House!

Goodreads has this to say about the novel:

Carol Evers is a woman with a dark secret. She has died many times . . . but her many deaths are not final: They are comas, a waking slumber indistinguishable from death, each lasting days.

Only two people know of Carol’s eerie condition. One is her husband, Dwight, who married Carol for her fortune, and—when she lapses into another coma—plots to seize it by proclaiming her dead and quickly burying her . . . alive. The other is her lost love, the infamous outlaw James Moxie. When word of Carol’s dreadful fate reaches him, Moxie rides the Trail again to save his beloved from an early, unnatural grave.

And all the while, awake and aware, Carol fights to free herself from the crippling darkness that binds her—summoning her own fierce will to survive. As the players in this drama of life and death fight to decide her fate, Carol must in the end battle to save herself.

To visit the author’s website go to:
Josh Malerman - Author

To buy the novel please visit:
unbury carol - Book

To add to Goodreads go to:
Yer Ports for Plunder List

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

I received a free Kindle copy of Unbury Carol by Josh Malerman courtesy of Net Galley  and Random House Ballentine, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and my fiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus pages.

I requested this book due to the description given on Net Galley. It sounded interesting and compelling. It is the first book by Josh Malerman that I have read.

To say this book was a major disappointment is an understatement. The premise of the book was very promising, but the author managed to make an interesting approach dull and uninteresting. The author's prior book, Bird Box, received rave reviews, won awards and is being made into a movie. This one reads like he had to crank out another one and phoned it in. It was simply not my cup of tea.

I will not recommend you skip this book as other early reviews seem to really like it, but I strongly suggest you check it out of your local library before investing in a purchase.

I am drawn to books that twist the rules of life and death. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North, Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, and now Unbury Carol by Josh Malerman feature protagonists living lives where death is not necessarily the end.

In this Western / Paranormal hybrid, Carol Evers suffers from a condition in which at any moment she involuntarily slips into a coma that mimics death. Then she reawakens, sometimes days later, as if nothing had occurred. Within the coma, she free falls paralyzed through a bottomless black void that she calls Howltown, but she is also mentally conscious, able to hear what is happening around her seemingly dead body.

Two people know of Carol’s condition. Her husband Dwight, a man seeking freedom from his wife’s shadow, and a former love, the outlaw James Moxie. When Carol once again “dies”, her husband carries out a nefarious plan, while Moxie returns from afar to ensure she wakes again.

This book is really a cat-and-mouse game between Moxie and a crazed pyromaniac triggerman, Smoke, hired to eliminate him along the Trail before he can return to Carol’s side. Thrown into the mix is Rot, a spiritual manifestation of grief, regret, and death who taunts several characters along the way.

While I enjoyed the story Malerman tells, I would have much preferred the storytelling lens focus on Carol, her relationship with her mother Hattie, and how she has navigated life with her condition. Carol, the book’s namesake, is unfortunately little more than a side note to the story of the men surrounding her. She spends a majority of the book “dead” being moved here and there and everywhere and free-falling through Howltown. Carol in the spotlight would have changed this story dramatically for the better.

Unbury Carol is an interesting and entertaining addition to Malerman’s library, but Bird Box will remain his finest.

Thank you to Random House / Del Rey, NetGalley, and Josh Malerman for providing me an advanced digital copy for my review. soon...

Pub date - 4/10/18

If 'Cinderella' met 'Serpent and the Rainbow' with a slight steampunk twist, this is what you would have. Full of unease, at once unsettling and engaging, I loved the characters in this story. Wouldn't mind seeing this brought to the big screen!

I've never read Josh Malerman before but I forsee a few of his books making their way onto my TBR list. A cross between a supernatural western and sleeping beauty. This book was really well done. There was mythology, "magic" and some really creepy characters. Carol has a condition where under stress she lapses into a coma where she appears dead. Her mother has always feared that she would one day be buried alive and makes sure that Carol always tells someone else about her condition. After her best friend dies the only other person in the town who knows about Carol is her husband, fearing that this isn't good enough Carol decides to confide in her maid but before she can she lapses into a coma. Her husband decides this is his chance to get rid of his wife and keep her fortune for himself. What he doesn't know is that Carol did mention to her maid that her boyfriend from the past, the outlaw James Moxie also knows of Carols condition. When Carol "dies" her maid sends off a telegram to the outlaw and thus begins a race to save Carol.

There were so many really interesting elements to this book from the characters to the mystery of the "trail". The mystery kept you on the edge of your seat right up to the bitter end. I really enjoyed this book.

Copy furnished by Net Galley for the price of a review.

How dead can you be, and still be alive? Carol Evers can tell you all about it the next time she wakes up.  She can listen with her mind's ear, no one else can hear.  

The Trail, where legends are made, where you can expect tricky lighting, and space that is "off".  Now, throw in Smoke and a mirror.  A sour memory and a lost love.  By the way, I'd advise steering clear of Smoke.  He has a penchant for oil (only the good stuff will do!), and he talks in sing-song rhyme-ish whispers.  A horrifying pair of prosthetics and some weird ass pants, and he's good to go.  

If you are looking for something different, this would fall into that category.

I thought the premise for this book sounded intriguing. A woman stricken with a condition that puts her into a death like state for several days and a husband who has her buried alive. I love a good suspenseful story but this was more of a slow burn. Things happen pretty quickly and my first thought is I am pretty sure of the ending but not the who, what, when, where and how. The books blurb that sounded so interesting now feels like it gave the whole story away. So I didn’t feel the suspense I was expecting until close to the very end. The books is pretty quick to read but it was not holding my interest as much as I would have liked. So I am basically just waiting for the big trick at the end. I wasn’t expecting a sort of western themed story in a not typical western landscape. I enjoyed the parts of the story along the trail and I especailly liked the bad guy Smoke. He seemed to have the most depth and was the most interesting part of the book. I really enjoyed The Bird Box and I was excited when I saw Malerman has a new book. I went in with high expectations (even though I tried to tell myself not to). So maybe that has skewed my reading experience.