A chilling tale that will keep you up at night reading. Other Mother is sinister and you won’t soon forget her.
Many thanks to Random House and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley exchange for my honest opinion.

I'd heard how scary this was, and my "fear threshold" has gotten pretty high in recent years, but this was absolutely terrifying. Brave stylistic choices paid off here, big time. Malerman's best yet.

I had to give myself time to process this scary, creepy awesome book.!

I had to sleep with the lights on and read this during the day. I had an imaginary friend as a little girl but nothing like this and thank goodness. I was truly creeped out reading Incidents around the house and if you like creepy, scary books this one is definitely for you.

Thank you Netgally, Josh Malerman and Del Ray for the ARC of Incidents Around the House.

Thank you to Net Galley for the advanced readers copy of this book. I like horror very much, I really was looking forward to reading this but man was I disappointed. It got great reviews so maybe it's just a book that wasn't for me. It felt very much like 'tell not show' writing and the end was overwraught and dramatic. I don't think I'll be reading anymore by Malerman.

Many thanks to @randomhouse @delreybooks #ballantine and @netgalley for my #gifted (free) copy. Pub date 6/25/24.

Well, on a good note, this was a super fast read. On a bad note, this book just wasn't  for me. This book has so many 5 star reviews, so I definitely recommend reading it if the blurb seems up your alley. It was creepy and scary in many parts, but many parts were repetitive, and I just got bored with the book, probably because the whole book is told through the view of an eight year old girl.

Eight year old Bela has her mommy and daddo, but she also has a secret "Other Mommy" that used to only hide in the closet, but now she goes all around. Other Mommy asks Bela every day if she can "go inside her heart," but Bela is scared, and she knows that Other Mommy is starting to get mad and restless.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC!

Eight year old Bela is a pretty typical kid, with a mostly typical family - her Mommy, Daddo, Grandma Ruth…and Other Mommy. Other Mommy is the entity that lives in Bela’s closet, who asks to “go inside” Bela’s heart every time she appears. As increasingly alarming incidents begin occurring, the family realizes that the longer Other Mommy is denied, the more danger they’re in. As things worsen, the only safety is in family but the Bela begins to see that her family isn’t exactly what she thought it was. Can the family pull together to cast Other Mommy out, or will she get the answer she’s been looking for?

I’ve read several of Josh Malerman’s books, including Bird Box, and find that the more of his work I read, the more I love it. I love when there are throwbacks and connections to his other works, and their centralized settings. That said, none of Malerman’s work that I’ve read has been as truly unsettling as this one. It took me three days to read Incidents, and that’s only because I refused to read it at night or when I was home alone. This book had me seeing things in a pile of laundry, had me jumping at every creak or noise. It’s hard to say too much without giving away important details, but a book narrated by an 8 year old is somehow so much more unsettling than one narrated by an adult. The story is intense right up until the very end and finishing it felt like running face first into a wall. I definitely recommend it if you like unconventional horror that keeps you guessing and makes you want to leave the lights on.

“Can I go inside your heart?”

Incidents Around the House is a novel told from 8-year old Bela’s perspective. I loved the choice of the story being told through her eyes, because her perspective provides an innocence and a vulnerability that contrasts with the elements of horror, violence, and family dysfunction that play throughout the story. What adds to the horrors is that as the reader, you know what you’d do the situations that arise, but you are stuck seeing an 8 year old battle with weighing her options of what is good and what is bad.

Now, Other Mommy. There were parts that involved Other Mommy that were truly the most chilling things I’ve read, and it made me regret reading this at night in bed. Just the image of someone sliding on their belly across the floor… no 😫 I loved how terrifying Other Mommy is. I felt like she served not only as an entity trying to possess Bela, but as a metaphor for the real world horrors trying to ruin her innocence.

This was a chilling, fast paced read that had me frozen at times as though Other Mommy herself just appeared to ask me that dreaded question. And though my answer for her is a hard no, my answer to you is yes, yes you should definitely read this!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the ARC!

Incidents Around the House actually scared me and left me unsettled. It's a story of a haunting told from the perspective of a young child. I feel like that made it even scarier and creepier as we're seeing it through her innocent lense.

Other Mommy has been haunting Bela day and night asking to be let into her heart. Bela just wants her friendship but isn't sure whether she should agree to this request. She just wants her family to be happy and wonders if maybe this would fix things. Other Mommy starts ramping up the danger though as she's getting tired of continuing to ask the same question and get no answer in return. She's getting restless, stronger and bolder and she won't wait forever.

The ending was creepy, spooky and left me unsettled and I love that this book delivered that visceral terror.

Thank you to Josh Malerman, NetGalley, and Random House Publishing for allowing me to read and review this as an E-ARC.

