This book disturbed my sleep. A young child, Bela, is forced to ponder a scary question by Other Mommy, the creature that lives in her closet. Will Bela give her carnations by letting Other Mommy enter her heart? Mommy and Daddo(and the reader) get increasingly worried and scared as Other Mommy begins to make her monstrous presence known. Told in first person, we empathize with Bela as she struggles to stay hopeful despite her parents' rocky marriage and the pressure to answer Other Mommy's request. So scary!

Genre: Horror, Paranormal

I don’t often read HORROR, and I didn’t even read BIRD BOX, but every once in a while, a book from this genre appeals to me-and this was one of them.

It was told ENTIRELY from the UNIQUE first person perspective of eight-year-old Bela, a girl who is being targeted by a ENTITY who calls itself her “OTHER MOMMY”.

YOU CAN RUN-BUT YOU CANNOT HIDE

“Other Mommy” is looking for carnation (reincarnation) as she wants to LIVE again…

“CAN I GO INSIDE YOUR HEART?”

She pretends to be friends with the vulnerable Bela, as she tries to manipulate her way in.

I felt the DESPERATION of Daddo, Mommy and Grandma Ruth, as they try to save Bela.

And, I felt TERRIFIED for Bela.

Like the movie, “A Quiet Place” by John Krasinski and Michael Sarnoski (which I loved) the EVIL is lurking just out of view, but you can always FEEL its presence.

This story is accurately described as “a chilling horror novel about a haunting” and I think it would also translate well to the BIG SCREEN.

I finished this last night and I woke up, STILL THINKING about the ending!!

AVAILABLE June 25, 2024

Thank You to Del Rey for the gifted ARC provided through NetGalley. It was my pleasure to offer a candid review!

Whoa, buckle up, folks! This book has it all: creepy kids, haunted happenings, family drama, spine-chilling scenes, and jaw-dropping moments. I wasn't sure what I was getting into when I started this book, but what a pleasant surprise! I've been on the hunt for another creepy kid/haunting story after finishing a few similar ones, and this book totally delivered. Josh's imagination is off the charts!

Meet eight-year-old Bela. Her family means everything to her—there’s Mommy, Daddo, and Grandma Ruth. But then there's also Other Mommy, a sinister entity who asks her every day, "Can I go inside your heart?" When terrifying events around the house start to suggest that Other Mommy is getting tired of asking the same question over and over, Bela realizes that if she doesn’t say yes soon, her family might be in serious danger.

I picked this book up and simply couldn't put it down. Kudos to Josh for creating such a masterpiece! Huge thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for giving me the chance to read and review this ARC.

First, thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Second, I’m going to be real here. This was not an enjoyable read whatsoever. I don’t know if my imagination sucks or what but I was not scared in the slightest. The point of view is from a young girl, so the writing is just like if you were talking to a 10 year old, which was absolutely miserable. The people in this have an emotional intelligence of a fruit fly in practice but then pretend to drop this dense knowledge on their young daughter like they aren’t a problem to themselves. ANYWAYS the ending sucks and is pointless and writing like a 10 year old is not impressive writing, it’s shit.

I was so excited to read this book, and it definitely did not disappoint. A malevolent being that is asking the main character, a child named Bela "Can I go inside your heart?". This book was unique, spooky, horrifying, and absolutely fabulous! I felt for the parents as they go through this madness. Malerman nailed this story, and I am happy to be here to read it!!!

This concept is a creepy one. It is told from the perspective of a little girl named Bela from a disfunctional family who is haunted by a terrifying entity who she calls "Other Mommy." The story had some scary aspects, but overall didn't quite do it for me.

While I loved the potential of this book, the writing was choppy and did not flow very well. I think this was a stylistic choice, as I've read other books by this author that didn't feel clunky. I think maybe it was his way of trying to create a child-like voice to the narrative? I didn't find it to be effective and did not enjoy the long winded speeches of the parents, who were annoying characters.

