As always, I continue to find books from Josh Malerman a hit or a miss, not many are middle ground. Incidents Around the House was no different. It fell a bit short for me as I waited and waited for that 'gotcha' moment.

The novel was a fairly short, bit it took me forever to read. Sometimes a story feels like 'work' to read instead of the story pulling me along while I enjoy the ride. Bela was hard character to get behind and a lot of her dialog was painful to read. It was disjointed and like it is coming out of a kid, which it was, but it didn't lend to help the story along. Another minus here was the story was not creepy or scary. I kept reading and waiting for something to happen. Guess what, it didn't happen. The ending is good, but I'm not sure if it was worth the time to get there.

At first, only Bela could see “other mommy”, but as the story progress everyone can see her. I don't know the why or how. I guess I'll never know and that falls in the bucket with waiting for the horror and tension that never came.

The book has a great premise, simple and creepy. It’s giving Coraline and Poltergeist vibes. The perfect starting off point.

And let me say very clearly that I read this book really quickly I was very interested in what was going to happen next. and at multiple times, I was frustrated because I actually had to work rather than just read and finish this book. So, there’s a lot to say for that.

But, Other than that, everything else about the book was a complete fail to me.

First of all, we have the very very annoying construct of this book being written solely from the point of view of eight-year-old Bella. There are multiple problems with this for me.

I am not sure that Josh Malerman has ever met little alone interacted with an eight-year-old girl. There was absolutely no sense of characterization for Bela. I was in her head for the entire book and I have no idea what she was about. Other than the fact that she loved her parents, I guess? And, the book being written from this point of view made so much of the storytelling awkward.

There was so much of the book where the little girl was pretending to be asleep so that her parents could sit in front of her and give these long soliloquies about existential life things and about their marriage and about the way that life has failed them. Do people do this? Do they literally sit in front of their sleeping child and just dump their unhappiness and trauma?

Also, a lot of the exposition in the story had to come through this construct and it was very very awkward. You could just see how he was having to force these things intovthe prose . It was incredibly distracting. If even a third of the book had been written from a point of view of one of the other characters then it would’ve been a lot better.

Also, we have to talk about these other characters, the parents are nothing short of awful. There was absolutely no part of me that was worried that something bad was gonna happen to these towo because I was too busy hoping something bad would happen to these two.

Then we come to the fact that the actual horror elements of this book were just not very strong. There was la strong initial idea of our baddie, Other Mommy, and some great description that was creepy at the start, but then from there… Nothing ever happened, nothing developed.

We don’t get any backstory, we don’t get any reason that different things are happening, but the time I got to the end, which was completely foreseeable from the very beginning, I just was so disappointed. It’s like he just gave up.

The reality is, if I’m going to be scared at all, you have to give me something of substance to be scared of. You have to give me a reason that things are happening, you have to make me interested in the motivations not just of the good people but the bad people too. The same creepy jump scare over and over again isn’t gonna do it.

So much of the plot was just repetitive. We went to the same places doing the same thing for absolutely no reason. Over and over and over, rinse and repeat until the end.

Finally, perhaps most frustrating, He would insert plot points that you think are actually going to take the story somewhere interesting, and then within a page, completely undo that plot point.

There was one character in this book that I really really liked and I was very irritated by the ending that that character got.

So, by the end of this book, I was feeling three things I shouldn’t feel at the end of a horror novel, I was feeling irritated, disappointed, and that I just wanted it to be over.

This was fun, if a little unrealistic. I don't normally like books from the perspective of a child because they never ring true to me in terms of inner monologue, or even outer dialogue. The same is true for this book, unfortunately. The way the parents talk to their daughter (our main character, Bela) was extremely strange to me - I've never heard parents speak to a young kid this way, with this sort of flowery, "extra" language. I also found Bela not as believable as I wish she'd been - at times, she felt very immature and younger than her state age, but then at others, she read as more of a teen character than a child. It can be a difficult balance to nail, so it's understandable that the execution here fell flat. Still, there were several actual creepy moments here, and the Other Mommy was terrifying -- a pretty clear rip off of Coraline, but done in an inventive enough way that this stayed interesting until the end.

Another great read from Josh Malerman. He always has great characters, and of course a great story/plot, and pacing. Always look forward to the next release from Josh Malerman. #IncidentsAroundtheHouse #NetGalley

A truly creepy haunted house story that manages to subvert many of the cliches that you would expect from the genre. An inspired choice to go first-person from the perspective of a child, though it does lead to some stilted and unrealistic dialogue. As a childless dog dude, maybe normal people speak to their children in such flowery language and I'm not aware of it, but it felt slightly off. Still highly highly recommended for a good creepfest

this is a hard one to rate because there are some genuinely scary moments, and i think Malerman does a good job of writing from the perspective of a child without it coming off as precocious. however, the parents were a little immature (the mother much more so) to the point that i wondered if they had Bela as teens & maybe they were just emotionally stunted? but they couldn't have been crazy young since Ursula [was married once before? idk. (hide spoiler)] they also gave long (sometimes flowery) monologues to their 8 year old daughter which i thought didn't ring realistic. but again, that could be their immaturity coming through - i.e. treating their daughter like a friend.

speaking of Ursula, by the end of the book i could not stand her. i kept trying to give her the benefit of the doubt because maybe i was just being overly critical and hey, we need more complicated female characters! but then she kept doing stuff that made me dislike her more and more. like, i'm trying girl work with me here.

