The Boy in the Iron Box: The Complete Serialized Novel

The Boy in the Iron Box #1-6

by Guillermo del Toro, Chuck Hogan

Flying dark, a plane carrying a team of mercenaries crash-lands on a remote snowy summit. When they come across a mazelike stone fortress, it’s no refuge from the wolves and the freezing wind. It’s more like a trap. What they discover can stop the heart—or worse. As terror takes a new shape, the real battle for survival begins in this unrelenting six-part serial from Academy Award-winning filmmaker and writer Guillermo del Toro.

This is a set of 6 kindle shorts or audible listens

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this audible title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Genres: Horror, Audiobook, Fiction, Monsters, Action, Mystery Thriller

157 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 1, 2024

About the author

Guillermo del Toro is a Mexican director mostly known for his acclaimed films Pan's Labyrinth, The Devils Backbone, Crimson Peak and the Hellboy film franchise. His films draw heavily on sources as diverse as weird fiction, fantasy, horror, and war. In 2009, Del Toro released his debut novel, The Strain, co-authored with Chuck Hogan, as the first part of The Strain Trilogy, an apocalyptic horror series featuring vampires. The series continued with The Fall in 2010 and concluded with The Night Eternal in 2011.

Reviews

[Alan (on December semi-hiatus) Teder · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Complete 'Boy'
Review of the Brilliance Audio audiobook edition (July 1, 2024) of the serialized collection of "The Boy in the Iron Box" stories as released by Amazon Original Stories (July 1, 2024).


The 'Boy' is watching. Illustration by Fabrizio De Tommaso for the audiobook collection. Image sourced from Goodreads.

I'm not going to repeat my comments from the individual reviews of the six stories. You can read them under the review titles as follows. 1. Teaser for a Series, 2. The 'Boy' Released, 3. The 'Boy' Hunts, 4. Something Will Rise, 5. Fighting the Undead, and 6. And Then There Was One.

I will say that gravelly voice of reader Ralph Ineson was just outstanding in the audiobook and added an extra layer of military gravitas to the proceedings. I've never encountered a narration by Ineson previously, but with the right sort of material he would be perfect in many roles. Narrator Nina Yndis has more of a cameo role and only appears in the final episode.

I still think this was inspired by F. Paul Wilson's The Keep (1981) with Russian black-ops mercenaries instead of Nazi SS soldiers being trapped in a fortress with an 'entity,' so not an entirely original concept which kept it out of 5 star territory for me. But del Toro and Hogan kept the chills coming and it was all very well done otherwise.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Loved this. The story is packed with chilling suspense and an intense blend of supernatural horror and action. Haunted house, zombie, vampire and other supernatural horror elements are rolled together with some action packed military/combat storytelling as an ancient bloodthirsty evil encounters a band of elite lethal mercenaries in an eerie, desolate setting.

[EmmaReadsCrime · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you so much tandem for having me on the read along!

This is a collection of 6 short stories in which a group of mercenaries survive a plane crash and find an abandoned stone fortress to take shelter in. But what secrets lie within it’s walls?!

Okay… so me and these “six short stories” have some beef.

First and foremost… this is not a compilation of six short stories. Oh no no no this is six chapters which need to be read in order. And yeah sure, by separating the six chapters into six short stories may have added to the tension of the plot… I quite frankly just thought it was stupid.

The stories are available on Prime Reading. So if you have a kindle and an Amazon Prime membership, you can borrow up to 10 selected books for completely free. I know it’s petty, but the fact is unnecessarily took of 6 of my 10 slots grated on me (yes I know I can return them and get my slots back, but that’s not the point!)

I’m relatively new to the horror genre and even I didn’t find the plot of this story particularly unique or special.

The characters are so infuriatingly stupid too, they p*ssed me off time and time again I couldn’t have cared less about what happened to them. For a group of mercenaries who should be equipped for these situations, they made some really f*cking stupid decisions!

Luckily the 6 “short stories” came to less than 200 pages otherwise this would have been a DNF.

[Stacey (Bookalorian) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, its not very long and I don't usually listen to books that aren't longer but I l loved the strain so I thought I would give it a shot. It was pretty fast paced, with a really solid plot.

I wasn't a huge fan of the narration. I found I wasn't as drawn in as I normally would be. It was creepy AF and if you love to get your creep on... Give this one a go!

