The Birds by Daphne du Maurier

I was going to get my mother to post this while I was away, but the plan didn't work! So here is last week's post, our first horror story review!


Ratings:

Age Group:  15/16 + Availability: 6/10 Cleanliness: 4/10 Overall: ***

Review:

From the safe and happy world of Winnie-The-Pooh we move now to one of the best-known horror stories of the twentieth century - Daphne du Maurier's The Birds. Although it is a short story, The Birds still manages to contain a very gripping plotline and an ending that keeps you guessing. In the story huge numbers of birds turn on mankind and little can be done to stop them, which has a tragic outcome. I won't, however, spoil the story by saying how it finishes. All I will say is that I really wouldn't suggest it as bedtime reading. I will definitely never think of flocks of starlings in the same way again.
As well as being a horror story, it can be interpreted as having a similar meaning as George Orwell's Animal Farm, as in powers subduing the world, but whichever way you care to view it, it is a horror story nonetheless. That said, it is probably appropriate for ages sixteen and up, although some students may encounter it in school. in the 1960's The Birds was also the basis of a film by Alfred Hitchcock, although I cannot comment on the screen version as I have not seen it. My father tells me, however, that it varies a lot from the story and really only retains the same premise, that of birds attempting to obliterate humans.

The Birds by Daphne du Maurier, first published in 1952 in The Apple Tree. Available in many anthologies of short stories, but not online.