interview

We have already published our review about Josh Malerman's debut novel (Bird Box), you can find it here (in Hungarian). Now we are managed to make an interview with the author via email. Josh Malerman talked about the essence of horror, monsters, madness and future plans.

stv: Your debut novel, Bird Box, is about facing the unknown. You have some really special monsters in the story. Could you talk a bit more about how you create monsters?

Josh Malerman: I knew Malorie and the kids were fleeing Infinity, an incomprehensible concept, something their minds couldn’t assimilate, something that would drive them mad if they even attempted to understand it. And you can’t not try to understand a thing if you look at it. You can’t help but immediately ask yourself… What is it? So that left Malorie (and everybody) in a very tough spot; if by looking at it, you’ll go mad… your only option is to not look.

stv: Both the mysterious entities and the humans can be monsters. One of the characters in the house is the most terrifying "monster" in the book. He is completely insane, although it is not obvious at first. How does it fit into the basic conception of your book about fearing the unknown?