4 stars

[Leonie-Sophie 🌈 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thrilling and interesting story. I liked the division into the 6 short stories.
Unfortunately it felt poorly written to me and rushed.

[Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent suspense and voice overs from the writing team behind The Strain trilogy. Great to have them back with a brand new original story.

[LISA · Rating 3 out of 5]

Begin with a clandestine mission of mercenaries, which then swiftly leads into a plane crash on a snowy mountain over Chinese air space and you have the makings of a fascinating and suspenseful journey ahead. As the plane goes into a crash landing, the leader spies a structure in the middle of the seemingly vast nothingness of the mountain range. Afterwards, he leads his men toward that building as they fight off a vicious pack of wolves. SIDE BAR (I am NEVER a proponent of using wolves as villains, in ANY story/book/novel, as they are my spirit animal, but here we are, and the story loses points because of it.) As the men settle into what seems to be a precious port in their terrifying story and thus, their saving grace, the “Boy in the Iron Box” has other plans. This six-part story is a quick read, and each novella’s ending makes one reach quickly for the next installment.

[Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this alongside the audiobook performed by Ralph Ineson and Nina Yndis, who both gave amazing performances.

Aside from the seemingly unnecessary decision to split this book into six smaller reads, this is an okay soldiers-versus-monsters story. While the story presented was mostly predictable and generic, I found the writing itself to be generally decent and effective in creating an atmosphere of isolation and impending doom.

The most jarring aspect of this book was watching these characters, most of whom are described as highly trained and experienced mercenaries, repeatedly make the same mistakes. Even after accepting and seeing first-hand that they're dealing with a supernatural force, some events here felt forced and included solely to move the plot forward

[Renato · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much in the tradition of serial novel writing like in Saul's The Blackstone Chronicles and King's The Green Mile: The Complete Serial Novel, Hogan and Del Toro reunite to tell a story in 6 smaller parts. Please note the list order of this story is as below.

Falling Down
The Pit and the Box
The Hunted
Risen
Siege
Encounter

Hogan & Del Toro's previous collaboration in The Strain trilogy was an excellent cinematic experience that had the reader trapped in the same theatre of the mind as the authors, watching vampires take over NYC.

Unfortunately, I did not feel as transported in this current series - I only felt the sense of dread and excitement halfway through (it takes that long to 'get going'). A decent military horror story to spend some time on, but I have nothing further to say about it.

[Sahra · Rating 4 out of 5]

امتیاز : ۷/۱۰

هواپیمای یه گروه مزدور موقع رفتن به ماموریتشون توی کوهستان برفی سقوط میکنه و حالا این گروه باید به صورت کلیشه‌واری از برف و بوران جون سالم به در ببرند اما برف و یخبندان تنها مشکل اون‌ها نیست ....
حضوری شوم توی کوهستانه .....


همون‌طور که از خلاصه مشخصه کتاب توی دسته آثار بقا قرار میگیره
در واقع یه مجموعه شیش جلدی داستان کوتاه که نشر پرتقال اومده کلش رو به صورت یه کتاب شیش فصلی چاپ کرده و واقعا ایده خوبی بود چون مثلا یکی دوتا داستان اول واقعا مقدمه کتاب بود و نمیدونم باید چه نظری درباره‌ش میدادم
داستان هیجان خوبی داره ریتمش هم تنده
حجم کمی داره و به سرعت خونده میشه
تنها مشکل کتاب اینه که چندتایی باگ داره
لین فیلم ترسناک‌ها رو دیدید که شخصیت اصلی یه کار کاملا احمقانه انجام میده و میمیره این کتاب دقیقا همینه
یا مثلا آخر کتاب یه ایده به ذهن یه نفر میرسه که شاید اگه وسط کتاب عملی میکردن یکی دو نفر زنده میموندن
یه نکته دیگه هم این بود که نمیدونم چرا به طرز احمقانه ‌ای ویلن داستان آخرش اومد گفت آره نقطه ضعف من فلانه ://///
یعنی میگیرم که رقیب میخواست و چالش رو دوست داشت ولی دیگه نقطه ضعفت رو چرا باید بگی
شخصیت پردازی در حد یه کتاب نود صفحه‌ای خوب و بود و ترجمه خوبی هم داشت

بخوام کلی بگم کتاب خوبی بود ولی آخرش به قول یکی از دوستان مقداری هندی شد 😂

[A M · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so fun! Really liked it, ending was awesome.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I could've saved them. If the boy ate my heart first and gained my knowledge and emotions, he'd be too busy complaining about his sore throat and how damn cold it is in this temple to feed on the rest.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read all 6 on Kindle but for convenience sake gonna say I read this since it lumps it all together.