I really enjoyed this new to me take on the haunted house trope. The story is told through the eyes of a little girl and her interactions with the malevolent entity she calls Other Mommy. This book is addictive! It was hard to put down and it's kept me thinking about it after I read the final page. It's perfect pacing, and increasing sense of dread was deeply unsettling. I've already recommended this to other people and I know this one will stay with me. Highly recommend!

My thanks to Del Rey, Josh Malerman, and NetGalley for gifting me a digital copy of this book. My opinions are my own.

Alright, imagine this: you're an 8-year-old kid. You've just been tucked into bed, your blanket pulled up around your chin, and you're watching the closet because you know something's about to happen—the same thing that happens every night. And then it does. The closet door creeps open, and out comes this strange, elongated figure. You almost breathe a sigh of relief because her face is in the right place this time. Sometimes it's upside down, sometimes she's holding her face in her hands. She approaches you and kneels down to be at your level. This figure wants you to call her "Other Mommy," and she asks the same question she asks every night: "Can I go inside your heart?"

Hello, book people! PT Hylton here, the author of *Found Shadows* among other books. Today, we're talking about *Incidents Around the House* by Josh Malerman, which came out in July of this year. I'm just going to say it—it's my favorite horror novel of the year so far.

The premise, as I set up in the intro, involves an 8-year-old girl named Bella. She is our narrator, and the story is told in the first person. Bella has this strange entity, "Other Mommy," who lives in her closet and other places in her house. This entity comes out and talks to her when the adults aren't around or aren't paying attention. At first, this entity seems like it might even be a friend. It makes funny faces and makes her laugh, but then it starts asking to go inside her heart. Bella starts thinking about what that means and asks questions about it. She doesn't answer, but the entity is insistent and keeps asking.

One thing I loved about this novel is the way it uses its really creepy premise very effectively. "Other Mommy" shows up just enough to be really creepy every time, but not so much that we get used to her. The novel does a lot with the premise. One thing it does very well, and I think it happens five times throughout the novel, is that "Other Mommy" eventually gets the ability to morph into other people. There are times when Bella is having a conversation with someone, and you start to get that sinking feeling in your gut—this might not be the person she thinks it is; this might be "Other Mommy." It happens enough that I feel like it's not a spoiler to tell you that because once you start watching for it, it makes it even creepier to think about which conversations are real and which are not.

I also think this book could have gone off the rails if it had given us too much information about "Other Mommy," especially towards the end. I think it gave us just the right amount to keep it super creepy. Another great aspect is the idea of an 8-year-old protagonist and seeing everything through her eyes. As the story builds, we learn about her parents. Her mom and dad are going through some stuff, and her grandmother becomes involved in the story. There's some very adult stuff going on in her family. It's interesting to see it through Bella's eyes, who doesn't fully understand what's going on. Even though it's filtered through her, we understand it better than she does, which makes for really interesting dynamics. As the family gets drawn into this "Other Mommy" situation, it raises the question: is this going to tear the family apart or bring them closer together? The way that plays out is very interesting.

Anytime you're dealing with the theme of children facing adult situations and the potential loss of innocence, it's interesting to see how the innocence they bring to the situation affects the adults involved. This book explores that from a few different angles, bringing in both the supernatural element and the domestic issues. It's really interesting, and I've never seen a ghost story that explores these topics from these angles.

I'm not normally someone who thinks every great horror novel needs to be a movie, but there's something very visual and creepy about this one. I could see it being a super effective horror movie. I know Josh Malerman has a lot going on with his Hollywood work. He had *Bird Box*, and I believe he has a producing partner he works with on a lot of his projects. I really hope they bring this one to life because I think it could be very creepy.

I'm also interested to hear from those of you who've read it. Without giving anything away, I'm curious to see what people think of the ending. I liked the ending a lot, but I could see where it might be divisive. If you've read this book, I'd love to know what you thought of it. Maybe sound off a little in the comments below without spoiling it for those who haven't read it.

So that's *Incidents Around the House* by Josh Malerman. Highly recommended—my favorite horror novel of the year so far. Thanks so much for watching. I'll talk to you next time, and until then, keep turning pages.

