To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There’s Mommy, Daddo, and Grandma Ruth. But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: “Can I go inside your heart?” When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the same question, over and over . . . Bela understands that unless she says yes, soon her family must pay. Other Mommy is getting restless, stronger, bolder. Only the bonds of family can keep Bela safe but other incidents show cracks in her parents' marriage. The safety Bela relies on is on the brink of unraveling. But Other Mommy needs an answer. Incidents Around the House is a chilling, wholly unique tale of true horror told by the child Bela. A story about a family as haunted as their home.

I have been a fan of Josh Malerman since Bird Box. This book adds to his arsenal of creepy and scary books. I enjoyed this book so, so much, but especially that it is told by Bela.

Thanks to NetGalley and Del Ray for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Relentlessly atmospheric, experimental with obvious flaws, Incidents Around the House is unapologetically written for the devoted horror fans; immediate point of reference comes to mind is the 2022 horror film Skinamarink, which utilizes a similar overarching tropes: intentionally obscure narrative through a child's POV. While the novel successfully delivers on scares, tension, and a sense of dread, I can also see it being criticized for being overly vague, lacking a traditional narrative arc, and an inconclusive ending — some of which I actually consider to be the story's strength, while others might be areas where the novel should've gone through a few more rounds of refinement.

One of my favorite Josh Malerman stories is A House at the Bottom of a Lake, and this feels like a continuation of that writing style — where the horror element can be interpreted both literally and metaphorically. With the concept of innocence and parenthood being repeatedly brought up, it is easy to make correlation between these subject matters and the supernatural presence (the writing even encourages it at times). But then there will be outlier scenes where they can only be read as one way rather than open for analysis... The lack of consistency is where I bump into some frustrations with Incidents Around the House's narrative — I wish the author's intent is made a little more clear.

Still, I commend Josh Malerman for pushing the boundary and writing outside the box, as Incidents Around the House contains some of the more original, grotesque imagery, and genuinely chilling sequences (people you are talking to is not who you think they are never cease to scare me). Yes, while this novel (at least my experience with it) has trouble deciding whether to be metaphorical or literal, and would potentially work better as a novella, it is already one of the more memorable reads of this year!

This is my first Josh Malerman book. I did not find this book utterly terrifying but more so, creepy. I also did want to finish it quickly so it was resolved. A creepy child and demon of sorts and a family trying to find a solution to their haunting. An engaging and intense read. I will be reading more of Malerman! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher/author for their ARC in exchange for my review. If you are looking for a spine tingling, creepy read, this one is for you…but keep the light on

Other mommy has to be one of the creepiest things I've ever read. This book scared the heck out of me. I was reading and alone in the dark on my Kindle and had to get up and turn the light on. Every sound had me questioning if other mommy was slinking towards me in the dark. I can't say enough good things about this book! In the name of review fairness though I'm going 4.5 stars only because the ending felt rushed to me after so much build up. Solid horror story.

I really liked this book which is told from the point of view of a little girl named Bela, who lives with her mommy, daddo and the other mommy, an entity haunting Bela who wants to carnation in Bela (reincarnate). The story was so atmospheric and at times actually scary. Great book.

THANK YOU so much, NetGalley, Josh Malerman, and Random House - Del Rey Books for a chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Josh Malerman's "Incidents Around the House" is an absolute gem for fans of horror and suspense. The book drips with atmospheric dread, creating a creepy vibe that seeped into my bones from the very first page. Malerman masterfully builds tension, making every turn of the page an exercise in delicious fear.

I loved how the adults in the book were depicted as being more childlike than the actual child in the story. This inversion of roles added a layer of unease and complexity to the narrative, making the adults' actions and reactions even more creep-tastic! Brilliant!

Another aspect that rocked my world was the narrative being from a child's point of view. The grammar and writing structure were creatively aligned with this concept, capturing the innocence and curiosity of childhood while contrasting it with the terrifying events unfolding around the young Bela.

The description of "Other Mommy" as the entity trying to possess young Bela was also incredibly designed. Her exaggerated features and creepy repetition of "Can I come into your heart?" were painted with such detail that I could picture her grotesque form perfectly. Malerman's talent for creating monstrous yet believable characters is fully displayed here.

I highly recommend "Incidents Around the House" for anyone who loves a good possession story and enjoys reading late into the night, preferably while hiding under the covers. Josh Malerman will keep you on edge with this one and make you question every shadow in your room, or in my case, make your husband come turn on a night light for you! LOL! Enjoy!

Oh. My. God.
Incidents Around The House is one of the creepiest books I’ve ever read! It’s the first book I’ve read from a child’s perspective and that certainly added to the freaky factor.

I don’t want to spoil anything but the things that happen and resolution attempts are just bonkers! You really never know what’s going to pop up on the next page.

That ending? Absolutely not what I anticipated!

I love that Josh Malerman writes his books based in Michigan mainly because I am a Michigander myself. He weaves in Goblin within Incidents Around The House.

Incidents Around The House Is a good book. It was not one of my favorites and the mother really really bugs me. For those that love his writing I imagine you will love this as well.

