Inspection by Josh Malerman #bookreview #horror

Title: Inspection

Author: Josh Malerman

Publisher: Del Rey

Publication Date: March 19, 2019

Page Count: 400

My rating: 3 stars

About the book:

Boys are being trained at one school for geniuses, girls at another. Neither knows the other exists—until now. The New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box invites you into a world of secrets and chills in a coming-of-age story like no other.
 
J is a student at a school deep in a forest far away from the rest of the world.

J is one of only twenty-six students, all of whom think of the school’s enigmatic founder as their father. J’s peers are the only family he has ever had. The students are being trained to be prodigies of art, science, and athletics, and their life at the school is all they know—and all they are allowed to know.

But J suspects that there is something out there, beyond the pines, that the founder does not want him to see, and he’s beginning to ask questions. What is the real purpose of this place? Why can the students never leave? And what secrets is their father hiding from them?

Meanwhile, on the other side of the forest, in a school very much like J’s, a girl named K is asking the same questions. J has never seen a girl, and K has never seen a boy. As K and J work to investigate the secrets of their two strange schools, they come to discover something even more mysterious: each other.

Ok, so I’m probably one of the few readers out there that actually has not yet read Bird Box. I’ve certainly wanted to after seeing tons and tons of readers that loved it and now  going on to make it to the screen with a major actress like Sandra Bullock. So when seeing that Inspection by Josh Malerman was coming out I wanted to beat the masses and read the next hit first…well….not so much.

Inspection really feels more dystopian than horror which to me shouldn’t be a  bad thing as I love a good dystopian read too but only when the creativity of the world is blended well with plenty of action and intrigue. Inspection had the creativity but seemed  to stall out there with an incredibly slow pace which leads to me losing interest and not becoming invested.

The idea behind Inspection of having boys named with all the letters of the alphabet and raised by D.A.D then finding out about girls in a separate location and their M.O.M. had potential. The whole thing gave me a bit of a Maze Runner vibe so I had high hopes but instead finished with more of a bah humbug feeling than excitement. I won’t let this deter me from trying Josh Malerman again but Inspection was only so-so to me.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online: 

Goodreads  /   Amazon

About the author:

Josh Malerman is a New York Times bestselling author and one of two singer/ songwriters for the rock band The High Strung. His debut novel, Bird Box, is the inspiration for the hit Netflix film of the same name. His other novels include Unbury Carol and Inspection. Malerman lives in Michigan with his fiancée, the artist/musician Allison Laakko.