[Sonja Charters · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant collection of six books written as an Amazon Original Story, which, when put together, make up the whole novella, The Boy In The Iron Box.
Consisting of Falling Down, The Pit And The Box, The Hunted, Risen, Siege and Encounter.

I've been trying to get back to the love of my youth - horror! And this was such a great choice for my next read.

Being a novella, we really need a swift introduction to make sure that we're all invested right from the off and this first book does this to perfection.

We meet all the characters as they're travelling to a mission - all mercenaries and all well used to dangerous situations.
When things go wrong and the plane crashes, the team have to find a way to survive the conditions until help arrives and they make their way to an odd structure for shelter.

Given their job, the men were definitely not the type of people that I could relate well to, but the dynamics of the group help us to integrate and I liked how we were given extra background information about each member of the team.
Learning about Liev, the leader's home life - Avva and Timur being brothers and the determined loyalty and respect amongst the whole group. This made me feel more connected too.

I loved the way this set off at a great pace right from the first page. The isolated and bleak setting was well described and sucked us straight into this creepy atmosphere.
This level of detail ran through each book which built up the tension and suspense and had me on edge right to the last line!

Each book adds a new layer to the story, filling us with both despair and hope and leaving us with questions and dangling on a mini cliffhanger at each break.
And that ending! Well you'll have to grab a copy and let me know what you think!

I loved both the format and the writing style of these books and would definitely recommend them to all lovers of the genre - and if you're new to horror, this would be the ideal first read! Enjoy!

[Eliza · Rating 1 out of 5]

The narrator was hard to understand, which compounded the issue that this serial was so boring. I don't think it needed to be serialized, just felt like oh time to switch to the next part to see which character will die next and that's all that differentiated them. I probably would've been happier just reading the first and last parts and skipping the middle ones. I realize that this is a short story even all combined but still, the characters were not fleshed out at all so as a reader it didn't really matter to me whenever one died.

The last part of this serial also has some baffling choices. Why on earth would the main monster of your book just tell your protagonist straight up how to they can defeat them? And now that you've gone to the trouble of giving your protagonist a clear path to victory would you then do the tired ending of slightly unclear but looks like the monster has survived and will spread. Just seems like if your protagonist is handed the solution on a silver platter you should just write a happy ending, otherwise they could've just made an educated guess on how to defeat the monster ideally based on environmental details sprinkled in earlier. The the reader really hopes it will actually work and the ending has tension. The actual ending just felt cheap.

Small issue but there kept being references to the alpha of the wolf pack, which just always annoys me in modern depictions of wolves since that study has been retracted.

[Missy (myweereads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Take for yourself now what tomorrow might not give you.”

Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan in this six part series is the story about a plane carrying mercenaries crash-lands on a remote snowy summit. When they come across a stone fortress, it’s no refuge from the wolves and the freezing wind. It’s more like a trap. What they soon discover is worse than their nightmares.

The minute I seen these two had something new out I knew I wanted to get it asap. I am still impatiently waiting for the next book to “The Hollow Ones” so in the mean time I couldn’t wait to begin this series.

This is spilt into six parts that you can read on kindle and listen to on audible. From the beginning as the back stories of these mercenaries are explored and circumstances of how they find themselves in this place, it was building an unsettling atmosphere towards the big reveal.

Over the six parts I did become more invested in finding out the truth behind the unimaginable thing that is discovered.

Overall it was an interesting story, lots of vivid imagery and dark events take place however for me I wish there was a little more to the story.

I did enjoy listening to this one as it does remind me a bit of The Strain series which I loved reading and watching.

Many thanks to @netgalley for access to the audiobook.

