Incidents around the house A novel

Review by Booklist Review

Malerman (Spin a Black Yarn, 2023) is back with a new novel that begins uneasily and relentlessly builds to full-out, feel-it-in-your-gut terrifying. Eight-year-old Bela, the sole narrator, lives in suburban Detroit with Mommy, Daddo, and "Other Mommy," a being who lives in her closet but comes out frequently to ask the young girl, "Can I go inside your heart?" Readers enter as Other Mommy is losing patience with Bela, getting bolder, even leaving the house to remind Bela that she must say yes, and soon, or else. Bela immediately grabs readers' attention and pulls them into her disquieting world, while Malerman finds effective ways to add context from the adults' points of view without sacrificing Bela's authenticity or the fast pace. Readers will be ensnared for the duration, wanting to look away or take a break from the unceasing onslaught, but they cannot, because Other Mommy will follow--even off the page--not allowing anyone to escape. For fans of Baby Teeth (2018), by Zoje Stage, and Hex (2016), by Thomas Olde Heuvelt.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Bestseller Malerman (Bird Box) offers some predictable yet still-eerie scares in this horror novel, which is told from the perspective of eight-year-old Bela, who first introduces herself saying good night to her Daddo and Mommy, before sharing that, after they leave her bedroom, "Other Mommy" emerges from her closet. Malerman gradually reveals more about Other Mommy, a thing with eyes that migrate around her head, who repeatedly asks Bela if she can "go into her heart" and talks of what Bela understands as "carnations" and readers will quickly realize is reincarnation. Bela's parents initially treat the existence of Other Mommy as a joke, but then her father notices a foul smell around the house. As Other Mommy increases her pressure campaign on Bela and becomes more active at different times of day, and in different places, Daddo and Mommy frantically search for answers and a way to eliminate the threat, even as fissures form in their marriage. Bela's naive narrative voice is the book's best feature, freshening up the familiar story beats and enhancing the creeping sense of dread. Malerman's fans will want to check this out. (June)

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Review by Library Journal Review

Eight-year-old Bela's imaginary friend, Other Mommy, began as a fun playmate and a way to handle her parents' disintegrating marriage. Other Mommy asks Bela to let her into her heart, but, when refused, her presence grows until others can hear and see her, leading Bela and her parents to go on the run. No matter where they seek shelter, Other Mommy finds Bela and tries to force her to change her answer while menacing anyone who tries to help. In this novel, Malerman (Spin A Black Yarn) explores the idea of a family, rather than a house, being haunted. This is intensified through the use of Bela as the novel's narrator and the fact that her family is nearly her entire world. VERDICT Malerman is extraordinarily skilled at bringing fear to the ordinary and building a sense of unease into terror. He can terrify readers even while writing from a believable child's perspective and voice. For fans of novelists who deftly deploy unease and surreal takes on the routine like Neil Gaiman, Catriona Ward, or Paul Tremblay, or Scott Thomas's Violet, another novels about an imaginary friend.--Lila Denning