Another hang up I had was that the book does not have quotation marks. I didn't like when Cormac MacCarthy did this style choice, and I didn't like it now either, so it was distracting for my reading enjoyment. It was also a very repetitive story. The scare factor of Other Mommy was impactful at the start, but eventually overplayed itself and became stagnant as far as scariness went. I almost felt this was more silly than scary at times? Idk maybe I just have too high a tolerance these days.

I really think this novel would make a great horror movie though, since the concept itself is spooky and it may translate better for me in film. While this wasn't a hit for me, I have heard some readers say it was truly scary for them and recommend it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Ray for providing a review copy.

This book is quite an achievement. Josh Malerman has a way of using so few words, just enough description, to conjure things in your mind that is absolutely unique among the authors I've read. To throw even more of a wrench in things, the story is told from the perspective of an 8 year old child experiencing a variety of horrors, both supernatural and domestic. This book is creepy and distressing in a myriad of ways, but also deeply philosophical in a way. The ending hit me in a way I wasn't quite expecting. I'll be thinking about this one for a very long time. 5 stars

Incidents around the house was so much more than I was expecting when I requested it from NetGalley. This book hooks you from the first page and from there you don't know what's happening and are on the edge of your seat. This is one of the scariest books I think I've ever read.
In short, this book is a haunting told from a child's point of view. This is both why it reads quickly and is terrifying. How does a young child know if it's ok to let something into your heart? Other Mommy will haunt you too.

Review posted 6/7/2024 Goodreads/Instagram/StoryGraph
Thank you to NetGalley for an early release of this highly anticipated horror read of 2024!

Incidents Around The House has a unique and refreshing approach for readers to enjoy the horror genera. The story is narrated by an eight year old, Bella, who shares with you her experience of an entity involved in her life. She meets this entity one evening in her bedroom through the closet doors. It sounds like her mother, so it suggests to Bella, call her Other Mommy. The relationship develops from there. In some instances when Bella reflects on this, she sees it as a happy relationship with laughs and comfort, while other times she's not so sure if that was true. Bella's parents are okay, her mom is a real piece of work, and often allow her to attend parties they throw in the house. A credit is given to the mom for hiring someone to babysit her while they drink to make sure she is safe regardless. A follow up reference to this later may leave you feeling pretty upset regarding the mom.
Chapter 11: It's real lit downstairs, Kelvin says. I'm sure we'll become someone's confession booth tonight.
During one of the parties, the entity shows itself and the secret of Other Mommy can no longer be hidden. The Story escalates pretty fast from here as more people see Other mommy their "brain breaks" and reality is shattered.
This is my preferred subgenera, possession, and I absolutely loved Other Mommy. She is clever and so patient. Other mommy preys on sweet Bella by offering her friendship, but will evidently ask the question of invite. She gradually gets impatient ultimately changing her approach to trickery and fear. While often her parents divulge their secrets to Bella during her sleep, Other Mommy uses this and changes her appearance to become others and whispers lies in the same manner and although Bella isn't fooled and the truth reveals itself. Although she can discern her real people from Other Mommy, she will ruminate on the new information which breaks her down and creates weakness in her armor.
Other Mommy creates scenes in the book that made my hair stand and send goosebumps down my spine. Made me think about my own kids and hope if such things were real, they would have the strength and mind to not succumb. Other Mommy shows her true nature to the family when they reach their whits end after failed attempts with an occult group, the local priests and a mega upgrade to the home. Eventually they hire Brian. Brian has been doing this job for a while now and he arrives demanding proof, not on a video or a plea from the family, he wants to encounter this thing himself...and he does. I absolutely got a kick out of this self proclaimed guy coming in, demanding his measures and after seeing Other Mommy and touching her, he leaves absolutely elated that he finally encountered the real deal. That's it, all he wanted! It really set a grounding for the story, a left field essence of human nature you don't often get in stories like this, especially involving a child! Eventually the family is on the verge of madness willing to go knives out when the occult leader returns to suggest, what she feels is, the ultimate key and sacrifice to save Bella. You'll have to read it of course to see what it is and how it ends, and the ending is another mega risk the author took and I applauded his bravery for doing so.


