Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman is one of the creepiest books I’ve ever read. I don’t get scared while reading. Still, this book drove up my heart rate. It had me looking around the corners of my house. I could feel it pounding over the words.

The story is told from an 8-year-old perspective and is extremely effective. Since the book is told from a child’s view, we get the book if it was written by a child. The format took a little getting used to. However, it made the reader feel very much like a child. The only two books I can compare it to are Room by Emma Donoghue. Another book is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon.

The quick plot is that Bela is being haunted by an entity. She refers to this entity as Other Mommy. This entity wants to go into Bela’s heart. She does not want Other Mommy in her heart, but it keeps asking. Other Mommy starts changing its appearance and voice. It mimics others to confuse Bela. This makes Bela more likely to let Other Mommy into her heart.

This book spins the haunted house narrative on its head. This is Malerman’s best book since Bird Box.

The pace of Incidents Around the House is very well-timed. The book is not without slow spots. As a reader, I was okay when it slowed down. I didn’t trust it and was looking for dread everywhere. Malerman reveals the entity in a way that leaves the reader uneasy. I never felt safe in the story again. I could not trust any character. This book has a couple of scenes that I can not stop thinking about. This book has made me more aware when I wake up in the middle of the night.

The ending of the book I’m sure is going to cause some debate. I enjoyed it and thought that was the only way to end it, but there’s an argument for another way. The book had some great memorable characters (will go more in-depth on things I liked).

Incidents Around the House will be made into a movie called Other Mommy starring Jessica Chastain.

Incidents Around the House was nominated for the Horror category in the Goodreads Choice Award in 2024.

Incidents Around the House was published on June 25, 2024.

Plot Summary: Bela is 8 years old, she has three people in her life Daddo, Mommy, and Other Mommy. Other Mommy is thought to be an invisible friend but Other Mommy is real. She floats she can turn big, she has blue/black hair, and she has hairy palms. At first, the other mommy was silent and made Bela laugh. Now she’s appearing more often. She asks if she can go into Bela’s heart. Bela is protective of other Mommy and fears she might hurt her parents and does everything to protect them. The parents can feel something. They don’t know what it is. One day at a party, a family friend finds Other Mommy. Other Mommy then starts mimicking appearance and voice. She does this to get Bela to let her guard down. Bela should let her go in her heart. Once the Incidents Around the House start they won’t stop.

What I Liked: The way the story was written, I liked most of the formatting choices. The terrifying scenes are throughout the book. My favorite scene was at Evelyn’s house, that one is going to stick with me. I liked a lot of the side characters: Grandma, Lois, and Evelyn. I loved how strong both Lois and Grandma were. They are very stoic characters with different methods of taking care of Other Mommy. The line “Let me into your heart” is so creepy. I told it to my wife and she had a visceral reaction as I described it to her. I loved how atmospheric the story was and you could feel the unease. I do like that we the audience would hear and see things that Bela could not process but we could. The ending I feel was the right way to go leave it vague and up for discussion. Spoilers – I think Other Mommy and Bela switched places and Bela will now haunt the parents. Why the ending is great in my opinion is Bela already haunted the parents with the choices surrounding her birth. Apart of me wants an epilogue telling me how a year would look after. I love the vague childlike way Other Mommy was described, it was enough to conjure an image in my mind. I liked the character of Brian but ultimately wanted more. I did feel lesbian vibes between Grandma and Evelyn. I like this because Mommy, Grandma’s daughter, can’t connect in her marriages. I thought it could be since her mother never connected with her father because she was a lesbian.

What I Disliked: Low body count we know Other Mommy kills I wanted her to do it more. I did not like a couple of the long uninterrupted monologues, especially in the end. I thought they could have been broken up to show Bela’s reaction. It would have been easier to read and we would get more of Bela’s feelings. I did not like the formatting for Bella’s remembered conversations, thankfully there are only three of these. Brian’s character should have a different ending.

Recommendation: Incidents Around the House terrify me and I think it will terrify you. I feel like I tapped into that childhood innocence and went for a hell of a ride with this book. I think Incidents Around the House is Josh Malerman’s best book.

Rating: I rated Incidents Around the House 4.8 out of 5 stars.

Ranking: I have ranked all 6 of the Josh Malerman books starting from favorite to least favorite: 1) Incidents Around the House, 2) Bird Box, 3) A House at the Bottom of the Lake, 4) Malorie, 5) Goblin, and 6) Inspection.