This was so unique and I loved the writing style. Having this story told from a child’s POV was so interesting and it was beyond creepy! I am very interested in reading from this author again.

This literary work has left an indelible impression on me. The narrative's perspective through the eyes of a young child adds a chilling element to the overall experience. Furthermore, the portrayal of the parents, as perceived through the lens of the protagonist, is both enthralling and unsettling. Major win!

Josh Malerman takes all the fears of a Haunted House and multiplies it by 1000. Reading from Bela's perspective made it that much more terrifying because you're understanding what's happening at a child's level of understanding. I was stressed for the whole 5 days it took me to read this book. I loved the way it was laid out, how the story progressed, the twists and turns, but my heart beat much faster than normal. My heart rate sits high to begin with, but I checked my pulse after finishing and it was a solid 20 beats hire per minute. Malerman really hits it out of the park with this story. My goodness. I never want to meet an Other Mommy and I will just die if my children meet one.

LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!! This book was spooky and perfect and I loved the audio for it as well! I have already recommended to all of my friends! but chefs kiss on that audio, the little girl voice telling the story AMAZING!

This was the first book I have read by Malerman. Starting out, it took me use to getting use to his writing style and from the point of view of a child. I stopped and started more times than I can count but so glad I pushed through. This book has all the creepiness factor. I had to stop reading at night a few times because I was creeped out. It takes a lot to creep me out and Josh accomplished that. I really started liking the point of view by Bela. It made it feel more realistic with her naive views.
I did not see that ending coming. I recommend everyone read this. The visual I had of other mommy was truly scary! Josh knocked this out of the park!

Thank you to netgalley and Ballentine Publishing for the ARC.

I loved Malorie and Birdbox and heard great things about Incidents Around the House but it fell short for me. I understood the POV of the story was from a confused 8-year-old girl, Bela, who saw a creature/ghost “Other Mommy” in her closet but the repetitive dialogue got old pretty quick and it seemed like Bela was younger or a less mature 8-year-old. Also all the adults in Bela’s life (Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, and a handful of parents’ friends” were insufferable, unlikeable characters. Her parents’ brutally honest monologues sitting on the edge of Bela’s bed when they thought she was sleeping were unrealistic

The beginning had a solid start building up the fearfulness of Other Mommy, proving she was attached to Bela and not the house, following her to the playground and ultimately making her take a scary fall and terrifying her friend. But that felt like the scariest it got. The rest of the storyline was repetitive in that they just kept trying to outrun Other Mommy in different places without learning that it would always follow Bela.

I appreciated the finality of the ending but it just didn’t come full circle for me. I felt a heavy sadness for Bela for having awful parents who thought they were doing right by her, they almost felt like they were doing her more harm and damage than Other Mommy. This just didn’t really feel like a horror book. That being said I will still read whatever Malerman puts out next. 3 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and DelRay Publishing for this advanced reader copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I tried to like this book but I couldn’t get into it. It was too weird for me and the no quotation marks for those talking really bothered me. It was definitely a horror book but I just didn’t enjoy it. I wish I had liked it more.

I unfortunately couldn't read this before the publication date... but I still want to thank everyone for allowing me to read this ARC. Im'm really happy I did.

This was a great book, very creepy and also very sad. Why that ending man??

Not quite a creepy kid story but instead it is spun with a unique twist about a young girl whom is haunted by the other mommy who lives in her closet and the lengths her parents are willing to go through to keep their family safe all told through the perspective of the little girl.

Building you full of dread, fear and just a sense of uneasiness all around but in the best way possible. And I loved every minute of it.

Thank you to Josh Malerman, Random House Publishing, and Netgalley for an early asking of entering my heart! 🖤

THIS WAS SO SCARY.
this had so many pieces of classic horror that I love (The Exorcist, Paranormal Activity) but still felt like its own original story. loved the direction it went it & Malerman's writing!

Thanks to Del Ray and Josh Malerman for the chance to read ‘Incidents Around the House’! I worried about starting this book because I don't tend to enjoy novels told from the perspective of a child. They always seem too young or too old for the actual age of the character. Other than the kid calling her dad 'Daddo' (why??), this one was a good one. I HATED the mom so much, but I guess that was the point of making a character with almost zero redeeming characteristics. The ending fell a bit flat for me personally but I really enjoyed the descriptions of the Other Mommy.

I was a bit hesitant to get into this one after learning that this book was in the perspective of a child. However, this book was genuinely creepy. For the first 2/3 of this novel I was left creeped out and really had a hard time flipping to the next page because of how creeped out I was, but unfortunately I did not like how this book ended which really affected how I feel about the rest of the book. Its so disappointing when you're really loving a book for most of it and then the ending just isn't as strong as the rest. I also didnt love the experimental writing style with the no dialogue quotations and weird grammar.