INCIDENTS AROUND THE HOUSE is the latest horror novel from Josh Malerman (Birdbox).

We follow Bela and her mom and dad as they try to figure out what kind of entity is after Bela. In that aspect, it has a very Poltergeist feel, but Malerman, as he always does, makes that old story his own. Malerman's form of storytelling is very unique to him, like a series of scratches that, page by page, work their way beneath your skin.

While this is a(n attempted) possession/haunting story of sorts, it's also the story of an imperfect couple and the secrets they keep. I thought the parents, along with the grandmother, were very well done. And "Other Monther" was creepy when she needed to be.

I would have liked the horror to have been ratcheted up a little more, but it's a good book as is.

I give INCIDENTS AROUND THE HOUSE 4 shining, poltergeisty stars!!!!

Every new book I read from Josh Malerman is my new favorite Josh Malerman book. This one might be his best. A haunted house story told from the perspective of a small girl. It was kind of a surreal reading experience as my daughter is the same age as the MC. Kept picturing her in the story. Seriously though Josh Malerman is a top horror writer. one of my faves and not to be missed.

I cannot explain to you how creepy this was. Let me just say, I had to check my heart rate after finishing this book, because my heart was POUNDING. I cannot tell you how many times my jaw was on the floor while reading this (inside joke for those who have read this, haha). I don’t think I will be able to look inside of my closet for a long time.

This book is following the perspective of a little girl named Bela. Bela has a friend who she calls “Other Mommy”. Other Mommy is a terrifying entity who started showing up in Bela’s closet, but started getting closer and closer to Bela as they talked more and more. Once Bela and Other Mommy become friends, Other Mommy starts to frequently ask Bela if she can “go inside her heart”. Bela soon realizes that Other Mommy is not her friend; it is an entity that becomes stronger and bolder every day. Bela and her family fight to protect and save her from this monstrous being in this epic and horrifying novel by Josh Malerman.

This was such a fast paced and gripping read. The fact that this is written from a child’s perspective makes it even more eerie and terrifying. Having the extra layer of innocence when creepy and terrifying things were happening, made me so scared for our main character Bela. She would be seeing this terrifying “Other Mommy” and just assumed she was a friend.

This was absolutely a five star read to me and my new favorite from Josh Malerman. This was a wild ride and I can’t wait to read what Josh Malerman comes out with next!

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing/ Ballentine/ Del Rey for sending me a digital copy for me to review and enjoy! These are my honest thoughts and opinions.

This scared the shit out of me!!! (This is a good thing)

Incidents Around the House is told from the perspective of a young girl Bela, who is haunted by an entity she calls Other Mommy. We follow her and her family as incidents escalate and Other Mommy gets more bold in her questioning of Bela.

I think this is a really great book to go in with relatively little information. The perspective is jarring at first but it really pays off in the scariest scenes. Highly recommend picking this up in June!

My head is still reeling from this book!!!!

It was so creepy and scary that before I went to bed I made sure my closet was shut tight! If I could have put something in front of it I would have.

I don’t want to close my eyes and go to sleep now. You’ll know what I mean when you finish this book.

I don’t think anything can prepare you for the story you are about to read. This book will definitely make the hair on the back of your neck stand up!

It was so amazing and made me a fan of Josh Malerman.

This was a really great book. Gave me the creeps more than once. I’m only confused by the ending. It wasn’t bad per se, I m just not sure exactly what happened. I will have to discuss with other readers.

2.5 stars, rounded up

I was excited to get my hands on Incidents Around the House because I really enjoyed Malerman's Bird Box, so I had high hopes for this one as well. Unfortunately, this one just didn't hit the mark for me.

The story is told from the POV of 8-year-old Bela, and there were times when she read as much younger than 8, which threw me off a bit. I actually had to go back and look at the synopsis after the first couple of chapters because I had been thinking that she was only supposed to be around 4 or 5. Maybe it's just my life experience with my own kids, but by the time they were 8, they definitely would have contributed much more to the depth of the narrative than the shallow repetitiveness that was Bela's. I thought the premise was a fun idea, but the execution was a little lacking.

There are times when undescribed and under-described "monsters" and horrors can be done well (I'm looking at you, Bird Box!) and can contribute to the fear factor, however, I felt like Other Mommy just wasn't fleshed out well enough to be scary. [view spoilers on Goodreads]

Despite all of the other reviews saying that this was the scariest book they've ever read, I didn't find it to be frightening at all. It had some creepy moments, for sure, but overall, it just didn't do it for me. I couldn't connect with the parental characters and their constant need to use their child as a long-winded confessional booth, which made me far less invested in what happened to them when we reached the inevitable conclusion.

