Josh Malerman, author of the 2014 post-apocalyptic novel Bird Box will be coming out with a sequel. The universe that he created was centered on creatures that would instigate you to kill yourselves if seen and was later made into a film that was headlined by Sandra Bullock and premiered to wide acclaim on Netflix. The sequel titled Malorie, after the protagonist will be out on July 21 and will focus on her as told by Malerman to an online portal.
He said, “Sitting down to write Malorie the book almost felt like it was for her or it was her time. It felt less like I was writing a sequel to Bird Box and more like I was putting a spotlight on a character that I cherish through a life of writing so far. Malorie opens at the school for the blind, which is where the movie ends. Then it jumps a few years later, and it really takes off 10 years after that.”
He said, “It took about the same amount of time. I was also aware that there was a possibility that Sandra Bullock wouldn’t be playing Malorie. When you first start writing novels, especially now, how do you not see them cinematically? We grew up on movies. So with Bird Box, I always saw it cinematically. It almost reads like stage directions. It felt the same writing Malorie, but I didn’t have Sandra Bullock in mind when I wrote the first one.”
Malerman’s agent Kristin Nelson, founder of Nelson Literary Agency, said, “When something goes viral, it always surprises everyone. It’s what you hope and dream for, but you can’t orchestrate it. Josh has such an organic, granular way of hooking the reader into his characters immediately. You can’t let go. … You can’t stop reading. I love that about his style.” Malorie takes place years later when Malorie and her now teenage kids have relocated from the school for the blind, the sanctuary they found at the end of Bird Box.
Malorie published by Del Rey Books, can be pre-ordered on Amazon or directly through Penguin Random House.
(Source: The Hollywood Reporter/Inverse/Oakland Press)