So all of that being said, I will break down my grading for the read.
1) The format of the story is different, but very easy to read. The narration is from an eight year old.
2) The milestones for the eight year old are not accurate and drove me a bit nuts and I tried to ease myself through some of the cognitive development misses.
3) Alcohol was a major player in this novel and Bella saw it as normal and even something mommy and daddo needed to be themselves. Yes this is a character flaw for the story and I get it, it just rubbed me the wrong way, My own feelings, right?
4) I felt the ultimate sacrifice was not doable due to a few factors that happen throughout the story prior. Again, my own opinion.
5) The entity was wonderfully created for it's target and how she interacted with the environment and with others in the story was amazing!

Because this book was told through a child’s eyes, the book was so much more terrifying. I could not put this book down because I was that invested. This author sure knows how to write a story in such a way that the reader ‘feels’ a part of the story. This story is about a haunted house on steroids. The only description the reader gets of the ‘Other Mommy’ is her eyes move around her face and she has hair on the back of her arms. Such a simple description yet all the adults become hysterical in their fear when they get a glimpse of the ‘Other Mommy’. The family really did try everything to help Bela with no luck. I cannot imagine going through what this family went through. This is a must read.

Thanks to the publisher, author, and to NetGalley for a readers copy of this title. My reviews never contain spoilers and are freely given.
Wow! Josh Malerman has done it again. Incidents Around the House is the story of a young girl being haunted by an entity she calls the Other Mother. At first the encounters seem friendly and restricted to the family home, but things quickly progress. The family, relatives, and friends are soon searching for a way to rid them of the Other Mother. Creepy and scary. Excellent read.

This was one of the scariest books I have ever read, and I'm no slouch when it comes to horror. I've been reading it for decades and can honestly say this scared me on multiple occasions. The little girl point of view helped make it that much scarier because she didn't have to always describe things in great detail to show you how terrifying done scenes were. There was a scene in a bathroom that was probably the scariest and best scenes in the book. Five stars. Get this book. I know I will be getting a copy. It's not every day a book scares you.

I feel like I read a different book than everyone else reviewing.

This book is written from the perspective of an “eight year old” which I wasn’t expecting and it’s definitely an interesting approach. At times, Bela seemed much older than her eight years and at other times, she seemed much younger. Unfortunately, I don’t think this perspective really did the story any favors, minus the fact that it was a quick read. It makes for a binge-able read as there is a lot of dialogue between Bela and her parents and because her thoughts are limited to that of a child. I think because of that though, the story also lacks any depth and it kind of reads more like it should be a short story, if that makes sense? Ultimately, it didn’t work for me. I didn't hate it but I certainly didn't love it.; I'll be nice and give three stars but I think that's being generous.

Proceed forward if you enjoy the entire book being formatted like this: “It’s later now. Dark out. I slept. But I’m awake again. The window is still open. Mommy thinks I’m sleeping. I can tell.”

I would recommend this book if you’re looking for a fast read and want a story that’s heavy on jump scares.

Thank you Del Rey, Random House Publishing and NetGalley for the digital copy! Available 06/25/2024!

A book with a child narrator is not something I would willingly do. That said, Incidents Around the House is a child's nightmare/horror/thriller that I could not put down.

Other Mommy? WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL? I was sure that this was a 'person living in a crawlspace' type of story. Boy was I wrong.

This book is terrifying. That's the deal. It's a terrifying story about innocence, aging, truth, and love.

Josh Malerman is a champ and there's no denying that. This book is a must read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

Very creepy book told from a child's perspective which was giving me big "Room" vibes. Fast paced and thrilling!

I flew through this book in a single day but it took me a couple of days before I could write the review for it because I needed a little bit of time to collect my thoughts about what I had just read. Don’t get me wrong, I loved this book and I think it was one of my favorites of the year so far, I just have a lot of feelings about it.

In this you’re following a very young girl and how she is being targeted by a spirit/entity/demon that she calls Other Mommy. Other Mommy keeps asking if she will “let her into her heart”. She repeatedly tells Other Mommy no. Over the course of the book Other Mommy gets more and more insistent that she let her in, with more unsettling and upsetting things happening around her/to her and her family as she keeps saying no.