[Naturalbri (Bri Wignall) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It is split into small shorter books, in a collection, but reads as if it is a singular book. It's kind of like having episodes on a show and is really nice as it offers a break in the reading, especially for those who can only read in small periods of time. You can also just completely devour the collection in one sitting, if you so please, as it would be easy as the flow of the books is so good.
I found this to be in the style on It, with an unknown entity attacking the men and truly wreaking havoc on them, wei d to things happening and not being to explain it and all their lives falling apart.
I loved the completely different personalities of all the men and how well they were brought to life. I also enjoyed how much they stuck to the military training, bar some of them falling to bad habits, which always came back to bite the group. It was all very realistic, which was needed in a situation that was beyond real life and the way we know life should work.
It does contain some graphic details, but each of them really builds onto the beauty of the story. I loved all the details and the way they were brought to such vivid life.
Overall, these were brilliant. I know I will be wanting to read more from this author and really look forward to it.

[Adelaide Metzger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished 9/6/24 - A pleasant, quick-read of a horror-thriller by the same team of The Strain trilogy.

Nothing mind-blowing here in terms of plot or character development, but Hogan and Toro are a match made in creativity heaven--Hogan with his prose skills and plethora of military knowledge, and Toro with his brilliant mind of spawning new mythologies. Together, they paint a beautiful portrait of a survival story that kept me interested and even creeper out a few times. The weight of mystery really drew me in, and Hogan takes care to explicitly follow the perspective of this mercenary team as they are trapped in the Central Asian mountains, allowing the details to slowly unfold until the end when the final survivor comes face-to-face with the predator that has been stalking them.

I grabbed both the audiobook and ebooks of this serial novel and I recommend both with big, flashing lights because the ebooks are accompanied with breathtaking illustrations and Ralph Ineson (The VVitch, Chernobyl, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance) does a captivating performance with the narration in the audiobook. I enjoyed this one enough to put it on my yearly October reads list.

[Lisas Books, Gems and Tarot · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn’t usually the sort of genre I read, however I was pleasantly impressed. When one short story ended, I was hooked and had to get to the next one.

This is a series of six short stories that all follow on from each other. I must say that I rather liked the short story style. They were short enough to read in one sitting and I was ready the following day to carry on with the next.

I was intrigued, horrified, shocked and sometimes humoured. The folklore surrounding the boy was interesting and it made me want to look these things up for myself.

The characters were likeable, especially Liev who was the team leader. You could tell he cared for his team, but he was also capable of making some pretty horrific decisions.

The series in order:
📚Falling Down
📚The Pit and the Box
📚The Hunted
📚Risen
📚Siege
📚Encounter

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a fan of Guillermo del Toro with his movies and The Strain Trilogy that he co-authored with Chuck Hogan. So, I was intrigued to check out this series.

I got the audio version and let me tell you that is the way to experience this series. A lot of people said they could not listen to the audio book because of Ralph Ineson's voice sounded monotone or was hard to understand. I did not experience either of these things. In fact, I enjoyed listening to Ralph's voice that he was a main reason why I keep listening to the audiobook. The other narrator, Nina Yndis has a minor part in voicing this story.

Regarding the story, it did have good elements of horror. Example, in the beginning when the group arrived and found the box. What they located in the box and then the next time they checked on the box was the start of the buildup. I could see Guillermo turning this into a mini television series.

[Victor · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s no reinventing the wheel here so let’s get that straight. But all things considered, I really enjoyed this. I think the premise is fun, I think the audiobook performance by Ralph Ineson (who I absolutely love since seeing him in The VVitch) is really great, and the overall production is top notch.
I stumbled upon this seeing an ad on a newspaper (guess I’m getting old) and saw that this was completely free to read and/or listen to if you have prime. Given that factor as well, this was well worth the time. I for one, really enjoyed the serialized aspect of this. It reminds me of classic serialized novels in Sci-fi and fantasy mags. Anyways, this is fun and I really enjoyed it. Idk what the hell these other people are bashing about on this, this is an entertaining read.

[Ink · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Boy in the Iron Box - The Complete Six-Part Serial by Guillermo del Toro; Chuck Hogan &
narrated by Ralph Ineson and Nina Yndis is in the first instance a stnning narration that had my attention from the get-go.

