Incidents Around The House by Josh Malerman
I would like to thank Tor Nightfire for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher - Tor Nightfire
Published - Out Now
Price - £9.99 paperback £5.99 ebook
To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There’s Mommy, Daddy and Grandma Ruth. But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: ‘Can I go inside your heart?’
When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the question over and over, Bela understands that unless she says yes, her family will soon pay.
Other Mommy is getting restless, stronger, bolder. Only the bonds of family can keep Bela safe, but other incidents show cracks in her parents’ marriage. The safety Bela relies on is about to unravel.
But Other Mommy needs an answer.
An adult seeing the world through a child’s eyes again can be wonderful. A reminder of the joys of discovery, innocence and then there is just the occasional weird level of association they make that can confuse anyone but themselves. But also when we see what a child sees we as adults can recognise when things aren’t quite what they appear we may see dangers a child cannot or themes children are many years from fully understanding. In Josh Malerman’s very interesting horror novel Incidents Around The House we follow a young child whose imaginary friend is now terrorising her but soon many others will feel it’s presence.
Bela is eight, she loved to dance, playing with Mommy and Daddy but is getting worried about Other Mommy. Other Mommy used to love in the closet but has taken to getting closer and closer to Bela in her bed. Talking to her and now is very insistent about being allowed into Bela’s heart. It may finally be time for Bela to tell her parents but will they believe her? Will Other Mommy get mad at her.
Overall I was very interested in this story. Malerman ably makes the challenge of taking a horror story and telling it through a young child’s eyes. The voice of Bela really sells the story as she dwells very much a real chapter filled with the joys, questions and puzzlement of a child. She delights in the love of her parents, being able to show off dances at a party or slight puzzlement at her dad and his friends smoking and getting very giddy outside. As the reader we get to put these experiences together with our own knowledge and just as much and we put the fun pieces of childhood together we then start to see the darkness Bela is only suspecting.
Other Mommy is a worrying force in the book. Bela dangles clues such as black hairs on her arms and a face where the eyes are on the hands. Is this a nightmare or something else - as you may guess from it’s something else and her intense interest in Bela is increasingly disturbing. We get an early puzzle as to why Other Mommy wants a carnation and the explanation for that is ingenious and chilling. Other Mommy is a possessive entity that can mimic others and we also see starts to leave Bela’s bedroom and I’d capable of some much more horrific acts as the story develops.
Child pursued by monster is bad enough but the other theme is the chilling realisation that a child can have that your parents are not godlike superheroes that are both perfect and can make bad things stop. As we get to know Bela’s Mommy and Daddy we start to see the behaviours a child wouldn’t recognise and also the conversations that suggest they are not quite the happy family Bela knows. It’s not the best time to learn that monsters are real and the latter half of the story is these three characters out of their depth and trying to stay together as a family. Malerman makes us feel the increasing desperation and pressure the family tries to survive hour by hour where even a trip to a bathroom can become something truly horrific. Other Mommy also seems to know this family and uses it to her advantage in how to hurt them. The malevolence builds and builds very powerfully. The family are just stuck with fiends and family trying to support and the vagaries of who you can find on Google which really underlines how bad things are getting for them.
For me the main issue I had was the ending. There are in some ways two. The one I liked is where a ‘cure’ appears that really echoes that theme of finding out your parents are human. It’s bold, cuts deep and really makes an impact. If the story had left it there I think while it could be lowkey the emotional impact it leaves packed a punch. Instead Malerman returns back to a much more traditional spectacle of a horror tale ending which while done well is still ultimately heavily signposted and actually just feels for me a bit obvious and lacking the impact the other option could have delivered.
Incidents Around The House is a broadly inventive story that’s used its main viewpoints really well and puttered in an interesting position of not just a witness but also an interpreter of events. Its exploration of how children see parents is very well handled and bar that ending was a very enjoyable spooky tale. Highly recommended!