I loved this book so much. I liked that the story was told from the POV of the child. I haven’t read very many stories like that and it was interesting to see that. When your main character in your adult book is only 8 years old there is a lot of stuff that she just isn’t going to know about and reading from that perspective was interesting.

I loved Bella as a character. Being in her head for the entire book was a unique experience for me. I liked her relationship with the other characters, especially with her family. I can’t get too far into the parents because spoilers but I wasn’t the biggest fan of them to put it lightly. The spirit/entity/demon was super interesting. You don’t get a whole lot of background on it so if you go into this hoping to learn what it is or where it comes from your going to be dissatisfied but I still liked it a lot. It was creepy and deeply unsettling and horrifying and I really liked it as a concept.

I loved that her parents didn’t spend half the book not believing her anbout what was going on and were right there with trying to fix things. Reading their efforts to try and girt rid of the spirit/entity/demon was fascinating and while they ended up doing a lot of stuff just flat out wrong I liked that they were actually trying.

I kind of saw the ending coming but I still loved it.

My one major complaint is the monologues. The mom and dad characters have a lot of monologues throughout the book and it can seem a bit plot dumpy but it’s worth it because it ends up being the source of one of the biggest scares in the book imo.

Overall I absolutely loved this book and I highly recommend it for horror fans in general and fans of the authors previous work specifically.

Incidents Around the House is a creepy horror story about a little girl, the women with an upside-down face in her closet, and parents who will do just about anything to save her. Honestly, when I first started reading this one, I thought it would be a DNF because of how it’s told which is through the little girl, Bela’s POV. It read like it too which took a lot of getting used to. But the creepy stuff that was happening overshadowed the narrative for me and I found myself really enjoying this one. It’s SCARY. I had goosebumps running up and down my arms when reading and before I went to bed, I was afraid to turn off the lights before leaving the room. This book sticks with you and I know many readers of horror will devour this possession type horror just like I did. Now I’m ready to read Malerman’s entire backlog!

𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗙𝗘𝗖𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗙𝗔𝗡𝗦 𝗢𝗙
❥ Horror Novels
❥ Possessions and Haunted Houses
❥ Books that will chill you to the core

𝗠𝗬 𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Okay, so this is very creepy!

I kind of have a love/meh relationship with the author’s books. Some I love. Some, I’m ambivalent on. Add this to the Love List!

At first, I thought I was going to get a bit tired of the narrative voice. I’m not best when we’re solely in the POV of a child. However, I was soon completely involved in this story and found myself really creeped out by Other Mommy!

The story mixes a lot of heartbreak with the chills and ends up being a simply fantastic read!

• ARC via Publisher

Thank you NetGalley and Josh Malerman for the eARC!

This review is a more challenging one to right as I don’t read many true horror novels (suspenseful, sure) and so I don’t have a lot to compare this book to.

To begin, the creepy/horror factor was a 10/10. I don’t typically dream (or have nightmares for that matter), but after reading this book, in the dark, at night, I 100% had a nightmare from reading this one. So if you’re looking for that spooky/scary/creepiness, I think this is a great book for that.

I feel conflicted about telling it from the POV from a young child. I think this story could not be told any other way, and that’s what made it so good, BUT it was just a little bit distracting. Again though, I don’t think it would have been intense enough, had it been written in a different way, so I don’t think anything should be changed about it. I thought it was interesting and different and made the book even creepier, the grammar was just a bit distracting at times. But I get why it is the way that it is.

I thought this was an excellent horror novel, and I think it has the potential to turn into a really creepy movie, which I would definitely watch.

All in all, would definitely recommend!

A family’s nightmare brought to life. A young girl has been seeing an entity, who wants to take her place in life. She manages being friends with the being for awhile, until it starts to scare her. At this point, the entity starts to show itself to others, causing the girl and her family to run away from it. But it follows them, and they have to face their own demons in hopes to get rid of it for good.

This book had a lot of family drama. I found it a little strange how the girls parents would get drunk and confess their life secrets to their young daughter in bed pretending to be asleep. She also seemed to have a profound understanding of the world for being such a young girl which was not realistic. I wanted more out of the plot and resolution, so I was left disappointed.