The narrative was dynamic and flowed beautifully, giving a strong edge to a strong storyline, the best part being the immersion into the back stories of the mercenaries and how they came to be in the position they find themselves in. Unique, original and intriguing, a very good listen

Thank you to Brilliance Publishing | Amazon Original Stories, the authors Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hoganand narrators Ralph Ineson and Nina Yndis for this ALC . My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I need to come to an understanding of perhaps one of my own shortcomings. I do not find myself enjoying serialized stories. They have a tendency to restate situations, go nowhere for a while, and end like a short story. Just make it a short story or even a novel. This would have served better as one of those. I loved the concept and the execution was not bad. I just got to the end and realized nothing really happened. It was short though. I feel like this was a missed opportunity. Serialized fiction on the radio was done for good reason, it kept you coming back for more. But today, it just hits better (for me at least) to have the whole meal at once and really explore the concepts.

This would be a cool limited series if del Toro could get it done.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Boy in the Iron Box feels like del Toro and Hogan finally remembered that horror doesn’t have to sprint — it can stalk. It trades the bombast of The Strain for something tighter, creepier, and more personal, like a campfire story told by someone who knows exactly when to stop talking and let the silence do the work.

As a serial audio adventure, it hits the sweet spot — pulpy, episodic, and atmospheric enough to make you check your locks once or twice. The pacing benefits from the format: cliffhangers land, dialogue breathes, and the monsters sound like they were recorded in the basement you swore you didn’t have.

It’s not profound, and it doesn’t need to be. This is horror as comfortable storytelling — a well-worn coat with something still twitching in the pocket.

[Julija V · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read for some Spooktober vibes. Getting it for free through Amazon on my Kindle was a big plus. There was no need to split this into separate "books" or "stories" - it is one book with 6 chapters. I found it to be a page turner and kept wanting to read on to see what happens, even though it was fairly obvious the plot was going to consist of each member of the party being taken out one by one (honestly, I don't think that's even a spoiler). The plot was fairly quick paced which kept me going. I was also curious to read the ending, which I found interesting (this I won't spoil). Not ground breaking, but I would recommend to someone looking for a quick read approaching Halloween season.

[Georgina Prince · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up


I’ve really enjoyed the collection though I would not call it a short story collection, it was a serialised novel.

The tension was great and built up as the collection went on, but by the end it was evident that there would be no happy ending.

The characters were interesting and I felt they were pretty well developed and easy to understand even though the story was a short read. The story does a great job of building the tension and I enjoyed the fact it was short because it made the content wore totally the point, most pages had a lot of action. I would definitely read more from the author in future , I think this is a good entry to horror for new horror readers.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of six novellas, set in the Tian Shan Mountains of China.

Liev is leading a secret Russian mercenary assignment, along with ten of his men.

As the story develops, the narrative is fairly messy.

Liev is compelling enough, but some of the plot events are quite predictable.

The horror shines brightest when it’s psychological and unknown. Several scenes with The Boy devolve into splatterpunk and are unnecessarily unsettling.

The existential and pointless ending detracts heavily from what is, initially, a promising premise.

Book one: Falling Down (4 ⭐️)
Book two: The Pit and the Box (4 ⭐️)
Book three: The Hunted (2 ⭐️)
Book four: Risen (3 ⭐️)
Book five: Siege (3 ⭐️)
Book six: Encounter (2 ⭐️)

[Amber Faulkner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was basically one book, split into 6 chapters, not 6 short stories like I thought it was.
It reminded me of Lord Of The Flies combined with Dracula. It was creepy, and I avoided reading it at night, which is the sign of a good horror story, in my opinion. It was quite a slow burn at first, and some of the characters made infuriating decisions considering they were all meant to be military trained, but it was a good short read.

[Bibliophileverse · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Boy in the Iron Box by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan is an amazing horror adventure with a shocking twist at the end. I found the book while surfing Audible. And Guillermo Del Toro is one of my favorite directors. The story is so atmospheric that it will give you goose bumps while listening. The whole serialized novel is available only on Audible. The climax was left for the audience to decide. Definitely the book deserves 5 stars.

[Brian Ledtke · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't believe Guillermo del Toro attached his name to this trash. It's terribly written, the characters are the most one-dimensional characters I think I've ever read, and, while really short, was one of the most boring stories I've ever read.

Why Amazon split this into 6 "chapter" books is beyond me. Each book was a 10 min chapter. So so bad and not scary in the absolute least.