Incidents Around the House

Can I Go Inside Your Heart?

Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman (2024) is a supernatural horror novel told entirely through the eyes of eight-year-old Bela, who lives with her parents and her grandmother. But there's something in her closet that calls itself Other Mommy, and it keeps asking her a question she never wants to answer. The book stays close to Bela's world, letting the fear grow from the way she sees and understands the adults around her. It's a simple premise on the surface, but it becomes something heavier and more emotional as it goes on.

I went in completely blind. I hadn't read Malerman before, and I didn't know anything about the plot beyond the basic idea of a child dealing with something frightening in her home. That ended up working in my favor, because this book earns everything it does without needing any outside reference point.

Through Bela's Eyes

The entire novel is told through the voice of an eight-year-old, and Malerman commits to it completely with her cadence, her logic, and her small, fierce way of carrying fear. It never felt like I was reading an adult trying to imitate a child. Instead, the writing kept me inside her thoughts, her fears, and her confusion.

The prose is deliberately simple, because Bela herself is simple in the best sense: not naive so much as unguarded. Seeing horror through a child's eyes strips away the cynicism adults lean on. It's exactly how a child would process something she can't explain, and the fear lands harder for it.

The pacing fits that perspective. Other Mommy appears almost immediately, but the real craft is in the gap between what Bela experiences directly and what her parents dismiss as an imaginary friend. They start out brushing things off the way adults do, but little by little, they begin to see that something is wrong. Watching that change through Bela's eyes made the tension build in a steady, believable way.

The People in the House

The family feels real because their problems don't show up all at once. At first, they seem like a normal, loving household. Her dad works from home and tries to keep things steady. Her mom works long hours and comes home exhausted. Grandma Ruth brings a softness to the story that I appreciated, even though that comfort doesn't last.

As the book goes on, the cracks in the family become clearer, and Bela notices them even if she doesn't fully understand them. That part of the story is heartbreaking. She's old enough to know something is changing, but she's still young enough to think she can fix it.

That's what stayed with me the most. Bela isn't just dealing with a supernatural threat. She's trying to hold her family together at the same time. There's a moment early on when she refuses to leave her dad alone downstairs because she hears something creaking upstairs. She's terrified, but she's also trying to protect him. That's the tragedy underneath the terror: not just a haunted child, but a child trying to keep everyone safe from something she can't name or understand.

The Shape in the Dark

Other Mommy is a terrifying antagonist. She first appears in corners, under the bed, or in the closet, constantly asking Bela, "Will you let me into your heart?" Malerman's physical description of her is unsettling and grotesque, a looming figure with long fingers and hairy hands. The writing creates a claustrophobic feeling, trapping you inside the house with Bela as this thing gets closer.

What makes the horror so effective is how it intensifies. At first, she seems almost protective. Bela remembers a time when Other Mommy covered her ears during a scary movie so she wouldn't hear it. That memory complicates things. It makes you wonder what Other Mommy actually wants, but she slowly becomes more antagonistic, violent, and full of rage when she doesn't get it.

The Dread That Follows You Home

The dread in this book is profound. It's not about jump scares; it's the growing, awful feeling that the threat is inescapable. The story becomes genuinely terrifying when you realize this isn't just a simple haunted house. The fear builds through escalation rather than shock. There's a claustrophobic quality to it, the feeling of being trapped inside a small, frightened child's head while the walls close in.

What lingers is the inescapability: this isn't the kind of horror where the family makes one bad decision and you yell at the page. They do everything right, they think it through, they try to solve it, and it still isn't enough. That's the fear that stays with you until the end.

Who Should Open This Door

Incidents Around the House is for fans of supernatural horror, for readers who like a non-traditional perspective, and for anyone who prefers dread and metaphor over gore. It's also a phenomenal book club pick. From the family dynamics to the allegorical readings, there's a lot to talk about beyond just the haunting.

However, if you want direct, traditional horror storytelling, if a novel told entirely through a child's voice sounds grating, or if you're after gore, body count, or a mystery/thriller structure, look elsewhere. There's no gore here and not much death; the horror is atmospheric and psychological.

One small caveat: a few listeners found the audiobook's voice work jarring, a note on the production rather than the prose. If narration style matters to you, the print edition is the safer bet.

As for revisiting it: absolutely. Knowing the entity's full nature on a second pass, the family-dynamics subtext is exactly the kind of thing that rewards another read.

The Adaptation

Rob Savage's film adaptation, Other Mommy, hits theaters October 9, and I'm genuinely curious how it goes. What I hope they capture is the dread, that feeling of an insurmountable, inescapable threat. Adapting a story told entirely from inside an eight-year-old's head is a serious challenge. If they nail it, it could be something special. If they have to step outside that perspective to make it work on screen, that is understandable, but I'll be watching to see if they keep the dread intact.

The Last Incident

Incidents Around the House is an incredibly different and haunting experience, proof that the most terrifying monsters aren't the ones that live in your closet, but the ones that refuse to stay there. It's a horror story that doubles as a quietly devastating portrait of a family, told through the unguarded eyes of the child trying to hold it together.

Some doors are best left closed, but this is one book you should absolutely let into your house.