Thank you #Netgalley for the chance to read the EArc of #IncidentsAroundTheHouse by #JoshMalerman in return for a fair and honest review.

This book is everything a haunted house story should be and more. Delightfully creepy, Malerman's prose paints a full picture of Bela's life: her daily routine, her worries for her parents, and the increasingly scary nature of visits by her friend, Other Mommy. Incidents both feeds into tropes and subverts them, creating a story that's sure to please long time fans of the genre. I know I'll be revisiting Incidents Around The House for a good spooky read in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine for my ARC of Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman. This book was unique, intense, and suspenseful in the best ways! I've rated it 4.5/5 stars.

The way that Incidents Around the House is formatted and written took me by suprise at first, as it was hard to adapt to. But over time and certainly by the end of the book, I realized it added to the poetic nature of the story in a really beautiful way, as did reading from the POV of a child. This book is intense and suspenseful and reminded me a bit of a Stephen King novel. More than once while reading this, I thought of how it was part Lisey's Story, part Coraline, part something entirely unique and original. The only thing keeping me from rating this book a full 5 stars is at times, the book started to feel a bit redundant along with the ending feeling slightly confusing and a bit rushed. However, I would most likely be rating it a full 5 stars if I began reading knowing the unique poetic writing style and didn't go in completely blind. I highly reccomend this one!

This book was creepy and spine-tingling. There were a couple of times when I almost had to DNF because it was too scary!

I am finding it very hard to decipher how I feel about this book, as well as how to how to rate it. Ultimately I think this will be a great book for someone else but just did not resonate with me.

The Good: This book claimed to be true horror - and they DELIVERED! This book is spooky as all get-out. I realized after the first quarter or so that I was not reading this book at night anymore and finished most of it on my patio in broad daylight. 'Other Mommy' might be the first book character ( monster? ghost?) I have truly been afraid of.

The Not-so-Good: The writing style was a vibe and, unfortunately, it was not my vibe. I think the writing style was supposed to add to the spookiness and I could see how that would work for some. For me, I found the lack of quotations and overall formatting very distracting.

I wanted to LOVE this book, and even though I did not I do not fault the writer. I think the writer had a vision and created it flawlessly. This was a difference in opinions and styles. However, I do plan on trying the audio again sometime in October.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing - Ballantine for my advanced reader copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey Books for this arc!

Little 8-year-old Bela has a friend that only she can see . . . until others start to see her friend too. Other Mommy. Bela starts to learn that Other Mommy isn't really her friend. After all, Other Mommy wants to enter Bela's heart. As those around Bela begin to see Other Mommy they embark on a journey to rid themselves of Other Mommy while trying to keep their family and its secrets intact.

This book is a cross of Coraline mixed with Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak. Then as I read further, why don't we throw Paranormal Activity into the mix too? This book gave me the creeps and that's saying a lot since I frequently fall asleep listening to horror stories. Malerman paints a very creepy and horrifying picture of Other Mommy and her desire to get into little Bela's heart.

However, the ending is very predictable and some parts in the middle are a little . . . eh. The whole knife scene (trying not to say too much)? Really guys? Really? You think that's going to work? It gets a little repetitive as our little family is running from house to house in their bid to escape Other Mommy.

But overall, I did enjoy this book and it did give me some good throwbacks to Coraline and Paranormal Activity (the latter I watched frequently as a young teen).

Have you ever read a book where scary things are happening to a child and the adults just don't get it? Your frustration grows and you can't believe how incredibly dumb the parents are and the lack of support towards the child? (I see you Lemony Snicket in Series of Unfortunate Events) Josh Malerman's Incidents Around the House is quite the opposite. Bela is believed and loved and while this may seem comforting to readers the overall premise and plot of the book is the complete opposite.

I found "Incidents" to be eerie, unsettling and downright creepy. Eight year old Bela has someone watching her from her closet. Sometimes it's in her bathroom. The book was fast paced and I didn't want to put it down.

Besides dealing with the monster, young Bela has to deal with her childhood fears of whether her parents will divorce and whether her presence impacts their relationship. I brought to the forefront that no one ever truly knows all of us completely. Not our spouse, nor our parents nor our children. We all have secrets to hide and Bela's parents are no exception.

The moments of darkness and confined spaces in closets and bathrooms added to the creep factor as well as the wind from Lake Michigan. This was a great summer read for me.

I don't think I have ever been this scared while reading a book. It terrified me more and more to the very last word where I almost lost it. Holy crap. This has to go into the House of Horror Fame. A solid five.

What a unique styled horror book. Told from the POV of a child, we’re getting an innocent perception of the actions by the parents when the child experiences an entity called “other mother” that has attached itself to the child Bela. This family goes through the process of ridding the home of Other Mother and because it’s told from the POV of a child, we’re able to strip away all the vocabulary of a well written description and are feeling the vibes as the child did. Raw, honest, and I really loved it.

