It takes a lot for a book to creep me out, but half the time I was reading this one, I felt like I was watching a scary movie! I love that the story was told from eight-year-old Bela's perspective, and I thought that the entity called "Other Mother" was SO sinister! I read this book in 24 hours because I had to know how it was going to end! This story is going to stick with me for quite a while!

🎞 This book would translate so well to the big screen!

I'm glad I grabbed a copy of this one to keep on my bookshelf!

This book deserves more than just five stars! From the moment I saw Josh Malerman’s name, I knew it was going to be an incredible read. I really enjoyed both the book and movie versions of The Bird Box so I was super excited when I was approved for this ARC. It’s a bone-chilling horror novel that will terrify you, as it’s told through the eyes of an eight-year-old which really upped the scare factor. And, It was such a hard one to put down and a times I even refused, responsibilities be damned! It was so unbelievably horrifying!

Also, We need to get Netflix on the phone RIGHT NOW!

4.5 stars. I read this in a day. Jesus Christ. Chapter 47 broke me. Malerman did an expert job with the narration from Bela’s POV. The ending was good, and at some points it felt like it could very easily adapt into an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, which is high praise honestly.

This book was pointless. The writing was terrible and basically there was no plot. This is the second time I've read from this author, and I won't be doing that again. His writing style is so mediocre and cringe-worthy. Stay far away from the book.

Let me preface this review by saying, this is the first book in years to give me full body goosebumps in the middle of the day!

Incidents Around the House is told in the POV of an 8 yr old girl named Bela. Her family is in disarray with tension between her parents and the presence of this “Other Mommy”, who is a malevolent entity who asks Bela every day “Can I go into your heart?”. 🫠🫠

This is one of the most terrifying possession stories I have ever read. The tension builds in the most delightful chilling way, starts with small events and ending in total chaos!! I firmly believe that this is a book you should go mostly blind into and just enjoy the ride.

I had a more personal connection with this story. As a young child of around 8 yrs old, I myself had a terrifying paranormal with an entity that would pace around the end of my bed and then the feeling of hands searching from the end of my bed towards where I lay. So the visitations in this book to me were bone chilling.

Basically adult Coraline but freakier! Insidious vibes.

I had to stop reading this at night because it was so dang creepy. Other Mommy is terrifying and literally every parent's nightmare!

Usually I'm not a fan of books from a little kid's point of view, but Bela wasn't annoying and seemed realistic. I do think some parts of the book got a little boring and repetitive, but overall a chilling book and a must read for fans of the "creepy kids/ invisible friends" subgenre.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a PDF to me for review.

I previously reviewed Malerman’s Daphne and Spin a Black Yarn, a novel and short story/novella collection, respectively. Spin a Black Yarn seemed like a slam dunk but instead opted for an outside game and threw up a couple bricks, as well as the air ball of its excruciating closing story. I enjoyed Daphne’s J-horror trappings, with a girls’ basketball team haunted by an unstoppable force killing them off one by one. While there is a sense that probably nothing is really resolved, the climax for that one is quite bold in its insistence on this being how the book is going to go, rather than how 99.9% of the population would rather something else—ANYTHING ELSE—be stapled into every copy of the book instead. As I’d seen a few people express dissatisfaction with the ending of Incidents Around the House, I feared for a repeat of Daphne.

Incidents certainly echoes the sort of Asian horror atmosphere of Daphne. There’s a lot of long hair and Ju-On style scares. Like the first story in Spin a Black Yarn, certain scenes are quite easy to visualize as you know exactly how they would be filmed in a modern horror film. The story is told through the eyes of young Bela, who lives in a house with her mommy and “Daddo.” She is also visited by an entity called the Other Mommy, who emerges from her bedroom closet and tries to entice Bela to let her inside her heart. It’s not dissimilar to the kind of story we have seen in movies like Insidious, but the strength of the book is in the dramatic irony. We know how awful it would be for Bela to accept the offer, but she doesn’t grasp the magnitude, and the Other Mommy is verrrry persistent.

The family dynamic is vital to IATH. Bela’s Daddo is a cheery and positive sort of person with a can-do attitude. Mommy’s façade of motherhood contentment is cracking day by day, though, and she is beginning to stray from the family path. This of course isn’t the kind of thing a child would understand much better than letting some evil entity into her heart, but we still get the full scope of the parents’ doubts and fears as they reveal them to Bela in monologues when they think she is asleep (good-natured Daddo still has his own demons). It’s a device that feels unnatural and excessive, at least until one scene where you finally see there is a huge payoff to it, because it turns out we sometimes end up joining Bela with things not always being what they seem, or people.

