Josh Malerman

Incidents Around the House

"that's the trick. the whole trick. with aging, with living, with enduring this life. it's all about the heart." / "and here i am, feeling worst of all for trying to get that monster to like you less, because even now, i don't want anything in this world to like you less than it does, not even a monster. i don't want what we found in our house to like you less because i want everything in this world and any world to love you."

i love when horror marries some elements of humanity and tenderness to it. malerman in particular has been just 

 at crafting these seemingly fantastical stories of monsters and haunted houses and yet still finding his way back to the root of all his writing: humanity. there is so much humanity in this one that i found myself crying more than i was scared. this left me feeling so inspired by life and was a much needed hug when i needed human connection the most. i love all the characters in this--in their flawness and innocence--and how gentle of a hand malerman painted the whole family dynamic with so we see why ursula and russ had to do the things they did.

an aspect of this story i really liked reading the most was how horror events like this can just absolutely fracture a family. you see their micro and macro networks start to fall apart, the frenzy, the almost cat and mouse chasing around for whatever small reprieve they can find. i think it's a very realistic way to handle the situation and the conversations surrounding it, however brutal sometimes, is exactly how i imagine most well-meaning parents would fall into once thrusted into this situation.

i think i'll keep a piece of bela and russ in me on the days i want to give up on the world.

🫂

"that's the trick. the whole trick. with aging, with living, with enduring this life. it's all about the heart." / "and here i am, feeling worst of all for trying to get that monster to like you less, because even now, i don't want anything in this world to like you less than it does, not even a monster. i don't want what we found in our house to like you less because i want everything in this world and any world to love you."

i love when horror marries some elements of humanity and tenderness to it. malerman in particular has been just stellar at crafting these seemingly fantastical stories of monsters and haunted houses and yet still finding his way back to the root of all his writing: humanity. there is so much humanity in this one that i found myself crying more than i was scared. this left me feeling so inspired by life and was a much needed hug when i needed human connection the most. i love all the characters in this--in their flawness and innocence--and how gentle of a hand malerman painted the whole family dynamic with so we see why ursula and russ had to do the things they did.

an aspect of this story i really liked reading the most was how horror events like this can just absolutely fracture a family. you see their micro and macro networks start to fall apart, the frenzy, the almost cat and mouse chasing around for whatever small reprieve they can find. i think it's a very realistic way to handle the situation and the conversations surrounding it, however brutal sometimes, is exactly how i imagine most well-meaning parents would fall into once thrusted into this situation.

this was a genuinely scary book.

it was just so much more touching.

i think i'll keep a piece of bela and russ in me on the days i want to give up on the world.

gave me the heebie jeebies especially reading it at night 

Essence

         I was completely prepared to love this book.  It never occurred to me that I might NOT love this book, because I have loved everything else Malerman has written, so the excitement that I felt when I ordered this one was unmatched (recently…and by recently I mean it wasn’t really unmatched at all, I get excited when I order any book).  I was thrilled when my horror book club picked this one for our September 2024 selection, and I couldn’t wait to read it. 

            Malerman jumped right in with the creepy.  Other Mommy is a significantly creepy character (is Other Mommy really even a character???), and we are introduced to her pretty early.  We also learn, early on, that Bela’s parents are not great people, and Bela ends up spending an awful lot of her time trying to figure out how she fit into the family dynamics, which is how Other Mommy was able to infiltrate. 

            This family spends the entire book running away from this creepy closet-dwelling entity before they discover there is no getting away from her (it?).  We are assaulted with page after page of frantic fleeing, with hope slowly being shoved away.  They eventually mad their way back home, where the terror began: one last effort to rid of their lives of this evil. 

            I concede that this book is well-written, and Malerman’s ability to creep me out was pretty amazing.  However, I didn’t love this book.  It’s hard to describe why I didn’t love this book without giving some spoilers, so I’ll just leave it at not loving this book.  I will continue to seek out his work despite not loving this book, because Bird Box was THAT GOOD.  One final note:  I think the title should have been something different….the title doesn’t really work with the book. 

Kristen Claiborn

         I was completely prepared to love this book.  It never occurred to me that I might NOT love this book, because I have loved everything else Malerman has written, so the excitement that I felt when I ordered this one was unmatched (recently…and by recently I mean it wasn’t really unmatched at all, I get excited when I order any book).  I was thrilled when my horror book club picked this one for our September 2024 selection, and I couldn’t wait to read it. 

            Malerman jumped right in with the creepy.  Other Mommy is a significantly creepy character (is Other Mommy really even a character???), and we are introduced to her pretty early.  We also learn, early on, that Bela’s parents are not great people, and Bela ends up spending an awful lot of her time trying to figure out how she fit into the family dynamics, which is how Other Mommy was able to infiltrate. 

            This family spends the entire book running away from this creepy closet-dwelling entity before they discover there is no getting away from her (it?).  We are assaulted with page after page of frantic fleeing, with hope slowly being shoved away.  They eventually mad their way back home, where the terror began: one last effort to rid of their lives of this evil. 

            I concede that this book is well-written, and Malerman’s ability to creep me out was pretty amazing.  However, I didn’t love this book.  It’s hard to describe why I didn’t love this book without giving some spoilers, so I’ll just leave it at not loving this book.  I will continue to seek out his work despite not loving this book, because Bird Box was THAT GOOD.  One final note:  I think the title should have been something different….the title doesn’t really work with the book. 

