If you enjoy films such as Poltergeist, Insidious, Hide and Seek, The Conjuring then this book is 100% for you.

Told from Bela's POV it follows her and her parents struggle to escape "Other Mommy" an entity that had befriended Bela. The narrative is so well written from young Bela's point of view, the confusion, fear and sadness is almost palpable.

Overall I enjoyed this book, the way the story was told was different than usual, with it being told by a child there is very simple language used and no speech marks used when people talk. That being said, it kept things interesting and it wasn't as confusing as it should have been.

There were parts that went on a bit too long, there was a lot of fleeing and going on about sleeping arrangements and arguments. I feel like this could have been reduced a bit.

Also, where was grandma's dog while they were on the run? I feel like they just left her for a few days at home because I don't recall any mention of them after they left the house.

I was satisfied with the ending, I was kind of hoping it would go that way.

This story is told from the pov of 8 year old Bela. She is plagued by visits from this malevolent being called 'The Other Mommy' who comes from inside her closet. Other Mommy plays with her, keeps her company, sits with her, she is Bela's friend. All she asks of Bela is 'can I go into your heart?'
Bela's Mommy and Daddo think it's an imaginary friend until they see it for themselves. Cue, a panic and fear induced frenzied few days of trying to work out a way to get rid of 'The Other Mommy'

I really don't know what to make of this book. There were parts I enjoyed reading, and there were parts that for me felt flat.
What I did enjoy was it being told from the unique pov of a child. This helped add to my unease about something happening to her. I loved the description about how the Other Mommy looked and the movement of her. I found these were what I felt the most creeped out with.

Everything else just wasn't enough. It didn't pack enough suspense and tension, and it didn't grab a hold of my attention enough. I wasn't scared enough, I wanted to be unsettled and feel uncomfortable reading this. I wanted to double-check my wardrobes and check my doors were locked.

Bela's parents certainly won't be up for parent of the year awards! Her mom, Ursula, was selfish, self-centred, and somewhat narcissistic, and her dad was annoying at times, too. They seemed to care more about getting drunk, even at the time when everything major is going on.
Parts of the story became repetitive, and the use of the word "Daddo" became an annoyance for me.

The ending, I didn't get it. After stewing on it for a while, I still don't get it. It felt underwhelming, and I'm confused by it.

Overall, it had some things which I enjoyed. This has had some great reviews but unfortunately fell quite flat for me. It hasn't put me off reading more from this author.

Thank you, Pan Macmillan, for my advanced copy.

My opinions are my own.

Initially, I liked the style and paragraph layout of the dialogue/narration and thought it was something a bit different. What I very soon realised I didn’t like was the author’s word choices. The dialogue was unrealistic, and not how people talk to each other.

The characters felt one-dimensional, and Bela had almost no personality. She’s supposed to be eight years old but the writing makes it feel like she’s half that age. Adults either talked down to her like she was younger, or gave speeches to her using adult language that she couldn’t possibly be expected to understand.

I liked Grandma, who was the only adult to accept the situation for what it seemed to be and the only one to start doing anything practical. I kind of liked Lois Anthony, too. At least she tried. Every other adult was awful and incompetent.

I’m glad I persevered despite the things I didn’t like, because overall it’s a creepy and unsettling book that in amongst the repetition did have some good moments.

Other Mommy was freaky. Not just the descriptions of her appearance, but the way Bela talked about her being ‘closer’ and the confusing way Bela felt about her.

The ending was sadly anti-climactic and predictable. I felt like there was a lot of potential with this book that just wasn’t realised.

3.5 stars, rounded up.

Thank you to the author, publishers Roe Nightfire and NetGalley UK for access to this as an advance reader’s ebook. This is an honest and voluntary review.

Bela’s just a little girl, but the monster in her closet wants so much from her. Much more than Mummy, Daddo or Grandma Ruth will ever understand.

A properly creepy horror, particularly if you listen to it via audiobook as I did in parts.

But I almost gave up at the start, because the author had put a disclaimer saying that the reader needed to understand the layout and lack of speech marks was intentional, and to keep on mind it’s told from the perspective of a young child. And that speech was indented and narrative left aligned (or the other way about. And this almost made me give up before I’d started. I worried that needing to justify the formatting meant the author’s approach wasn’t working. That they were getting in a pre-emptive defence that it wasn’t their fault if the reader doesn’t like it.