Aside from a small aspect I’d change about the ending, it absolutely adored this book. 4.75 stars

The number of horror authors/fans who have been talking about this book made me very excited to read it, and while I did enjoy it quite a bit I feel like I perhaps missed what everyone else seems to be experiencing because I wasn't completely blown away. That's not to say it was bad. I sped through reading it, and I enjoyed a lot of the things it did, I just didn't think it was phenomenal. The things I liked are as follows; the POV (a horror story for adults from a child's perspective is something I don't think I've seen before, and Malerman did a good job), the idea (very creepy, although not anything earth-shattering. It was definitely executed well), and how it played with some tried and true tropes (the whole "the kid seem something but the adults dismiss it" which then turns into "holy sh*t the adults can see it too" and how it took the idea of a haunted house and turned it more into a haunted person). All of these things were great. There were a few things I didn't...not hated, but liked less. First the format/style. I understand this was done because the story is told from an 8-year-old's perspective, but I'm not sure I still understood WHY it was written like this. I feel like a kid that age still understands "x said" and the like. It certainly took me some getting used to, although once I did get used to it I was able to read very quickly. I can imagine there are going to be some people that absolutely hate this choice though, so please be aware of that. The other thing was just the why of the whole thing, and along with that the ending. I get it, horror with no reason is supposed to be scarier, but to me that just seems like a little bit of a cop-out. We didn't even get a firm answer on what Other Mommy really was. I was also confused by the ending. I maybe have an idea of what might have happened, but it was also somewhat vague. I appreciate the direction it went in, but again, I would have liked just a little more there. Those two things aside I still ended up liking this book quite a bit, and I've already written a shelf-talker for it and told a handful of people that they should check it out. I would also love to see this turned into a movie. It's certainly made me curious to check out Malerman's backlist, and I'll be eager to see what he comes up with next. I'll probably also end up picking up a physical copy of this at some point, because I think it would be beneficial to read it again, and maybe a little slower so I can hopefully see the genius so many other people seem to be seeing in it. Even though I don't quite see that, it was still a fun read and I hope it finds a wide audience.

As a horror reader, I am constantly on the search for books that actually scare me and this book immediately did it for me. Told through the eyes of a beautifully haunted child, Malerman consistently creates living scenes in which the reader can't escape, far after the book's completion. If anyone would have told me that at 33 years old I'd be turning on the light to use the bathroom at 3 AM, in complete terror, at the thought of a character written in a book I would have laughed! That's the beauty of Malerman, he doesn't just write books, he carefully constructs entire worlds that end up intertwined in the real lives of readers, doomed to never forget the scenes that, ironically, live in our hearts. I will be reading this book again for years to come and I know I'll never be any less scared. "Incidents" is exactly the kind of horror you're looking for.

I didn’t read Bird Box by this author, but surely was creeped out by the movie. I believe Incidents around the House is going to make an even more chilling film of horror. I hope someone writes a screen play for this novel. I’m not a reader who normally is spooked by the written word, but this author has the talent for writing disturbing events. As I read reviews I notice that listeners have stated the audio version is quite well done.

The story is told from the point of view of eight-year-old Bela. Bela is devoted to her small family; Mommy, Daddo, and Grandma Ruth. But what about Other Mommy, who appears to her and only her in the beginning. As time moves on and Bela refuses to say yes when she asks, “Can I go inside your heart,” Other Mommy is becoming restless and more aggressive. This malevolent entity, who once felt like maybe a friend to Bela, now has become frightening. Even in her young age, Bela understands that unless she says yes, her family will soon pay. But what are the consequences of saying yes? It cannot be good. 



As Other Mommy becomes stronger, bolder and more threatening, it seems that only the bonds of family can keep Bela safe. But the marriage is problematic as hinted by the mother’s actions and thoughts. Now Other Mommy is appearing to mommy, Daddo and grandma and all are terrified. They have no where else to turn. psychics, the police, exorcists, killer dogs, and all manner of home safety methods fail to protect them from the presence of Other Mommy, whose appearance has become more horrifying. 
Other Mommy needs an answer and bottom line, it wants Bela!



Incidents Around the House is a chilling and unique tale of horror about a family haunted by an entity as well as the past and the main victim is an innocent 8 year old girl.

Josh Malerman’s writing is now on my go to list of authors.
He has a great talent for pulling readers into a world of edginess, for example, Other Mommy was hiding in the dark corner, but her eyes were up near the ceiling and her mouth grotesquely stretched to the floor.

And just as you think possibly the family has found safety as when they flee to the beach, do not get comfortable.

There is another factor in this drama in addition to the malevolence. The parents: One feels trapped, ungrateful, and unsatisfied in marriage. The other is the optimistic, uplifting one, and Bela’s best friend, the light and the dark to their Bela. Malerman portrayed each so well that that I couldn’t decide which parent was the “good” one, as they both have some pretty serious issues.

Throughout the story is the prevalent feeling of desperation and hopelessness by everyone, even Other Mommy.

I highly recommend this book if you are into supernatural as this is one of the best in the genre.

Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman is one of my fav horror books so far this year! I alternated between the ARC and the audiobook because I heard it was narrator from the child's POV and just WOW! This book was soooooo creepy without the unneccessary gore, which I don't mind either way, but I think there is something to be said for Malerman's ability to creep us out organically with our own thoughts. He provides the paint and we paint the picture while reading the book. It's the not knowing... the old school where is the next move coming from... brilliant! Very creepy!