This is a perfect book to add to your tbr for spooky season. It was very creepy and good. I was a little shocked at the ending.

Samantha 

A huge thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey for the e-ARC! Malerman has been an auto-buy author for me since reading Bird Box and he does not disappoint!

Incidents Around the House is written entirely in the perspective of Bela, an eight-year-old that has frequent nightly visits from the Other Mommy in her closet. Unsettling, creepy, and often nauseating, the prose is somehow simplistic—as a child’s writing demands—yet surprisingly elegant and powerful. I was so impressed by the balance the author struck between the two, and it heightened my enjoyment throughout. I really found it hard to put this down (while sadly training at the new job).

Focusing heavily on what goes bump in the night, Malerman takes childhood fears and turns them into adulthood traumas. There was a single line about how Other Mommy was hiding in the dark corner, but her eyes were up near the ceiling that truly gave me chills. And that’s where this story excels, within its endless possibilities, within what it leaves unsaid. It’s childhood stories, it’s Goosebumps and Fear Street and Are You Afraid of the Dark, yet it’s deconstructed, enhanced, and rewound into an entirely unique and adult novel.

Bela’s Mommy and Daddo are great characters in their own right, but they’re also great characterizations of polar opposites in parenting. One feels trapped, ungrateful, and the bearer of bad news. The other is the optimistic, uplifting one, and Bela’s best friend. The light and the dark to their daughter. But what I enjoyed about this dynamic the most, was Malerman’s ability to showcase them so well that I stopped believing that I knew which parent was the “good” one. The rock-bottom feel of their desperation and disparity is something I would say is wholly unique and integral to the experience. And Bela is constantly drawn to the two for different reasons. And to Other Mommy too.

I also really enjoyed that the author gives us a mixture of modern things thrown in. A modern “hippie” exorcism that goes a bit wonky, a slew of cameras and alarms that could make my crew in BestGhost’s heads spin, two well behaved guard dogs that never seem to take a break, running away from home, both short and long trips, and of course, an occult specialist that’s absolutely not a sham. It kind of felt like taking absolutely everything you could do to save yourself, and finding out that all of it wasn’t the right thing.

I happened to be reading this at the same time as Baptiste Pinson Wu’s historical fantasy, Undead Samurai. The juxtaposition of zombies, swords, and action against Malerman’s slowed down, slithering, creepy-crawly horror, just really sold the experiences. And it really sold Malerman’s ability to sell an incredible story with a slower burn.

Can Other Mommy be trusted? Can she be let into Bela’s heart? Why is she named that? The absolutely unhinged act of twisting the dynamic of mother and daughter into something OTHER is truly brilliant. And gross, so gross.

Malerman is at his best, delivering readers with something to think about for years to come, especially before we turn out the lights. I genuinely feel for any reader that has a young daughter.

C. J. Daley 

A huge thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey for the e-ARC! Malerman has been an auto-buy author for me since reading Bird Box and he does not disappoint!

Incidents Around the House is written entirely in the perspective of Bela, an eight-year-old that has frequent nightly visits from the Other Mommy in her closet. Unsettling, creepy, and often nauseating, the prose is somehow simplistic—as a child’s writing demands—yet surprisingly elegant and powerful. I was so impressed by the balance the author struck between the two, and it heightened my enjoyment throughout. I really found it hard to put this down (while sadly training at the new job).

Focusing heavily on what goes bump in the night, Malerman takes childhood fears and turns them into adulthood traumas. There was a single line about how Other Mommy was hiding in the dark corner, but her eyes were up near the ceiling that truly gave me chills. And that’s where this story excels, within its endless possibilities, within what it leaves unsaid. It’s childhood stories, it’s Goosebumps and Fear Street and Are You Afraid of the Dark, yet it’s deconstructed, enhanced, and rewound into an entirely unique and adult novel.

Bela’s Mommy and Daddo are great characters in their own right, but they’re also great characterizations of polar opposites in parenting. One feels trapped, ungrateful, and the bearer of bad news. The other is the optimistic, uplifting one, and Bela’s best friend. The light and the dark to their daughter. But what I enjoyed about this dynamic the most, was Malerman’s ability to showcase them so well that I stopped believing that I knew which parent was the “good” one. The rock-bottom feel of their desperation and disparity is something I would say is wholly unique and integral to the experience. And Bela is constantly drawn to the two for different reasons. And to Other Mommy too.

I also really enjoyed that the author gives us a mixture of modern things thrown in. A modern “hippie” exorcism that goes a bit wonky, a slew of cameras and alarms that could make my crew in BestGhost’s heads spin, two well behaved guard dogs that never seem to take a break, running away from home, both short and long trips, and of course, an occult specialist that’s absolutely not a sham. It kind of felt like taking absolutely everything you could do to save yourself, and finding out that all of it wasn’t the right thing.

I happened to be reading this at the same time as Baptiste Pinson Wu’s historical fantasy, Undead Samurai. The juxtaposition of zombies, swords, and action against Malerman’s slowed down, slithering, creepy-crawly horror, just really sold the experiences. And it really sold Malerman’s ability to sell an incredible story with a slower burn.

Can Other Mommy be trusted? Can she be let into Bela’s heart? Why is she named that? The absolutely unhinged act of twisting the dynamic of mother and daughter into something OTHER is truly brilliant. And gross, so gross.

Malerman is at his best, delivering readers with something to think about for years to come, especially before we turn out the lights. I genuinely feel for any reader that has a young daughter.

Incidents Around the House

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