Despite all of that, the story itself wasn't bad, it just felt slow and drawn out, and then the ending felt rushed and like a bit of a letdown even though it was obvious all along where it was going to end up.

Incidents around the House is a classic haunting that provides a creepy feeling without the gore.
It tells the story from the prospective of a little girl named Bella. Bella has a "friend" that she calls Other Mommy. Their friendship starts innocently, but Bella and the reader quickly realize that there is a more menacing side to Other Mommy that causes havoc amongst Bella and her family.
Overall, it was a good book! I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of creepy haunted stories!
#NetGalley #IncidentsAroundtheHouse


Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for the E-Arc of this book.

When I was ten me and my best friend stole her brother's VHS of The Exorcist and watched it, I was petrified for weeks after and had to sleep with the lights on, this book elicited those same feelings of absolute terror and unease and "what was that sound!" paranoia, if you thought jump scares were reserved for horror films, think again, the dread creeps around every single page of this and does not let up, I thought Josh nailed the authenticity of a childs perspective making it all the more impactful, it really tugged at my heartstrings, yes this is an absolutley hair raising novel however perseverance and family are at the beating heart of it, this is 10000% *THE* book of the year, destined to be a modern horror classic this chilling goosebumps enducing masterpiece will be talked about for years to come, I read a lot of horror and I've described a lot of those books as creepy and disturbing, but not once have I used the word frightening, but this is *frightening*, I feel like this review is rather rambling as I feel my vocabulary is inadequate to accurately articulate how fantastic this book is, you don't read this book, you experience it, you don't consume it, it consumes you, can't wait for everyone to read this, if we find a cushion big enough we can all collectively hide behind it together, also remember to breathe, numerous times I didn't realise I was holding my breathe whilst reading 
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Well, hot damn. Good luck everyone. I chose to read this only at night and in shorter bursts each time because it took forever for me to get to sleep.
Malerman has managed to write something that has the intensity and propulsion of a suspense film, a feeling that’s tough to get out of the page. I need to sit with this a while before I gush hyperboles but like I said… hot damn. This should be the text everyone receives when they ask the forever question: “What will REALLY scare me?@

This book is a haunted house story told from the perspective of an 8 year old girl. Each part seamlessly blends horror with childhood innocence. I devoured this book. It gave me the chills and “what was that noise” feelings the entire time. It was such a unique take on a haunted house story because most of those stories are told from the perspective of the adults in the house and the child or children are side thoughts. Malerman decided to bring the readers into the mind of a child who has a new friend. But when that friend keeps pushing her to give up something she holds dear, she knows something is wrong. Enter the parents and the secrets they hold dear.

I would definitely recommend this to any and all horror readers! Just be sure that you know what in your closet before you do.

Book: Incidents Around the House
Author: Josh Malerman
Publisher: Del Ray
ISBN: 9780593723128
Publication Date: Jun 25, 2024
Capone’s Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ of 5⭐

Summary (spoilers by implication possible but not explicitly given)

Wow. In two days of fierce reading and constantly wondering what was to happen to Malerman’s latest protagonist, I found myself feeling creeped out. This says a lot, if you consider that I read some sixty to eighty horror books per year and cannot recall the last time one of them actually frightened me. I don’t read for the frights or thrills—I read for the questions that horror literature explores. Because I was raised a philosopher, I read for the philosophical questions horror explores through its symbols and stand-ins, its exaggerations and moral outsiders.
Yet somehow, Malerman’s Incidents Around the House, a forthcoming novel that read like it was forty rather than nearly four-hundred pages long, managed both to ask complex questions about familial relationships and willful social ignorance of a family in chaos as well as to scare the hell out of me.
The plot is simple, but the premise is unique and reminiscent of the oddity found in Malerman’s earlier Pearl or Inspection, the down-home setting from Goblin and its environs brought back around for this tale of isolation. A family is haunted. The perspective is that of a child—an eight-year old. A [usually] closet-dwelling sometimes corporeal entity with a long, often upside-down face wants to be let “into [Bela’s] heart.” What letting the creature in would mean, exactly, isn’t clear. However, the sense the reader gets is that allowing the presence, AKA “Other Mommy,” into Bela’s heart would be at the least allowing a ghost to share in her soul, and in the worse case an expulsion of Bela into an unknown plane of existence for at minimum one lifetime. Pretty stinkin’ bad stuff, in other words.
Malerman sets up this premise and stakes. Then, instead of having everyone question the young protagonist’s sanity and tell the story of a girl who sees dead things no one else can see, asks, “What if everyone can see this thing? What then?” What if anyone can see it but no one cares enough to help outside of those trying to protect themselves and Bela from her haunting. I’ll spare the reader any other potential spoilers and offer the closing thought that Malerman’s entity, Other Mommy, will be something I think about for a not insignificant amount of time when next I go to bed and shut out my lights.

