Books like “Bird Box”

What to read after “Bird Box” by Josh Malerman: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
The 5th Wave
Rick Yancey · 2013
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction”
After a series of waves wipes out most of humanity, sixteen-year-old Cassie is alone and running from an enemy that could look like anyone. To find her little brother she will have to trust a stranger, even as she learns how the invasion really works.
2
A Head Full of Ghosts
Paul Tremblay · 2015
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Creeping Dread
Fourteen-year-old Marjorie Barrett begins to act strangely, and her family turns first to a priest and then to a reality-television crew. Years later her younger sister tells the story of what happened in the house, though her memory is not entirely trustworthy.
3
The Road
Cormac McCarthy · 2006
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction”
A father and his young son walk through a burned America, pushing a cart of scavenged supplies and hiding from bands of survivors who hunt people for food. Their only aim is to keep moving south and stay alive while holding on to decency.
4
Ghost Story
Peter Straub · 1979
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Creeping Dread
Four elderly friends in a small New York town have spent a lifetime telling each other ghost stories at their club. Now something from a winter forty years earlier, a death they all helped to hide, has returned to collect the debt.
5
The Silence of the Lambs
Thomas Harris · 1988
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Creeping Dread
A young FBI trainee asks a brilliant imprisoned psychiatrist to help catch another serial killer who abducts women. Their bargain-driven conversations become a psychological duel in which every answer carries a price.
6
Station Eleven
Emily St. John Mandel · 2014
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction”
After a flu wipes out most of humanity, a travelling theatre troupe moves between the small settlements that remain, performing Shakespeare. The story follows survivors across decades and asks what of civilization is worth carrying forward.
7
The Girl with All the Gifts
M. R. Carey · 2014
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction”
- Post-Apocalyptic World
- Survival
A gifted child lives in a military base, strapped into a chair for lessons while hungries roam outside. When the base falls, she and her teacher cross a broken England while she learns what she is and what she can choose to become.
8
Wool
Hugh Howey · 2011
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction”
- Post-Apocalyptic World
- Survival
In a future where the air outside is deadly, people live in a buried silo and are told that anyone who asks to go outside will be sent there to die. When a sheriff starts asking questions about the world beyond the walls, the silo's careful order begins to crack.
9
The Day of the Triffids
John Wyndham · 1951
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
A meteor shower blinds most of humanity, leaving a few sighted survivors in a world where walking, venomous plants have escaped from farms. A young man and a small group try to reach safety and decide what kind of society can be rebuilt.
10
The Last House on Needless Street
Catriona Ward · 2021
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Creeping Dread
At the end of a quiet street live a man, his daughter and a cat, keeping to themselves. When a new neighbour comes looking into a child's long-ago disappearance, the house's careful routine bends and the story it protects begins to break apart.
11
Misery
Stephen King · 1987
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Creeping Dread
- Survival
After a car crash in a snowstorm, novelist Paul Sheldon wakes in the remote home of Annie Wilkes, who calls herself his number one fan. She nurses him back to health, then learns he has killed off her favourite character, and will not let him leave until he writes her a new book.
12
The Year of the Flood
Margaret Atwood · 2009
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction”
A religious sect called God's Gardeners expects a coming catastrophe and tries to live apart from the corrupt world around it. Two women, Toby and Ren, tell how they reached the group and what happened to them after the disaster they predicted.