This starts out as a run of the mill "child sees a ghost" horror story. While the plot of the story follows the same constructs as most stories of this nature, the way it was written by the child's perspective, and the pace at which the story unfolds is well done and entertaining. There were several parts of this story that had me hiding my head under the covers. It truly gave me the creeps. The good creeps. The kind of creeps that you want when reading horror. I liked it a lot and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a typical horror story that does extremely well at being its own. Written by a true professional.

Malerman definitely captures the creepy vibe here, but honestly I could not read an entire horror story written from an 8 year old's perspective/voice... I found the beginning fabulous and eerie and all the things I've come to expect from Malerman. Unfortunately, after a while the language/voice just wore me down and I couldn't keep going. I think interspersing the child voice with a third person narrator would have helped A LOT. It's also possible that this is one where an audio format - or a movie, frankly - would work better than a traditional book. I struggled mightily with the short, choppy, simplistic sentence structure and the repetitive nature of the writing that resulted. Even in a relatively short book, it was too much to keep me engaged. But if you can get past that, there's a seriously creepy tale here... When I first realized what "carnations" meant, I had goosebumps that wouldn't go away for a full five minutes!

And the award for scariest book I have ever read goes to...
@joshmalerman's Incidents Around The House. That's who the award goes to. I was fortunate enough to receive an e-arc of this one (thank you @netgalley and @randomhouse). It comes out June 25, 2024, so get your preorders in now because you will not want to miss this.
This book blew me away. It's short and extremely tight
- no dilly-dallying or unnecessary fluff. The scares are frequent and intense. How does one create jump-scares in a book? Ask Malerman and read Incidents Around The House.
Seriously, there are multiple sequences that made me jump and even more that had me downright shivering and my goosebumps rising. Other Mommy might be one of the most terrifying entities l've experienced in any media... books, movies, shows, you name it, Other Mommy is probably the scariest and they're going to stick with me for a loooooong time.
•
The atmosphere was eerie and creepy as hell. The stylistic choices were INSPIRED. Incidents Around The House felt so cinematic at times I legitimately felt I could HEAR it. Having this all be from the POV of a child: brilliant. And that only added to the atmosphere and the scares. It's that innocence of a child - those incomprehensible moments, those creepy and terrifying moments, watching adults react to this situation — all from a child's eye... extremely unnerving and immeasurably effective.
Incidents Around The House is straight-up scary.
Malerman absolutely crushed it and I cannot wait for more of you to read this — mainly to yell at more people about it and to post quotes/specifics. I'm giving this one an EASY 5/5. One of the best of 2024 for me.

"A chilling horror novel about a haunting, told from the perspective of a young girl whose troubled family is targeted by an entity she calls "Other Mommy," from the New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box.

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 question over and over, Bela understands that unless she says yes, her family will soon 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 about to unravel.

But Other Mommy needs an answer.

Incidents Around the House is a chilling, wholly unique tale of true horror about a family as haunted as their home."

Like Coraline but even scarier!

I think this is the creepiest Malerman book I’ve read yet…
This book is from the perspective of 8-year-old Bela who is being haunted by her “Other Mommy.” I really liked that this book was written from the perspective of the child but isn’t a book FOR children. It’s a unique perspective you don’t get often in adult books. Furthermore, the way he described Other Mommy gave me the heebie jeebies. All I could picture was the Other Mother from Coraline…but even worse.
AND THE ENDING! I won't say more...but I was a fan.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Holy Cannoli!!! If you are looking for a suspenseful, creepy, hair raising story- with no gore, this is the book for you. And even though there is no gore-this is one of the most haunting books that I have read.

The author uses the technique of telling the whole story through the POV of Bela, an eight year old. It is through her eyes and thoughts that the story unfolds. Although you might think this technique wouldn’t work- it is actually quite effective. We feel the uncertainty, fear, anxiety, love and confusion that Bela is experiencing. The scenes with “Other Mommy” are intensified through this technique, and I felt anxious for Bela. We see the struggle her parents are going through, and this adds another layer to Bela’s confusion about everything happening around and to her. We see that she loves her parents, and desperately wishes for them to be happy. I wanted to jump into this book and shake her parents, then take Bela away!

It is because of Bela’s love and loyalty to people she loves that Other Mommy can approach her. The story hinges on this aspect of Bela and, in the end you are wondering whether this aspect actually helped Bela or was it a hinder to her? After finishing this last night I am finding this book haunts me. So does Bela.

Thank you NetGalley, Josh Malerman, Random House/Del Rey Publishing for the ARC. This is my voluntary, honest review.

Torn between 3.5 and 4 on this one. It's an entertaining story, but it doesn't feel like it brought anything new to the genre. I enjoyed the fact that it was written from the child's perspective but I often had a hard time telling what exactly her age was supposed to be. The creepy descriptions and jump scares in this are very well written which I think is mainly why I had a hard time putting the book down. I did think it got a bit repetitive towards the end but that final chapter was worth the wait.

