Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman

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📚 Book Review: Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman - Creepy Horror with an Unsettling Twist


 Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3/5)

Genre: Horror, Psychological Thriller, Paranormal
Perfect For: Fans of eerie domestic horror, readers who enjoy creepy kids and haunted-house vibes
Content Warning: Child neglect, marital infidelity, death, gaslighting

👻 What’s It About?

Incidents Around the House is haunted-house horror meets fractured family drama. Written by Josh Malerman—author of Bird Box—this story is slow-burn creepy, deeply psychological, and told primarily through the voice of an 8-year-old girl. While it sets an incredible eerie atmosphere, it sometimes struggles under the weight of its own concept.

🏚️ Plot Summary (Spoilers Ahead!)

Meet Bela, an imaginative and sensitive 8-year-old who lives with her parents, Russ and Ursula, in a creaky old house. From the very beginning, Bela tells us that something is wrong. There’s someone in the house. Someone she calls “Other Mommy.”

Other Mommy isn’t sweet like a fairy tale alternate mother—think Coraline gone feral. She appears in Bela’s room at night, whispering unsettling things and asking to be let into Bela’s heart. Bela always says no. But the visits continue. And escalate.

Meanwhile, things at home are unraveling.
🧪 Russ and Ursula’s marriage is a mess. They drink too much. They argue constantly. Ursula is having an affair and sometimes doesn’t come home at all. The emotional neglect is palpable, and Bela, being a child, absorbs it all. Her only constant companion is… Other Mommy.

Eventually, Bela’s cries for help are loud enough that her parents take notice. They call in a woman named Lois Anthony, who claims to be sensitive to spirits. Her solution? Strip Bela of her innocence—because that’s what’s “drawing in” the entity.

Their attempt?
They tell Bela the truth: Russ is not her biological father.
He was the man Ursula cheated with while married to Douglas Cain, Bela’s real father. This revelation is not just a betrayal of trust—it shatters Bela’s world.

Far from banishing Other Mommy, this act feeds her.

And then, the bloodshed begins.

  • Ursula’s lover Frank is killed.

  • Bela’s grandmother Ruth is murdered.

  • Eventually, Russ and Ursula themselves are not spared.
    Throughout all of this, Bela becomes increasingly isolated, confused, and emotionally wrecked. With no one left to protect her and her trust in adults completely destroyed, she finally lets Other Mommy in.

The final scenes suggest that Other Mommy was never a ghost, but more like a manifestation of Bela’s emotional damage, neglect, and pain. But like much of the novel, this is left open-ended—intentionally vague.

😬 What Worked for Me

  • The Vibe. Malerman is amazing at creating a claustrophobic atmosphere. The house itself feels alive. Every whisper, every door creak—it gets under your skin.

  • The Concept. The idea of a ghost that feeds on a child’s innocence is chilling. The metaphor here is strong: trauma opens the door to darkness.

  • Other Mommy. She's terrifying in a uniquely psychological way—always just a shadow in the corner of the room asking, “Can I come in now?”

😖 What Didn’t Work So Well

  • The Narration Style. Told mostly through Bela’s perspective, the prose is full of repeated lines like “He said this,” “She said that,” mimicking the way a child might recount adult conversations. While this adds realism, it becomes repetitive and occasionally frustrating to read.

  • The Characters. Bela’s parents are, frankly, awful people. And not in a nuanced way. Ursula is emotionally abusive and checked out. Russ is spineless. And while that might be the point, it leaves the reader feeling unmoored—there’s no one to root for.

  • The Message? The book ends with a disturbing finality, but it’s not exactly clear what Malerman is trying to say. Is it a commentary on bad parenting? The dangers of neglect? Or is it a supernatural tale with no deeper meaning? The ambiguity leaves the story feeling incomplete.

💬 Final Thoughts

Incidents Around the House is eerie and inventive, but it’s also confusing and emotionally exhausting. The idea of childhood trauma becoming a literal haunting is powerful, but the execution falls short due to repetitive narration and a lack of emotional grounding.

If you enjoy haunting psychological horror and don’t mind when the narrative feels a bit unpolished, it’s still worth a read for the creepy vibes alone.

But if you’re looking for a horror novel with a tight plot and a satisfying payoff? This one might leave you cold.

🧠 My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3 out of 5 stars

🕯️ You Might Like This If You Enjoy:

  • Coraline by Neil Gaiman (but darker)

  • Come Closer by Sara Gran

  • Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage

Want more horror reviews or bookish breakdowns with spoilers? Follow for more spooky reads 👉👤✨ or check out my other posts! 💀📖

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