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Frightened by the "Other Mommy" in her bedroom closet who asks her, "Can I go into your heart?," lonely 8-year-old Bela enters into a horrific waking nightmare involving her whole family. Set in the fictional small town of Chaps, Michigan, near the other made-up places in dread specialist Malerman's novels, the story involves a deeply troubled family. Bela's actual mommy has been cheating on her father, Daddo, whose friendliness and good cheer clash with his wife's dark streak. Wrapped up in their squabbling and work demands, they've neglected to pay attention to Bela. Sweetly seductive in the beginning, Other Mommy offers Bela, who blames herself for the whole mess, a solution. They will trade places, with the Babadook-like presence reincarnated in the girl, and the girl...who knows where she'll go. "Whatever you do, most of all, don't allow someone else's meanness, someone else's cruelty, to get inside of you," Daddo lectures Bela. Soon enough, a screaming, shape-shifting version of Other Mommy is revealed to everyone, leading the family to run off to an assortment of supposedly safe places and bring in experts in the spirit business to get rid of Other Mommy. Leave it to Mom and Dad to get so caught up in their plight that they miss half of what Bela has to say. As a result of long monologues about secrets and lost innocence and such, the book loses some of its edge. And though Bela may well be little more than a stick figure by design, that deprives the novel of a deeper dimension. That said, Malerman keeps us in his grip, as he did in his best book, Bird Box (2014). The novel isn't the original that Neil Gaiman's Coraline is, but it still deserves a place alongside it on anyone's Halloween bookshelf. Screwy but scarrry! Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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1 Good night, Daddo! Good night, Mommy! Mommy and Daddo leave my room. I pull the covers up to my chin. Other Mommy comes out of the closet. Hi, I say. I'm so excited to see you again. 2 Bela, Mommy says to me. Eat. I'm not hungry, I say. But still. Eat. I'm not--­ I've got minutes, only minutes. Then work. Remember? That's the place I go to make all the little money so we can buy things like food. So, you? Eat the food. Help me out here. Little money? I ask. Sometimes it feels that way, hon. Like the money I make is physically smaller than what other people get. I eat. Mommy always gives me oatmeal. Daddo never gives me breakfast because one time he gave me eggs and sausage and I ate till I threw up and Mommy got mad at him and so now only Mommy gives me breakfast. But Daddo does the dishes. I love you, Mommy says. Bela? My mouth is full of oatmeal. Say I love you too, Mommy says. Don't make me ask you to say that, 'kay? 'Kay. I love you, Bela. Love you too. What's on your mind? she asks. Nuthin'. But there is something on my mind. I'm looking at the recycle bin. Bela, Mommy says. Eat. Where does it go? I ask. Where does what--­ But she looks to where I'm looking. Are you seriously asking me about recycling right now? I nod. She looks impatient. I don't know where it goes, she says. Is it a better place? Better place than what? Than where we are? Mommy looks at me the way she does when I say something that surprises her. I don't know what that means, Mommy says. The whole point is that it comes back, as . . . something else, I guess. Something else. I think of carnations. Bela--­ But she doesn't need to tell me again. I eat. Then she's up from the table. Be good for your daddo, Mommy says. When will you be home? I ask. I don't know yet. Might be late. I don't know. She looks frazzled. That's the word Daddo uses when Mommy looks like this. She's wearing her brown leather coat. Her black pants. I don't have to go anywhere because it's still summer. Daddo works all the time. Mommy's schedule is all over the place. That's how she says it. Bye, Bela, Mommy says. Bye. She leaves the kitchen. Daddo is in the den working already, and I don't hear her say goodbye to him before she leaves out the front door. I go quietly upstairs to my room. I wait for a second by the table with the flowers in the hall. 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. She gets impatient like Mommy does. 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 likes to talk. She's been coming out of the closet a lot more lately. She walks over to me now. Sometimes it's like she floats. She sits on the bed too. Slowly. Next to me. And she asks: Can I go into your heart? 3 The first time I told Mommy and Daddo about Other Mommy they laughed. It was good-­night time and I told Mommy good night and then I said it again and Mommy said, Why did you say that twice, Bela? And I said, I was saying good night to Other Mommy. They both smiled and their eyes got wide and Daddo made a funny sound like from a spooky movie. Then Mommy's smile went away and she asked, Who's Other Mommy, Bela? But I was embarrassed. So I said, I'm tired! Daddo laughed again and shut the light and they left my room, but I saw Mommy look back once through the crack in the door. Her eyes looked right at mine. Then she and Daddo went to their own bedroom. Then Other Mommy made the grunting sound she makes when she stands up on the other side of my bed, in the space between my bed and the wall, when she's been crouched down there on the carpet waiting for them to leave. Excerpted from Incidents Around the House: A Novel by Josh Malerman All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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