I was told this would keep me up at night and I would have to sleep with the light on. I ended up listening to most of it at midnight over two nights with only my bed lamp.
I would call myself a wimp. I hate jump scares. I will not watch horror. I did not find this scary.
Maybe I am desensitised to books.

This is told from the point of view of 8 year old Bela. The audiobook is a good format for this, because we really hear her innocent young nativity. Until it is all ruined.
She has a loving family, but she is also visited by Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: “Can I go inside your heart?”  

Things start ramping up as Bela continues to refuse and soon her parents have no choice to believe their daughter.

Maybe the reason I didn’t find this as scary as everyone is else, is that I struggle to picture most scenes. Only certain authors have ever made me visualise things even fuzzily.

The revelations towards the end were predictable.
Basically every single adult in this book makes every single bad decision possible and poor Bela is the one to reckon with it.

The ending was underwhelming.
Also, the referring to her dad as ‘Daddo’ really got on my nerves.

This makes it sound like I hated it. I didn’t, it was pretty addicting, but perhaps not the HORROR I was expecting.

There’s an episode of Doctor Who where a child is terrified of a monster in the cupboard and another one where scribbles come to life; and that terrified me way more.

This book was terrifying. I binged it in five hours and it was so scary that I loved every page of it. I couldn’t give it 5 stars, because it became a tiny bit repetitive at one point and disrupted my vibe.

But oh my god! The other mommy was scary AF!!!!!

Bela is sad. Her parent are fighting, she feels like they lie to her, she is lonely, she struggles to make friends, but she loves her family. What does Bela needs? A friend. Who’s her new friend? A terrifying ghost, YAY!
A demonic presence, under the “name” of The other mommy, is the one that makes Bela laugh, she talks with her, she is hugging her and she’s with Bela all the time. Sounds funny, RIGHT? It’s not.
The other mommy scared the shit out of the. Her appearances are horrid, she’s everywhere. In the walls, in the bathroom, on the floor, on the bed, on the stairs. She wants Bela and that’s that.

Now talking about the book.
This was my first time reading Josh Malerman. I saw “Bird box”, but didn’t read the book. It was a nice movie, but it wasn’t horror. Then I saw how popular “Incidents around the house” was and I wanted to read it. The FOMO was real. Maybe I should’ve stayed with the fomo.
This author knows how to scare people. It was awful to see how Bella’s feelings affected this presence and the people around her. I know it was because of her parents, being lied and feeling unloved lead to ghosts in your cabinet (they don’t, but you get it). I was so so sad for her throughout the whole book and I hated how her parents treated her. Her mother was the worst and I judged her a lot. I am not a mother, but if my child would say to me that her “friend” is a ghost, I would believe her. Sometimes it’s more than kids imagination. Her parents weren’t present in her life, even if they were there.

I saw some reviews that said the writing and the format was not as great as the story. Well, the book is written by Bela’s pov. Imagine how an 8 year old child would talk. Like a kid. I actually enjoyed a lot the pace and the story. Bela, with her thoughts and feelings, made the book more dreadful and interesting, while at the same time, scared the shot out of me more and more with every page. The other mommy made my heart racing and my back was sweating, so that was so fun!

I rated this one 4 stars because i was a tiny bit disappointed with the ending. I wanted more or.. less? I just felt something was missing.

Overall, without joking, it was a terrifying, horrible, terrible experience and I loved every page of it. It was scary AF, I read it with the light on and you should read it too.

“Other Mommy is already standing outside my closet doors.
I don’t want her to make the face I think she’s about to make.
I know she wants to talk about carnations.
I go into my bedroom.
And I wave at her.
And I sit on the end of my bed, where I know she liked to talk.
She walks over to me now. Sometimes it’s like she floats.
She sits on my bed.
And she asks:
Can I go into your heart?”.


No.