If You Liked This… | Book Tag

I love this tag, and if felt about time I got involved again. It’s simple: Pick a popular book and recommend a lesser-known title that it brings to mind. The idea is that, if you enjoyed one, you’ll likely enjoy the other as well. Let’s get started!

1. The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell & House of Glass by Susan Fletcher

Do you like historical fiction set in creepy, haunted mansions? How about a thick, brooding atmosphere, a tangled web of secrets to unravel, and a resourceful female protagonist eager to get to the truth, whatever the cost? If so, you could do far worse than these gothic delights, both of which I loved.

2. The Pisces by Melissa Broder & Animals Eat Each Other by Elle Nash

The Pisces is undoubtedly polarising, and was easily one of the most controversial picks for this year’s Women’s Prize. I can see Animals Eat Each Other causing the same divide, as both books focus on a complex and not wholly likable heroine as she uses her body to seek validation and meaning, and to distract from her own self-loathing. Bold and unflinching, they really pack a punch.

3. Bird Box by Josh Malerman & The Silence by Tim Lebbon

The recent (not very good) film adaptation of The Silence drew inevitable comparisons to Bird Box, but Lebbon’s book stands as its own valid offering. Both are horror novels that use sensory deprivation to tap into our fear of the unknown. In Bird Box, people must blindfold themselves against a mysterious force, the sight of which causes instant insanity. In The Silence, the discovery of deadly prehistoric creatures that hunt using sound forces survivors to live in complete quiet.

4. XX by Angela Chadwick and The Growing Season by Helen Sedgwick

Both of these titles tackle the topical issue of reproductive rights, from a speculative, quasi-futuristic, yet highly plausible perspective. In the first, scientists have established a way for two women to conceive a child, using ovum-to-ovum fertilisation. In the latter, the development of artificial, external wombs allows anyone to carry a child. Gender equality, the pursuit of family, and the moral dilemma of scientific advancement are at the heart of both stories.

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I’ll leave it there for now, but will hopefully put together another of these posts sometime in the not too distant future. Since I wasn’t officially tagged this time around, I’ll leave it open to anyone who’d like to take part. Let me know if you do it, so I can check out your recommendations! And if any of the books I mentioned caught your eye, just click on the title and it will take you to Book Depository, where you can pick up a copy with free shipping. Huzzah!

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Book to Film | Bird Box

Bird Box’s book cover (left), and film poster (right).

The news that one of your favourite books is being adapted into a film is always met with a cocktail of excitement and nerves. Bird Box, the novel, is a masterclass of the less-is-more approach to horror; toying with the reader’s senses and praying on our inherent fear of the unknown. Bird Box, the movie, is a decent if somewhat diluted version of the same ideas.

There were several aspects of the film that I really liked: It is largely faithful to the source material in terms of story, sticking close to the main plot arc; the performances are strong all round; and there are some visually gorgeous shots. I thought the non-linear structure, switching between Malorie and the children alone on the river, and their time within a larger group five years prior, was a nice nod to the structure of the book, and did well to create tension, with an inevitable sense of doom hanging over the other characters. I was also happy to see that one of my favourite themes from the book – Malorie’s moral struggle with the need to be cruel and distant with the children in order to keep them alive, and therefore the difference between living and surviving – was still present.

Some of the film’s ensemble cast: Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, John Malkovich, & Sarah Paulson.

On a more negative note, however, I just didn’t find it very scary. Perhaps having read the book, and knowing what fate awaited each character, I simply didn’t feel the same dread that other viewers seem to have experienced. With the book, author Josh Malerman made the most of the form, with the horror, by proxy, always out of sight and left to the reader’s imagination. Trying to replicate this in a visual medium just couldn’t create anywhere near the same level of tension for me. And whilst I thought Sandra Bullock gave a very good performance, at 54, she doesn’t project the kind of energy that Malorie in the book did; that of a young, out-of-her-depth, first-time mother. With a much more mature aura, the difference isn’t necessarily bad; she’s just not the Malorie I always envisioned.

I can understand why those who haven’t read the book have found the film tense and shocking, but the parts of the book that I found the most horrifying, and which continue to haunt me some three years later, were all absent. I’m sure I only have to say, the well, the dog, and the umbilical cord, for readers to know exactly which scenes I’m referring to. As such, this is, for me, another classic case of a perfectly enjoyable movie that had a decent stab at recreating a wonderful book, but which ultimately fell short of capturing its true impact. It’s certainly worth seeing, but I’d recommend the book over the film any day of the week.