🧊 Book Review: Falling Down (The Boy in the Iron Box Book 1) by Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan (Kindle Edition)
A chilling, cinematic opening to a serialized horror-thriller—Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan plunge readers into a snowbound nightmare where survival is just the beginning.
🧠 Overview
Published in July 2024, Falling Down is the first installment in the six-part series The Boy in the Iron Box, co-authored by Guillermo del Toro (Oscar-winning filmmaker) and Chuck Hogan (co-author of The Strain trilogy). This 30-page Kindle Original sets the stage for a blood-tinged survival horror saga, blending military grit with supernatural dread.
The story follows Liev, the leader of a mercenary team on a covert mission whose plane crashes in the Tian Shan mountains during a whiteout blizzard. Stranded, hunted by wolves, and cut off from rescue, the team stumbles upon a mysterious stone fortress—a place that should not exist. What they find inside is far older, darker, and more dangerous than anything they’ve faced before.
❄️ Key Themes & Highlights
- 🛬 Survival horror: The mercenaries face extreme cold, dwindling hope, and predatory wolves in a hostile landscape
- 🧱 Ancient mystery: The fortress introduces a mythic element—an iron box chained within its walls hints at a buried secret
- 🧠 Psychological tension: As fear mounts, the men begin to unravel, haunted by what may lie beyond the fortress’s stone corridors
- 🎨 Visual storytelling: Includes exclusive interior artwork by Fabrizio De Tommaso, enhancing the eerie atmosphere
“Hard men with chiseled faces, stoic men accustomed to danger, but unaccustomed to fear.” — Amazon description
💬 Reader Reception
- ⭐ Goodreads rating: 3.58/5 from over 8,000 ratings
- 📖 Readers praise the story’s cinematic pacing, atmospheric dread, and strong setup for the series
- 🧾 Some note that it feels like a prologue—more mood than resolution—but are intrigued to continue the saga
- 💬 “Del Toro’s fingerprints are all over this—moody, mythic, and just a little terrifying.” — Goodreads reviewer
⚠️ Considerations
- 📄 Short format: At 30 pages, it’s a teaser for the full series—best read with the next chapters queued up
- 📚 Serialized structure: Volume 1 sets tone and stakes but leaves many questions unanswered
- 🧾 Dark tone: Includes violence, isolation, and supernatural horror—intended for mature readers
🏁 Final Verdict
Falling Down is a tense and atmospheric series opener that blends military thriller with gothic horror. Del Toro and Hogan craft a world where ancient evil lurks beneath snow and stone, and survival may come at a terrible cost. For fans of The Thing, The Terror, or The Strain, this Kindle Original promises a gripping descent into the unknown.