I needn’t have worried, the format works great. Not the indenting/justifying differences - I ignored those and it was very easy to follow what people were saying to Bela versus what she was thinking/seeing. If I’d tried to use the typesetting as a guide I’d have lost the hook into the story. All of which is a long-winded way of saying the author would have been better off not mentioning it at all.

Incidents Around the House is a brilliantly chilling read. I haven’t read a book this haunting in a long time and I definitely recommend. The book has those classic horror elements as well as being fresh in the genre. A delightful take on a monster in the closet that would make a great film.
I liked the point of view being a young girl, her naivety came through well. As the horror progressed we could see her slow realisation and terror. I also loved seeing the adult and human reactions through another’s eyes, this made it feel very real. I did dislike the fact the Dad is called Daddo and sometimes this pulled me out of the story, but this is a personal thing for me I think.
The ending was ok, I wanted a more jump scares at that point as it felt we built and built and built for it to end without us seeing a lot of the drama. There still is plenty going on, don’t get me wrong. It is a highly satisfying horror. I didn’t want to put this down and doubt you will too.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

After diving into some eerie books, I came across one that sparked quite a reaction in me. The phrase, “Can I get inside your heart?” is something I would never want to hear after finishing this particular book. I found myself thoroughly enjoying the creepy horror it presented, featuring a ghostly presence, a troubled family, and a small infant. The atmosphere was so dark and frightening that I found myself double-checking the room whenever the lights were off in my child's bedroom after I finished reading. Yes read it if you like horror,
Yes is well written with a good pace. 4.5 stars for me

To 8 year old Bela, her family is everything - Mommy, Daddo, and Grandma Ruth. But there’s also ‘Other Mommy’, a malevolent entity who asks her repeatedly, “Can I go inside your heart?” WTaF?!

As eerie events escalate and cracks begin to show in her parents’ marriage, Bela realises that if she doesn’t say yes soon, her family will pay the price.

At its core, Incidents Around the House is both a ghost story and a harrowing look at childhood vulnerability. Bela’s mother, Ursula, is one of the most infuriating characters I’ve come across in a long time - so self-absorbed and emotionally detached that it borders on cruelty.

Frankly, she doesn’t deserve Bela or her endlessly patient husband, who, for reasons I still can’t comprehend, sticks by her. He’s about the only decent adult in the book, though my appreciation of his character was somewhat dampened by the repeated use of ‘Daddo’ - a word that, for reasons I can’t fully explain, made me irrationally angry and yanked me out of the story every time I read it.

The creeping horror works best when it leans into the unknown, particularly the way the hired dogs react to things unseen. Their instinctive fear adds a primal tension, reinforcing the unsettling idea that something is lurking in the house, even if we can’t always perceive it.

Then there’s Other Mommy. Is she real? A metaphor? A manifestation of something darker? Other people saw her, so she must be real, right? I spent hours spiraling down a Reddit rabbit hole trying to untangle it, only to emerge just as confused as when I started. The ending left me questioning everything.

Rather than outright terrifying, the novel is deeply unsettling. Maybe I’m desensitised, but the most horrifying part wasn’t the supernatural - it was how utterly and repeatedly Bela was failed by the people meant to protect her.

Overall, Incidents Around the House is a dark, thought-provoking read that stays with you long after the final page. Maybe not the scariest book, but undeniably haunting.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the opportunity to read this - out 27/3

Wow what a book!! This book was so good and I loved every minute of it, I got through this within just over a day I couldn’t put it down! Highly recommend

wow, this definitely delivered on the creepy, suspenseful and straight-up scary vibes it promised to!! i've seen comparisons being made to coraline, and i did think of that when starting out with this book, although it definitely got darker as the story went on, and clearly became more adult horror than what coraline's target audience is. i did find the formatting took a bit of time to get used to, but i can appreciate the whole story was being told through the eyes of an (eight-year old??) child. i thought some of the dialogue from the parents and the way they would talk to bela like one of their friends, or a colleague, a bit strange but for the creepy vibes, and a read slightly more outside of my comfort zone, this was okay.

thank you to netgalley and pan macmillan for the advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

Oh my goodness. I'm still reeling from finishing this book. It feels the story of Bela, a little girl who sees someone in the closet. She doesn't know it's not normal, but she knows she's started to feel uncomfortable about it.