As people in Bela’s life realize OTM is not an imaginary friend at all, the desperate family tries to overcome something that can’t be killed, called off, or exorcised, merely delayed at best. Grotesque and eerie imagery abounds, and a film adaptation would be a jump scare hit, albeit one that has a frightening concept to go with it, a la Smile. As for shortcomings, sometimes familiarity with ghost/possession material can make character decisions seem questionable if not outright idiotic. (Yeah, a weapon doesn’t really do you any good versus an interdimensional entity, who knew?) In their situation, maybe you would be as helpless, but it’s like any books or movies involving ghosts do not exist in this world. When one character finds someone dead in very bizarre circumstances following their flight from the now known threat of the Other Mommy, the idea that a sinister explanation never crosses their mind is laughable. I don’t know if this is something Malerman does intentionally (see also the moment in Daphne when peripheral characters report finding something creepy on the back of a refrigerator, despite how no one would have looked in such a place if not to replace the refrigerator or repair it, and neither occurs in the book). It seems like something an editor could point out as illogical but for some reason does not.

On the plus side, the ending to IATH is not a total cop-out. Malerman creates another seemingly unstoppable force but this time doesn’t opt to thwart it through such an absurd tactic as Daphne. It is a little similar to the twist ending of another horror novel this year by a name author in the genre, but I’d rather have that repetition accident than an intentional repeat of the sort of straw clutched at in Daphne. The revelations in the last act are surprising. How satisfying they are is debatable, but I like the attempt, as they are as unexpected to us as they are to Bela.

I gave Daphne 4 stars, and while Incidents also gets 4, I would argue it is the stronger book. The techniques that seem a little too contrived are exploited in ways that ultimately add to the strengths and the horror of the book. You should let it inside your mind…if not your heart.

Right off the bat this one wasn’t doing it for me. I think having the entire book from the POV of a young child (the age of which I’m still not clear on) was odd, because not only were there quite a few adult things being discussed but because it made it even harder to tell Bela’s age. It seemed like she should have been around 8-10 but her dialogue seemed much younger than that. But innocence is a big theme here so maybe that was an artistic choice to emphasize the innocence of a child.

I also felt like no progress was ever made in the plot which was super frustrating as the reader. The same things kept happening over and over. I absolutely despised Bela’s mom. And the book ended exactly how I thought it might.

I honestly think if we’d have gotten the POV of the adults and felt their struggle to accept the events when their rational mind is screaming that it can’t possibly be real then this would have rated higher for me.

If you’ve ever read Birdbox, then you know the creepiness that Josh Malerman is such a master of. Incidents Around the House is no exception. Eight year old Bella is being haunted by a ghost in her closet. The ghost. Other Mommy is asking Bela to go into her heart. The longer Bela says “No”, the worse Other Mommy becomes. The story made me feel the walls closing in, the impending doom. It’s as creepy as watching the closet door slowly open. I’ve been telling everyone about this book as I’ve been reading it. I have to admit though, I can’t read it at bedtime. What a creepy, scary ride!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was good, but it didn’t pack a punch the way that some of his other books have. I think if this were any other author I would have liked it more, but I just have such high expectations for Josh Malerman now after some of his other books.

This book was pretty spooky, and it had me guessing the whole time. It just wasn’t executed as well as some of his other stuff is. If you’re looking for spooky, this is spooky!

This book caught me off guard. The perspective of this book is of a young child. Unfortunately we are not told her exact age so it's a bit confusing if this is a very young child around 3 or 4 or if they are supposed to be 6. It also went from kiddish to then some paragraphs seeming much older and with bigger words. The way this book is written gave me a headache. There are zero quotations for when people are talking it's just a space down from the rest and it can be hard to differentiate what is being said and then what is being thought for example:

This book is giving me a headache. I said. The way it is written made it hard for me to read.


That completely made me dislike the book right from the start. Some parts did not feel cohesive. At one point in the book they have to try and get the child to "lose her innocence" to see if that will help get rid of the entity in their house. But the girl has already heard her parents state and do weird things in the beginning of the book so it felt like an odd thing. Also, the ending was very predictable for me. The premise is very good! I did like the plot, but I feel like the execution of it was poorly done. Those are the reasons why it was just a 2 star. If the plot wasn't interesting, it would have went down to 1 star. It just wasn't for me.

This book is uniquely told through the eyes of a child, Bela, which makes it scarier somehow, but essential. The descriptions of Other Mommy were chilling, but I loved the character. Overall, liked the book, but thought the parents did things that most parents wouldn’t do - like oversharing with young children.

