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

Very creepy and eerie. I loved it!

This is the third book by Malerman that I’ve read and it’s definitely my favorite. I was going to just read a few pages before bed last night and I ended up reading half of the book. I finished it today. This is a very addictive read and I really enjoyed it.

The story is told from a young girl’s perspective and it did take a little bit to get used to this point of view. The way Malerman wrote this book is really unique and it definitely felt like a child was narrating the story. I think that’s one of the reasons why I flew through this book. I just loved the writing style. The only thing that got on my nerves is the repeated use of the word ‘Daddo,’ which Bela called her father. I think that word is going to haunt my dreams for the next several months.

There were some scary ass moments in this book and I don’t recommend reading it before you go to sleep. You may start having nightmares involving creepy entities that want to possess you. Stories with dark entities freak me out and the ‘other mommy’ was a frightening character.

Overall, I thought this was a chilling and entertaining read. I look forward to reading more from Malerman.

If you’re looking for a spine-tingling read, definitely pick this one up.

4.5⭐️

I absolutely loved this book! The entire time I read it I felt nervous and scared not knowing when Other Mommy would show up, or what the fate of the family would entail. We are thrown right into the situation with Bela, as she narrates what's happening as Other Mommy begins to come out of the closet and follow her outside of just the bedroom. This book moves quickly and unlike many horror tropes, Bela's family believes what's happening so the situation becomes more dire as they try to work together to rid whatever is haunting their daughter. Bela's perspective makes this a unique book because we can feel her fear and how those around her attempt to help. I would absolutely recommend this title to anyone who loves to feel creeped out because this is a book you can't put down.

Prepare to fight sleep, just like the traumatized family in this book. They’re moving from place to place trying to figure out how to protect their daughter. The reader is moving from chapter to chapter, captivated, and compelled to know what will happen.
If you like being a bit scared to get up at night and use the restroom. Because the book was just that terrifyingly good. Which I do. This book is for you.
I was given an early release copy of this title on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Josh Malerman is definitely an author I look forward to reading. Ever since Bird Box, of which I'm sure he's tired of it being mentioned, I knew he was a great storyteller, and that has been proven time and time again with each passing book. It's giving Coraline vibes, and I am ALLLLLL here for an "other mother" like story, I can't get enough.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random-House Publishing for the opportunity to read and review Incidents Around the House. All opinions are my own.

Wow, where to begin. Bela is our main character who is 8 years old. She lives in a house with Mommy, Daddo, and Other Mommy. So yeah, that's odd. Obviously, Mommy and Daddo doesn't know about Other Mommy. Other Mommy wants to possess Bela but needs permission. Here our story unfolds. I don't want to say much to stay away from any spoilers. I'd recommend maybe going into this story blind.

Incidents is a rather short book coming in around 256 pages. Very quick especially considering the style each page is typed for dialogue purposes. Definitely a quick read for me because I really wanted to see how this was going to end. Other characters are introduced throughout the book, some important, and some just passing through. The book is creepy, scary, and thought provoking. Malerman is usually hit or miss with me, but this one is a hit for sure. The only reason I didn't give it a 5 star is the ending. The ending wasn't my favorite, but still a book I would recommend reading to all folks that love a good scary book. If you are a Malerman or horror fan, you should for sure pick this one up. Publication date is June 25th. Happy Reading!

Josh Malerman strikes again! So creepy and spooky! I quite literally don’t think I’ll be able to sleep.

Loved, loved, loved it! Incidents Around the House was so good I read it in one day! Thank you NetGalley and Del Ray for this advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review.

The dread and suspense of waiting for the scenes with other mommy were all that got me through this book. I hated Belas parents, they trauma dumped on her and treated her like a therapist. THE MONOLOGUES. OH MY GOD. cut out the monologs and make them shorter.

Talk about a true horror book. This book is legit scary. The imagery of “Other Mommy” was giving me full body chills. I made the mistake of starting this at night and actually had a hard time sleeping that night. I learned my lesson and finished this in the daytime.

Are there small things about this book that I could nitpick? Yes. But I’m trying not to critique it to the point where I convince myself to give it a lower rating because I did enjoy the book overall and it did its job by creeping me tf out.

If you want a quick, easy read that is almost guaranteed to creep you the eff out like a horror movie, then pick this up when it comes out or save it for spooky season!

*Keep in mind, this book is told from the perspective of an 8-year-old so it reads that way and is formatted very uniquely because of it. You get used to it, but fair warning.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬:
It is very rare that a book actually scares me…but bravo to Malerman, because this one scared the crap out of me! This is the definition of spine chilling, creepy, and terrifying. I love a good supernatural horror book, and this one exceeded my expectations. I will admit, I was unsure I would enjoy this book at first as it is from the POV of a child, but it is far from anything juvenile or childish. Malerman does a fantastic job with the storyline from a child’s POV, yet delivering the reader scare, screams, chills, and thrills😱 From the plot, the characters, the dialogue, the creepy atmosphere, and the amount of chills this one gave me…it exceeded my expectations and I have officially added Malerman to my list of auto-buy authors! If you enjoy horror movies such as Insidious and Paranormal Activity definitely pick this book up, but my suggestion to you is not to read it alone late at night like I did😱 No other book or author has been successful in scaring the living daylights out of me, or building up the anxiety and tension- so that in itself is a huge accomplishment! CONGRATS TO YOU JOSH for writing such a phenomenally creepy, spine chilling horror novel that I will never forget.

𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗜𝗳 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗘𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆:
✦Horror movies- think Insidious and Paranormal Activity
✦Excellent plot, characters, dialogue, and a creepy atmosphere
✦Plenty of spine tingling moments
✦A book that scares you and gives you anxiety 😱


𝐌𝐲 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️5/5

That was wild! Talk about creepy! Never really got into the haunted house type books but this was really worth it! Thank you NetGalley for publisher for the arc!

WOWZA! Josh Malerman has a horror masterpiece on his hands with Incidents Around the House! I was fully invested, sitting on the edge of my seat, turning the pages, and wanting more, more, more!

Eight-year-old Bela lives with Mommy and Daddo Russ until one day when 'Other Mommy' comes out of her closet and to spend time with Bela. At first Bela believes that she and 'Other Mommy' are friends but when 'Other Mommy' keeps asking her “Can I go inside your heart?” , Bela gets uncomfortable.

During a party that Daddo and Mommy are having, 'Other Mommy' makes an appearance, and things kick into high gear. This book oozes tension and dread. As Bela narrates, it becomes evident that things between Bela's parents are strained and don't get me started on their adult conversations and the way they each use Bela as their sounding board/confidant.

As the family tries to find a solution to their "Other Mommy' issue, the book gets creepier, more chilling, spookier, and more tense! The characters fear and anxiety jump off the pages. Bela is the narrator of Incidents Around the House, and readers get information from a child's perspective. I thought this was a fantastic idea. I remember looking under my bed and in my closet as a child to make sure nothing was lurking there. I felt for Bela as her closet door opened and her anxiety mounted.

As I mentioned, I felt for Bela the entire book but there were times I really felt for her as she heard discussions that certain adults in her life had in her presence. I did like her relationship with Daddo and her grandmother.

This is another book that I can see being made into a movie. Malerman wowed and terrified me with Bird Box and has once again delivered an eerie, chilling, creepy, unsettling, and pulse pounding read!

Atmospheric, creepy, chilling, and wonderfully horrific.

Typical Malerman. Too much hype. This book did not live up to the hype at all. I see why people liked it but it fell flat for me.

1. The MC is a little kid. The book never states her age and the way she behaves is wildly conflicting. One minute she's immature and baby-ish, the next minute she's too mature. It's all very confusing. Apparently she's supposed to be 8, I really thought she was like 6 or younger. My niece who is 8 with two younger siblings acts and talks more mature and is able to communicate better. Just saying. Girls ALWAYS mature faster mentally. My best friend's 4 yr old daughter is able to better communicate than Bella.

2. This is from the POV of this child, and it reads like it. I blew right through this book because how juvenile the language is. I feel that if the MC were observed in 3rd person throughout the book, the author could have worked in more mature language, better imagery, etc. This literally read like a special needs kid who is on the spectrum and doesn't know 'right from wrong', wrote it. Someone with a low IQ.

3. This book should have been a much shorter novella. Half the book was Bella just babbling the same few sentences over and over in her head. We really didn't need THIS much of it.

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy.

This may be the scariest Malerman yet. What’s really weird, is the book is from a child’s perspective and is mostly dialogue. How can a book be this scary with the setting being a huge part of it? All of his books are totally atmospheric and rely heavily on setting. It’s why I love his books. Instead of a creepy town, we get scary closets and dark corners. Omg and they are terrifying.
Is the child haunted or is the house haunted? This story is a mash up of traditional a ghost story and a haunting of the heart. I don’t know which is more uncomfortable. Facing indiscretions and bad intentions, or facing a dark demon who wants into your body.. the child is losing either way. We should always protect the children.
Terrifying but addicting. I read it in one sitting. I may of had nightmares. Oh and now I’m making sure my closet door is always closed.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Hells bells. This book threw me for a loop. I ingest a lot of horror content in various mediums, and this is the first horror novel I’ve read in a long time that actually affected me. I got legitimate chills multiple times while I tore my way through this book. I read around 75% of Incidents in a 24 hour period - really just couldn’t put it down.