I love a good haunted house story and I had high expectations from this going in because of the rave reviews it's received on Goodreads but this was not for me.

The book is told through a child's lens and while thankfully the spelling is correct, the narrative is as disjointed as they come. While the blurb says Bela is 8, I thought she sounded 6 at times and 9 at others because she's written like she's both too wise and too young for her age.

The good thing about the monster is that while at first, people don't believe her, soon they start to see "Other Mommy" with their own eyes and most of the story is about how the family deals with the situation and the things they try to fight it/her.

Bela's parents are wild. They talk to a child about adult concepts when they think she's sleeping (before the haunting) because they don't want therapists and of course, the whole situation with "Other Mommy" with these people ends up as you'd expect it to.

I didn't like the parents, I couldn't sympathize with Bela much and sadly, I was never scared which is what you want from a horror book.

But again, it feels like I read a different book than everyone else so you may just end up liking this one. Thanks to Netgalley and Ballantine for the e-ARC!

Another excellent novel from the creator of Bird Box, Josh Malerman. The writing style is reminiscent of the narrators at the beginning of his short story, “Half of the House”, from his book of short stories, “Spin a Black Yarn”, where it starts out being told from the perspectives of an eight year old sister and her six year old brother. In this novel, the same approach is taken as the narrator is a little girl that has contact with a paranormal entity. It may take time to adjust to this writing style, but it is an effective method used for this story. I highly recommend this novel, and look forward to more from Josh Malerman.

This was creepy. I read it alone in the dark and definitely found myself looking around whenever I heard a sound. This would make a terrifying movie!

Josh Malerman does it again. I say that as if I have read his work before. I actually haven’t, but this is the man who wrote Bird Box, so his reputation preceded him. This isn’t all that important. What is important is that his next novel, Incidents Around the House, releases on June 25th through Del Ray. This book actually scared me, so buckle up.

Incidents Around the House is, surprise, a haunted house novel. But it’s not like one I’ve ever read before. Malerman chose to tell this tale from the point of view of a young girl: Bela. The writing is so simplistic due to this narrative choice that there are not even quotation marks used. Combined with often short chapters, this makes the book a breeze to read. I read it in just over 24 hours, and that was with quite a few, extended, breaks. I’ll touch back on this in a moment.

Bela, like many young children, believes there is something living in her closet. A friend, a monster, she’s not too sure right now. She calls this entity Other Mommy. Other Mommy has been around for a while, but the book begins when she starts getting “closer”. She can leave the closet. She can leave Bela’s room. She can leave the house. Just typing these escalating incidents is making my heart start to race again.

Mommy and Daddo, Bela’s parents, are split on how to handle Other Mommy. Mommy is a little more unnerved, particularly by the name her daughter uses for this imaginary friend. Daddo, though, takes it a little more seriously. In his way, anyway—Daddo is pretty cool. He thinks Bela may be sensitive, that she’s seeing a ghost, and makes sure she can meet with one of his friends to test that theory. Unsurprisingly, Mommy is not too happy about that.

That’s all I want to tell you about the plot, though. It’s time to go back to discussing the narrative choices Malerman made here. They are effective. I have mentioned reading this book quickly, and my heart racing while recounting events. That’s because this book was stressful. Have you ever experienced a jump scare while reading? I have, now, multiple times. The way the prose is structured, the way Bela sees things, made for an incredibly unique reading experience.

Oftentimes, it didn’t seem like the actual tone was scary. The opposite, in fact. The tone was observational. This is what Bela is doing, what Bela is seeing. And due to her age, she doesn’t often understand what is going on. Not to the level the reader does. There were so many times where Bela would almost casually say something spine-chillingly terrifying. There was no build-up, there was no wind-down. Because to Bela this was normal. To me? Not so much. I jumped, okay? Like in a horror movie. It was awesome.

More to that point, Other Mommy wasn’t always scary to Bela. She was her friend. She could still be her friend. That is what Bela is grappling with. What can she, as a child, do? The adults around her are all terrified. Anyone who sees Other Mommy is terrified. But Other Mommy was there for her when she was lonely. Where should her loyalty be? Does she have a responsibility to help? And if so–-which side? These are the questions of an innocent child. One who rarely worries for her own safety. Which means the reader has to.

This book blew me away. I had heard rave reviews going in, in fact a few of my friends even said they had to read with the lights on. And I’ll admit, even knowing what they read, I was skeptical. I’m always skeptical when people say a book genuinely scared them. I’m not sure why, I’m just not frightened like that easily. But this one? This proves it can happen. I’ll be haunted by this one for a while I’m sure. If that excites you, join me this summer.

Incidents Around the House took some getting used because it’s told by the small child, but once I got over that this was a great, creepy read. The Other Mommy was scary and the more the family noticed, the worse things got. It managed to make me scared for the family and for poor Bela.

Note: ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.