Thank you for the early copy!

I recently read and watched Bird Box and wanted to pick up something else by Josh Malerman. I decided to check out this upcoming horror/thriller novel from him. I recommend checking out this thrilling and unique novel. It was unlike anything I've read before, well-crafted and so interesting.

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

Experiments do not always come to fruition in the way that is expected.  This is a whole new twist on the concept of Parenthood.  The dreaded daily Inspections, checking for disease and rot.  If there is any sign of spoilage, the Corner awaits.  The Corner hums and croons and sometimes it rumbles.  What goes on behind that door? 

I applaud this author's fresh ideas, how he eschews the formulaic recipes and has yet to use a cookie-cutter.  I loved <u>Bird Box</u> and also really liked <u>Unbury Carol</u>.  Unfortunately, I couldn't gain much traction with this one.  A little too YA-ish for my taste, but that may add to the appeal for plenty of others.

So, confession time: I didn’t love Bird Box. I’m talking about the book, not the movie. I also read Unbury Carol which I did love. Inspection is my 3rd novel by Malerman and I’ve come to a conclusion: Josh Malerman is a very exciting writer.

I loved Inspection.

Our plot is so very different from anything I’ve read before. Within the first couple of pages, I was completely entrenched in this dark fable of our boys and girls who have only letters for names and no clue about any of the truths of life.

While the book starts rather tamely – a slow, but intriguing discovery of horrendous truth – the book eventually reaches a shocking crescendo, and it’s absolutely worth the read!

Josh Malerman keeps surprising me. I have no idea what he has in store for us next, but I already know that it will be utterly different and shocking!

*ARC Provided via Net Galley.

Up until recently my experience with Josh Malerman has been limited to reading his previous book Unbury Carol, which I didn’t care for at all and it being a western certainly didn’t help either. So based on that, not sure I would have tried the Inspection, but then I watched Netflix’s adaptation of his debut novel and it was actually pretty good. The ever quantity over quality Neftlix actually did a good job and the story was terrific. And so when soon afterwards this one appeared on Netgalley, my interest in it was considerable enough to merit a read. And sure it was overwritten and Malerman get occasionally carried away with poeticizing the narrative, but once you either get past it or used to it, it’s really good. The story is dynamic, original and profoundly disturbing. Actually I’m thrilled I haven’t read the description prior to reading the book, because it gives away entire too much. It gives away one of the book’s greatest surprises, which the reader doesn’t discover until 50% in. But since the description deemed it ok to do so, it actually makes it easier for me as a reviewer. And so this is a story of an experiment, an insane social experiment that tests the theory of personal potential uninterfered with by the distraction of the opposite sex. To that end two schools exists, one for boys and one for girls, where the children are raised with strict discipline, demanding study courses and complete lack of knowledge of the existence of the opposite sex. These schools are operated by the mysterious and terrifying D.A.D. and M.O.M., whose idea of fun is playing polygraph test games with the kids. I say mysterious, because the book delves tragically briefly into the lives of those two prior to the experiment, which is a giant waste of potential, really…finding out more about that level of inhumane evil and psychology behind it would have been fascinating. But the book fascinates in other ways, mainly in how much more advanced the girls end up being than the boys. And the world is still operated by men…how? Wow. WTF. And then there’s the stunning arrogance and misguided pride behind the minds behind the curtain…thinking they can somehow override puberty with conditioning, thinking it possible to defy nature, the obscene conceit of it all. Needless to say the experiment isn’t going to go to plan and when it veers off its meticulously preset track, it’ll do so spectacularly and brutally. And it’ll be as strangely mesmerizing as any crash of such proportions. Which is to say you might not be able to put the book down. Plus it also works so cleverly as an allegory on parenting. Every act of parenting is essentially a social experiment, the parents presume to do what’s right and best for their child, paving that road with best intentions and all too often ignoring the road signs. The Inspection is merely an act of Parenthood, albeit extreme. Then again, it’s what makes it such a great read. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.