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THIS NOVEL AND RECENT(ish) HORROR FILMS

Some positives and negatives:
+ The conceit of the story being written from a child’s perspective was clever and unique
+ The persistent threat of Other Mommy was reminiscent of It Follows or the creeping dread induced by the Resident Evil games (e.g. Mr X/Nemesis)
+ Perfect pacing and length. Malerman understands the value of brevity (mostly…more on that in a minute)
- I found the passages where the parents were philosophizing at Bela while they thought she was sleeping to be an absolute slog. These segments were clearly meant to hit the reader over the head with the book’s themes and it just didn’t work for me. They seemed to go on and on forever.
- Shoehorning in Goblin and nodding to (what I’m assuming are) other stories felt a bit craven to me. I love Stephen King’s weird little pocket of Maine that he wove into his work over the years, but this felt like Grandma Ruth was going to show up in an eyepatch and say “We’re putting together a team.” Not everything needs a “universe”. Totally took me out of the story.
- Much was made of the alarm system and guard dogs and then they didn’t factor into the story in a meaningful way.
- The back half of the third act just didn’t really stick the landing, but I understand it made sense thematically. The downbeat ending reminded me of Talk to Me, so much so that I wondered if Malerman was inspired (being generous with that word) by the film.

Despite my quibbles, I loved reading this and highly recommend it. I don’t recommend doing what I did - reading it on a tablet in the dark at 2 am.

Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman follows Bela, an eight year old child who is being haunted by an entity she refers to as “Other Mommy.” Other Mommy is determined to get into Bela’s heart but has to get permission from Bela first. At first, Other Mommy only visits Bela at night but the longer the story goes on, the more Other Mommy comes out until she is appearing everywhere Bela goes.

This book was so scary to me. I’m not someone who gets scared by books typically and I think I’m pretty desensitized to a lot of horror after reading so much of it. But this book has actual jump scares! If you mixed Coraline with Lights Out and sprinkled a little Paranormal Activity on top, you would have this book.

This book is told entirely from Bela’s perspective and I think that decision works well because of the way a child’s mind works. Things are bigger and more scary reading them from her point of view. Adults talk over her so you only get snippets of conversations sometimes so you are forced to try to fill in the blanks. It makes a lot of the adults seem very clueless, which I can see annoying some people but it just felt realistic to me.

The atmosphere is top notch in this book. The way things are described had me looking over my shoulder while reading! If you want to be scared, I suggest reading this at night in the dark for the fullest effect.

This book is going to be a huge hit with horror fans when it comes out because it is truly creepy and unsettling. I have read a few books by this author now and this is my favorite. Make sure to put this one your radar!

*Mild spoiler warning- nothing too revealing*
I am happily child-free. I know I don't have the capacity/desire to be a mother. I like my freedom. I like to drink and maybe enjoy an herb or two when I want. And I (personally) believe that people who want to live that kind of life should be child-free, too. If you can find a balance to accommodate both, good for you. The parents in this book do NOT have that balance. It's not stated exactly how old Ursula (great name, by the way) and Russ are, but having parties with drugs and alcohol with your child at home??? I don't care if you get a babysitter or if your friends love the way your kid dances! NOT IN YOUR HOME WITH YOUR KID THERE!!! I disliked the parents immediately.

Another gripe of mine: treating your kid like your therapist. Bela knows something is rotten in Denmark- that's why she's vulnerable to Other Mommy. But for her parents to (sometimes drunkenly) unload all their sh*t onto her when they think she's sleeping... No. Not okay.

I was a nanny for twelve years and have spent the majority of my professional life working in kid-related fields. I know that kids are way more perceptive than adults give them credit for. Bela is an amazing character in that she's a kid being thrust into adulthood far too soon. Josh Malerman has written a great one this time, but it's so frustrating to read about a child whose innocence is being ripped away so early in life. It definitely makes for a scary story (Other Mommy is NO JOKE) but it still makes me sad.

OK, rant over. For now. More when I finish.

Just finished. Damn. Not what I was expecting.

Final opinion: gorgeously written. Effing creepy.

Eight-year-old Bela is the only child in a dysfunctional family full of secrets. Bela has also been keeping her own secret from Mommy and Daddo. She's been talking to an entity that hides in her closet. An entity she calls Other Mommy that at first seems friendly and benign but is now becoming increasingly bold and aggressive. Other Mommy is growing more powerful and no longer confined to Bela's room. It grows angry and frustrated that Bela will not answer its question "Can I go into your heart?" Now it follows Bela everywhere and has no fear of showing itself to others. It knows things about the family and uses it against them. It can be anywhere.

Told from Bela's point of view the story is even more terrifying when portrayed through the eyes of a child who is learning that her parents can't always protect her. She struggles on her own to understand the meaning of this entity wanting to go into her heart and her sadness at the loss of what she once considered to be a companion who was there for her when her parents were not.

This is not one of those books that I couldn't put down. Incidents Around The House is a book that I had to put down more than once. I had to take a break because it was scaring me. It brought back every childhood nightmare I had ever managed to forget. It will land on my Best Horror Novel of the Year list.

This was such a quick and easy read, though the no quotation marks was kind of hard to adjust to. This book was honestly slightly terrifying. The idea of 'other mommy' and the whole coming out of the closet thing. I enjoyed the narration and Bela and the fact that her parents believed her and tried everything they could to protect her. I also liked their interpersonal drama as well. The reason this is three stars is because I would of liked a little more. Maybe a little more scary, a little more about other mommy and precisely what 'she' was. I also felt like the ending was a little confusing and wrapped up a little too quickly.