I am a huge wimp. Horror is totally not my thing - I just hate that feeling of being scared out of your wits. But I dabbled in some creepy stories lately that I really enjoyed (Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman and Slade House by David Mitchell) so I figured, why not give a full blown horror story a try? 
 Bird Box proved to me that it's not necessarily horror stories that I hate. It's scary stories that are so just for the sake of shock factor - the stories where the plot gets lost in the blood and gore. Most of my experiences with these kind of stories are in movies/tv shows, so maybe I was missing things all along by not checking out horror novels. Bird Box was a certifiably terrifying tale, but it was well-crafted and thought out. A lot of the scary parts were so because of the intense buildup to the scenes. Sure, there are some disturbing and sickening details scattered throughout, but that comes with the territory of a book about people going mad and becoming murderous and suicidal. 
 Was Bird Box perfect? Probably not. Even though I loved it, I also felt like I wanted to know more about the people in the house and how they managed to survive, and especially about Malorie's years with the children before their trip down the river. But it pulled me in and introduced me to the potential awesomeness of a whole new genre that I can't give it anything less than 5 stars. 
 That being said, I will be taking a break from scary stuff due to an uptick in nightmares!