First off, Incidents Around the House is an incredible title. I think I’d probably read a book with that title regardless of who wrote it. But the fact that it’s the latest Josh Malerman novel just adds to the excitement.
Our narrator is Bela, an eight-year-old girl who lives with her Mommy and Daddo. AND a creepy entity that comes from her closet called Other Mommy, who frequently asks Bela, “Can I go inside your heart?” Yeesh. As other adults begin to see Other Mommy, and things become increasingly dangerous, Bela’s parents take desperate measures to save the family. But who can you turn to when you need to fight the unknown?
I haven’t read any of Josh Malerman’s work for a while, but Bird Box is one of my all-time favorites. Malerman is great at creating a terrifying atmosphere of inescapable terror, and this is displayed with aplomb in Incidents. This book is so unbelievably creepy that I was afraid to go to the bathroom during the night out of fear of what might be lurking in there. There are some images that will stay with me for a long time.
There’s also a beautiful story of a family here, and just how hard it can be to keep everything together, even when you’re not fighting literal demons.
It can be a challenge to tell a story from the POV of a child, and still maintain the attention of an adult audience (Room, by Emma Donohue, is a terrific example). Malerman tackles this issue well, including conversation and monologues directly from Bela’s family, as her parents often speak to Bela when they think she’s asleep. The structure of the writing made the book very easy to read, and I raced through it in a couple of days.
I really enjoyed this book, and can easily imagine this being adapted into a movie or TV show; it has a very cinematic quality. For fans of haunted house novels, demons, family drama, and being terrified beyond comprehension.
Huge thanks to Del Rey for the ARC!
California Reading 