Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman

 

Incidents Around the House is a horror story about a girl named Bela and her family. The author Josh Malerman has done a phenomenal job of setting up that creepy eerie feeling throughout the book. 

Incidents Around the House tells the story of an 8 year old girl named Bela who is haunted by an entity she refers to as "Other Mommy". She lives in a house with her father Russ and mother Ursula. Other Mommy would appear in her room quite often and ask to enter her heart. Bela always tells her no, but Other Mommy is increasingly more demanding.

Other Mommy becomes more and more omnipresent as Russ and Ursula's marriage deteriorates. They argue often and get drunk often. Ursula also cheats on Russ and often comes home late (or sometimes doesn't come home at all). Bela tells her parents about Other Mommy, and eventually gets their attention. They bring a woman, Lois Anthony, who says she can sense ghosts. 

Lois tells them they need to get rid of Bela's innocence - that the Other Mommy is attracted to Bela's innocence. The parents decide to tell Bela that Russ isn't her biological father. Her biological father is Ursula's first husband, Douglas Cain. Ursula was cheating on Douglas with Russ at the time, but through paternity test, it's proven that Russ isn't the father. 

Unfortunately, destroying her innocence didn't stop Other Mommy from showing up. It actually made it worse, and made Bela not trust her parents for lying to her. Other Mommy kills Ursula's lover, Frank, her grandmother Ruth, and her parents. Eventually, Bela lets Other Mommy into her heart.

Like I said earlier, I think the author did an amazing job creating that eerie setting for the perfect horror thriller. But the problem with this book is that it's hard to say what it's about, like, what is the story trying to say? After thinking about it for a while, I believe the author is trying to tell us not to be bad parents. Because Bela's parents are really terrible, especially Ursula. I wonder if the author grew up in a neglected family and was inspired to write this because of that. 

This book did not get a higher rating from me because the narration is largely through that of the 8 year old, so it's VERY VERY repetitive. Lots of "he said", "she said", as Bela recounts her parents conversations. It was almost comical, which is not good when the book isn't trying to be funny. 

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