Bird Box

I am so conflicted about this book, so very conflicted. I am trying to read some more horror books, but apparently I'm way too picky and always find something I dislike. Almost always. This time it just lacked something. More of that later.

Malorie lives in a big house with her two children, Boy and Girl. They are 4, but never seen the outside world, but not because Malorie is some psycho. People who go outside with their eyes open will see things. We don't know what they are, but they make people go crazy, enough to make them murder and then kill themselves.
The story itself plays out in two different times; around the development of this problem, when Malorie finds a group of survivors to join and the present, with just her and her kids trying to find a new place, somewhere safer, with other humans around.

Don't get me wrong, I don't need a book to tell me everything, to explain all like I am a kid, but at the same time screw this for not explaining ANYTHING. Because newsflash, you will learn absolutely nothing about what the creatures are, what they want, how they ended up in our world, how they operate and WHY. Nothing.
Which makes the book end up being “Malorie is suffering, her life sucks, people die, so sad” and basically nothing else. Even the resolution is like a few pages long, doesn't solve the big problem and leaves you with a big “okay, but why??”.
I genuinely didn't expect big solutions. This is a short thing. I saw that. But frick, we spent pages discussing how the survivors went out to the well to get their water. Things like that, stuff not very interesting.
My issue is that I'm not sure even Mr. Malerman bothered to come up with any explanation or if he just went with something that sounded cool. Which is kinda sad, seriously. I am annoyed by authors not even bothering to build their worlds, because then I feel like I am expected to care more than they did about their own creation.

The characters are nothing special some people were kind of interesting and marginally likeable, but we are left with Malorie, who is nothing. I understand that the stress of surviving in such a very hostile environment is a pain, but it could have been embodied in some better what, I'm sure. I didn't like her, I didn't care about her too much.

Aaaaaand we reached a point where I do what I do best; find the issues in books. In the past timeline there is a dog called Victor. Malorie first mentions him in connection with how the kids frightened the dog with their loud playing, which is impossible. The dog wasn't around when the kids were old enough to play loudly, or to play in any way, actually. Why do I always notice these things?

Don't get me wrong, some parts of the book were pretty good, I liked the whole idea with not looking at the things or shit goes down, but it lacked any actual substance and I feel disappointed by that. I wanted to read something that goes over the practical survival and plays with some ideas in connection with the issue causing the whole dystopia. I got none of that.
(Actually, one of the many issues with The Hunger Games was this same thing; we are shown a situation that never gets a proper explanation and it makes the world unbelievable, because we know nothing about the process of its formation. Oh, well.)

Would I recommend it? Meh. Possibly. It wasn't offensively bad. Will I enthusiastically push it on everyone, even risking being super annoying? NOPE.

Goodbye and live with your eyes shut this time!