Josh Malerman
Author of Bird Box
About the Author
Josh Malerman is an author from Britain who was short listed for the James Herbert Award for Horror writing for his title Bird Box. This title has also made the bestseller list in 2019. (Bowker Author Biography)
Image credit: Photo of author and musician Josh Malerman.
Series
Works by Josh Malerman
Carpenter’s Farm 2 copies
Decorum at the Deathbed 2 copies
Super Spy 2 copies
Carpenter's Farm: A Serialized Novel 2 copies
Unnerving Magazine Issue #6 1 copy
صندوق طير 1 copy
The Art of Horrible People 1 copy
Associated Works
Shadows Over Main Street: An Anthology of Small-Town Lovecraftian Terror (2015) — Contributor — 46 copies
Chiral Mad 5 — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1975-07-24
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Places of residence
- Michigan, USA
- Occupations
- Musician
- Agent
- Kristin Nelson (Nelson Literary)
- Short biography
- Josh Malerman is an American author and also one of two singer/songwriters for the rock band The High Strung, whose song "The Luck You Got" can be heard as the theme song to the Showtime show "Shameless." His book Bird Box is also currently being filmed as a feature film starring Sandra Bullock, John Malkovich, and Sarah Paulson. Bird Box was also nominated for the Stoker Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the James Herbert Award. His books Black Mad Wheel and Goblin have also been nominated for Stoker Awards.
Members
Reviews
Lists
Best Dystopias (1)
ScaredyKIT 2018 (1)
Strange Towns (1)
Strange Westerns (1)
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 29
- Also by
- 28
- Members
- 5,634
- Popularity
- #4,400
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 402
- ISBNs
- 170
- Languages
- 14
- Favorited
- 5
I truly don’t know how I feel about “Inspection”. On one hand, I can honestly say I’ve never read a book quite like it. Malerman's story idea is one that is both enthralling and disturbing, and throughout the whole book I was very eager to see how things turned out. The ending was quite...dramatic. Harsh. Bloody. A blurb for the book calls the ending “Tarantino-esque” and I think that’s appropriate.
However, the pacing of the book felt off kilter, too. POVs are unevenly distributed, and really unsympathetic, droll characters are given the limelight (looking at you, Warren), and it takes away from the kids. It almost feels to me like Malerman had this really cool idea for a book and started outlining it, but didn’t spend enough time refining and really digging into parts of it. Portions of “Inspection” make for a very interesting suspense/horror novel, but those portions are kinda bogged down by unrefined, unrealized bits.
I'm also a little disappointed at the extreme black or white-ness of the story: because it revolves around a group of boys and a group of girls who are raised without the knowledge of the other, I thought gender and sexuality would be more of a narrative. But when it comes down to it, Malerman basically writes that boys are boys because they have a penis and girls are girls because they don't. It just feels a little dated and unaware.
I truly wish I had liked this book better because I've been looking forwards to it for some time! I think Malerman has potential (as seen with "Bird Box") but "Inspection" doesn't do it for me.… (more)