Thanks to Netgalley for my ARC

4.5⭐️

Incidents Around the House has made it to my #1 spot for Malerman's books. This one is definitely the most scary of any of his previous work. It took me back to my own childhood fears of what may lurk in the dark when the house is quiet. There were several scenes that made me paranoid to read this at night...or to go to the bathroom.

I also enjoyed the bigger themes he explored. I won't say too much, but I thought everything was handled in a very interesting and thoughtful way. The characters were given significant attention and it was easy to believe their individual motivations. I also appreciated the references to another Malerman book.

My only small critique is that it felt a bit repetitive in the middle.

I'd recommend this to basically any horror lover.

This book had some spine-tingling scenes, especially in the beginning but it got dull afterwards. Maybe it's the child's narrative that made it a bit repetitive and not that engaging for me. Also, the ending didn't quite hit the mark for me. Some creepy moments, but overall, not my favorite read. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Oof. This one was heavy. I appreciated the pacing because it meant the book finished quickly. The problem is the story has stayed with me - particularly the ending. It absolutely destroyed my mood. There was no cathartic release. It was just bleak and hopeless. Those who like for books to make them feel that way will enjoy this.

So this was both an interesting concept and an extremely irritating one. The narrator of the entire novel is a 8 year old Bela, meaning that all of the context you receive as a reader is given to you through the lens of a child. The sentence structure reflects this, the though processes reflect this, the repetitiveness reflects this...it was a bit exhausting to be honest. While it felt *accurate* I guess what I am trying to say is that an 8 year old is not my ideal narrator. In a severe juxtaposition to this, all of the dialogue from adults in this book felt flowery and excessive. They went on tangents about the meanings of life and all manner of complicated topics that I even struggled to follow, so attempting to explain them to an 8 year old was a silly concept. The overall haunting was intriguing and there were moments that were creepy, but the ending also fell flat and felt rushed to me.

This is one of the scariest things I’ve ever read. Truly horrifying. I honestly have no notes; it is perfection. This is Malerman’s best book so far, and that’s saying a lot. 5 stars.

Incidents Around the House, beyond being one of the most creep-inducing books in years, is motion incarnate. The formatting, voice, even paragraph spacing will keep you reading deep into the night--which now that I think about it, may have been intentional on Malerman's part--and make a 360 page book feel like a novella.
There are times when the family takes more trips than seem necessary or exposition is performed through parents talking to themselves in front of a sleeping child, but any niggling issues are just that. A minor quibble in the face of a compelling story with intriguing characters that unravel over the book's runtime, a focus on childhood innocence, and a monster that will have you double checking the shadows in the corner of your bedroom.
Malerman poses a Chekhov-esque questions on page 6 and makes you wait and wait for the answer, and you will. With delight and enough tension to recreate the intro to Ghost Ship. The strongest book yet from a modern day horror master.

(it's not the house it's not the house it's not the house it's not the)

I find Josh Malerman to be such an exciting writer, because, with every book, it seems as if he takes his creativity, locks it in a box with a bag of fireworks & a stick of dynamite, thumbs a detonator, & watches the thrashing display. Let's take all these unique ideas & just see what happens.

With INCIDENTS AROUND THE (house it's not the) HOUSE, Malerman's light show shines on a young girl, Bela; her parents, Mommy and Daddo; and Other Mommy. Other Mommy is weird. She's got all this hair on the back of her arms. Sometimes her head is on upside down. Sometimes she's as big as a room, sometimes she's as small as a whisper. & she won't stop asking Bela (can i go inside your heart?) a question. Over & over & over.

This novel - which begins as a simple enough haunted house story but then shapeshifts into something else, something harrowing, something complex - is told solely through Bela's POV. Because we're inside (your heart can i go inside) the mind of an eight year old, the world Malerman creates is limiting, it's restrictive. But that's intentional. We aren't getting the whole picture, we're getting a child's interpretation of that picture; it's all smeared & dripping & there are too way many shadows. This vagueness is the hinge on which this narrative swings. It's crucial. It makes the scares scarier. It makes the emotions more real.

The complexity is creeping, it sneaks up on you, but it's present all the way through. As are the thematic layers. They hang in the background, looming like the absurdities in dreams, those which can only be acknowledged in retrospect. This deceptive simplicity is the book's biggest strength. It makes an iceberg out of driftwood. It makes faces out of the coats in the closet's darkness.

It turns an otherwise good book into a great one, & perhaps Malerman's best so far.

(canigoinsideyourheart?)

I have been looking forward to this novel since the moment it was announced and oh boy does Malerman knock it out of park. I couldn’t put it down. This story is going to stick with me for a while… especially when I’m in the dark or near a dark closet. Amazing novel.