I’m usually a fan of Malerman’s novels but this one didn’t quite hit the mark for me. definitely an interesting premise - told from the perspective of an 8-year-old girl who sees a ghost. I found most of the book meandering, repetitive, and not scary at all. it does have a solid ending, and i was more invested in the parents’ storyline than Bela’s

3.5 stars. This starts off creepy and it continues until the end. There’s a small family: daddo (so annoying reading that so often), mommy, and Bela. There’s also Other Mommy who may or may not be a demon or a ghost or some other entity with ill intentions. I disliked both mommy’s. The ending is not clear and I just hated it so much. This is a very fast read and I enjoyed all of it until the last chapter. Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC

I was very uncomfortable several times while reading this story. It is so unsettling and creepy yet I couldn't stop reading.

Eight year old Bela lives with her mommy and daddo and also her Other Mother, a entity that visits her and wants to go inside her heart. Bela is not sure what the correct answer is. She thought Other Mother was her friend but she is getting too close and Bela is becoming scared. As Bela's family deals with Other Mother, secrets are revealed to Bela that will change the family dynamics forever.

I absolutely loved this book. It is told solely through the eyes of Bela and formatting is very unique. Both of which worked so well and helped me fly through this book. I will be thinking about the ending for a long time. This is definitely one of my top 5 reads of the year and the most horrifying!

I picked up my arc copy of this book again to see how I felt. I was in the mood for such a creepy read. That is exactly what I got. My first review was for a different book by this author I thought I was reading this one. So let me give you my thoughts on Incidents Around the House. I love creepy haunting /possession books. This one delivered. Bela is 8 years old and loves with her Mommy and Daddo. By the way " other Mommy" lives in their house too. She wants Bela to let her in her heart. Other Mommy is so unsettling and terrifying. I like getting Bela's POV because it makes it more realistic. I feel as a child I would have had so e of the same thoughts. You see her parents going through marriage, work, and issues all through her eyes. I found myself rooting for Bela instantly.
After reading Goblin, and The House at the Bottom of the Lake, I didn't know if Josh Malerman would be the author for me. I hope this isn't just a one off, but this book is so good.

This started out promising as Bela describes her interactions with Other Mommy and her parents start to realize there's something more going on than an imaginary friend. But, when it got to the part explaining Other Mommy's origin, it fell apart a bit. Overall, interesting writing and characterizations but lack of follow through. Also, the formatting of the book was a tad hard to follow, as it was told solely from Bela's side of the conversation.

This book had me wanting the throw my kindle against the wall and scream!

This book was told from the perspective of an eight year old girl, Bela, who is being haunted by an entity we know as Other Mommy.

Other Mommy was truly terrifying at times. When Bela’s parents, Mommy and Daddo, discover Other Mommy they are determined to find a way to rid their lives and their home of the dangerous entity. They very quickly become desperate and will stop at nothing to get rid of it.

This book is living rent free in my head and I don’t know how to get it out. I loved this novel. It is definitely a horror novel and if you aren’t careful it will suck you in and not let go.

I was feeling so many emotions. Anger, fear, sadness and the list keeps going. I just wanted to wrap Bela up in a tight hug and not let go.

This was a 4.5 star read for me and I will definitely be reading more from this author.

When I read of purported Supernatural events, even though my Suspension-of-Disbelief is immediate, I always query:
1. Is this a psychological disorder, a decompensation of the Psyche?
2. Are these actual Supernatural events?
Reading INCIDENTS AROUND THE HOUSE, I must add a third, or rather, first inquiry:
1. Children imagine: vividly and extensively. Is this ongoing process of events solely a child's imaginative way of looking at the world?

I imagine the answer(s) may vary according to Reader. So I shall leave the conclusions to your imagination.

As kids, many of us would have our parents check under the bed and in the closet for monsters and of course there was nothing there. Not the case in this book. Bela is our 8 year old narrator who has a Mommy and Daddo who she loves very much. We also learn she has someone else in her life, her Other Mother. This story pulls you in from the beginning and keeps it going until the very last page. We learn more about the relationships in this family as the story progresses and how our pasts will come back to haunt us in our future. This story was the perfect mix of creepy and touching all in one. Daddo is my favorite character, he is his daughter's best friend and tries to do any and everything he can to help her throughout this scary journey. This story made me let my guard down at times and then hit me out of nowhere. That was very unpredictable in the best way. This book helped me get out of my reading slump because I needed to know what would happen next. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a quick, spooky read with real life issues intermingled.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, Josh Malerman, & Random House Publishing Group/Del Rey for this ARC, it was excellent!!