The story creeps along getting more and more freaky. I couldn't put it down, there were plenty of 'no Bela no' moments.

While it is horror fiction I found myself pondering about the nature of family dynamics, how families are seen from the outside of that unit. And what would I do in that situation.... I have a 4yr old girl so really resonated.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for the ARC!

4 stars!

I have to say the way this was written was smart in the sense it's from the POV of a child and it really did just give a whole new twist to the reading experience.

ALSO! If Mike Flanagan ever makes an adaptation of this in some sort, I think my brain manifested it while reading this.

There were scenes within this that were genuinely creepy and unsettling. I loved the start of this and just the whole idea of the story.

Other Mommy is such a dark and unsettling character with the way she moves, looks, speaks, the subtle descriptions of Bela saying something ominous along the lines of, 'I didn't look because I knew she would be pulling that face' leaves the reader to create their own version of this Other Mommy to fit into the story.

I did feel like there were parts that just felt like they, well not dragged on but repeated in some ways. I think reading the words Mommy and Daddo multiple times did it in a way which sounds odd but also I had to remember this is a child. Also at some point everyone is just talking and repeating things to Bela and to each other and that got me frustrated but then it also made sense because of the confusion, tension, and utter weirdness of what was happening. But also it felt a bit jarring to work out who was saying what at some points. And I feel like quite important moment that happens to someone is just kinda there. Not explained, or anything like oh okay we move on.

I feel like the ending didn't have the same impact as the first half of the book did. That was stunning. The imagery and just the way it was written was fantastic. Amazing read though, really enjoyed it and would love to read more from Josh Malerman.

What if your child had an imaginary other Mummy, that wasn’t so imaginary?

Bela has a friend who lives in her closet who calls herself ‘Other Mummy’. She is slowly losing her patience with Bela’s reluctance to let her into her heart, becoming more sinister and aggressive the more Bela says no.

The story is written in such a unique way, causing confusion to the reader akin to the uncertainty Bela feels when trying to navigate the true intentions of her best friend.

This was such an incredible book, I had goosebumps the entire way through and read it all in a day.

First of all, I would just like to thank Josh Malerman, Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for an ARC of “Incidents Around The House” in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, this was a bit of a let-down for me. Whilst the horrific imagery and heart-dropping moments around “Other Mommy” worked very well, and despite how much I enjoyed the unusual approach of having eight-year-old Bela narrate the book- that’s about all I can say that I liked about it.

The choice to not have quotation marks to signal the beginning and end of speech didn’t work for me- as a dyslexic reader. It made it very hard to determine what was inner monologue and what wasn’t.

As well as that, there were random points of the book where the parents (who aren’t going to win any parent of the year awards) just broke out into random soliloquies to their clueless eight-year-old child. I felt this was very out of place in a horror novel, not to mention, dull.

That leads me on to my last point. Virtually nothing happened. The family go from one place to another, trying to outrun a monster than cannot be outrun. The encounters with “Other Mommy” are all very repetitive, and slow down an already unmoving plot. Unfortunately, because of this, I lost interest about half way through, and found the rest of the book to be exceedingly dull.

Overall, the premise sounded brilliant, but the execution was severely lacking in my opinion.

this book was a great portrayal of how a child thinks when things go wrong. how such a young brain cant comprehend or take on board certain things in life. or cant work them through. and who they usually go to would be their caregivers. so what then happens if part of the hurt ic coming from her parents!? and their very open to the child breakdown of marriage.
i felt so much for this little girl. straight away i wonder whether this other mommy character was something more than a horror plot point. but the way its written, the way its jumping and squirming as if you really are seeing it from the childs pov, meant you felt that fear. you felt that erry presence all the way through. your both learning of the child, from the child and through the child. its a brilliant concept and it played out brilliantly. the whole thing was so well thought out to make it work in such a well formed way. even the childlike words,sentencing and thoughts just added to how you read this and took it on. you almost felt like a child yourself and felt overwhelmed with that same fear when they just "dont understand".
its a horror but in so many deeper ways than you could imagine. i stayed thinking about this book long after i finished. and couldnt get that unsettled feeling away from me for a while. and still get it even reviewing it. has it finished? was it real? did i get it enough to do it or the child justice!?

