At eight-years-old, Bela is a pretty typical kid. She loves to dress up and dance for Mommy and Daddo’s guests. She enjoys the park. What she doesn’t enjoy is the constant requests of Other Mommy to “go inside her heart.” While Bela manages to keep the mysterious Other Mommy at arm’s length for some time, it becomes clear that the entity no longer wishes to wait for her attempts to take over the child and begins to unleash strange occurrences around the house. While Mommy, Daddo and Grandma Ruth think that Bela must be imagining things. After a guest to the house says she’ll never come back about what she’s seen, Bela’s stories seem more plausible. Slowly but surely each family member sees the mysterious entity. The family goes on a mission to try and escape Other Mommy, exposing the major faults in Mommy and Daddo’s marriage and a family secret that was never intended to be shared
Incidents Around the House is one of those books that causes the reader to leave all the lights on at night. I’m no stranger to a good horror novel, and even I felt the need to make sure the closet door was shut tight, and the lights were on when reading this one. Author Josh Malerman makes the reader really question what could be under the bed or in the closet.
Incidents Around the House is available July 25, 2024, from Random House.