A unique spin on a haunted house story, where we focus on the point of view of the child being haunted. Manages to capture the underlying real life drama at the heart of any ghost story worth its salt, but at times lapses into trite therapy-isms that felt preachy/unnatural. Overall really compelling and engaging, with some genuinely creepy tension and atmosphere. Pays homage to the tropes, while also keeping you guessing.

(I received this book from the editor and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)
This horror novel is written from the perspective -and the voice- of a child and thus, it has a very particular structure, because the reader only sees what she sees and some vocabulary can get tricky and commas and full phrases may not always be there.
What is always there, staring from the shadows, asking the same question again and again, is Other Mommy. And Mommy and Daddo may not believe our little narrator at first, but they will, oh yes they definitely will, once Other Mommy shows herself and the house stops being the safe heaven they thought it was.
And is there anything more terrifying than being unable to do anything about it, even when Other Mommy feels like something able to creep to the edge of the book and make herself a burrow in the shadows of your wardrove?

thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review! <3

’We tried to leave the haunted house. But we’re haunted. It’s us’

Incidents Around the House is an incredibly unique horror from the perspective of 8-year-old Bela as she and her family are stalked by a malicious entity known as ‘Other Mommy’.

I think what is so brilliant about this book is that its horror is both in the realm of the supernatural, and the real world. Bela does not only find herself plagued by the cruel and horrifying ‘Other Mommy’ that lives in her closet, but by the anxieties and shame that come along with her parents broken marriage. A consistent theme throughout the story is Bela’s desire to fix what is broken between her parents, a desire ‘Other Mommy’ claims to be the solution for, and what is so devastating is that Bela blames herself for the issues within her family. I think it’s such a realistic portrayal of how young children feel about divorce, and I think ‘Other Mommy’ as an allegory for this is all the more brilliant.

This is the first book I’ve had the pleasure of reading by Malerman, and I can confidently say it won’t be the last. Writing from the perspective of such a young child is something I see many authors attempt and fail at, but Malerman’s Bela is such a success. I really believed this was from the perspective of a child, and it led itself so well to the short and snappy chapters. I read half of this book in one sitting, and the rest in another, and that’s a credit to how engaging this book is. The ending was brutal, but I will always appreciate horror authors who aren’t afraid to go down that controversial route.

Overall, Incidents Around the House gets 4/5 stars.

DISCLAIMER: I received an e-arc in celebration of the paperback release of the book on 27th March 2025. It was originally published as a hardback and on Kindle on 25th June 2024.

I was really looking forward to this but being written in the child's voice really grated on me immediately and I couldn't finish it at all.

I've read a ton of horror books, and I can attest that this book is a masterpiece.

Does me saying it matter all that much? TBH, not really. This is my second read of the book, as the review comes on the occasion of the publication of the paperback edition in the UK, after an invitation from the publisher. "Incidents Around The House" has already established itself as one of the best horror novels of the decade, if not ever.

This is no exaggeration.

The first time I read it, I was going "Holy...!" and "Wow" and "Woah!" The dread simply didn't let up. Thirty pages in, I'd fallen in love with the story, the writing, and, most of all, Bela's voice. Half the book done, I was missing nights with friends to keep reading it. A hundred pages before the end, I was rescheduling work to make it to the end. I simply couldn't let go.

And it's not simply because of the plot: no doubt, the story of eight-year-old Bela being haunted by an entity, an otherworldy presence bent on asking her to "go into her heart," a boogeyman-kind of creature naming itself "Other Mummy," is intriguing enough; but the insights on family, friendship, love, and the idea of home - now those were so incredibly precious, such little tidbits of wisdom, they were simply invaluable as such. Sprinkling them all over the terrifying situations Bela's family is forced to undergo was genius.

Many people will ask for more out of this book as they read it. It's so good, it whets the appetite with its brilliance, and it's a matter of time till you want definite explanations about every little detail, assuming such a great writer must have answers to everything: what is Other Mummy? where does she come from? what should Bela do? And you keep reading. Some answers you get, others you don't. For me, however, the book is just right as it is. It's ironic that I feel I know a book is 100% good when I don't want any answers from it, that I want to put it away and never come back to it for some time.

Coming back to "Incidents" after a whole year was a boon I didn't expect, and I thank the publisher for it. I envy people who're going to read it for the very first time, but it's also satisfying to discover that this amazing horror novel holds up fine even on a second reading. I eagerly recommend it.