Incidents Around the House
To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There’s Mommy, Daddo, 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.
Incidents Around the House is a chilling, wholly unique tale of true horror about a family as haunted as their home.
Praise for Incidents Around the House
“ Deeply discomfiting, imaginatively ripe, yet ruthlessly efficient . . . Simply put—and I do not say this lightly—Incidents Around the House is the most purely effective horror novel I have ever read. ”
Esquire
“Best Horror Books of 2024”
“A disturbing bedtime story told by a broken child, this book IS the monster that lives inside your closet. ”
Grady Hendrix
New York Times bestselling author of How to Sell a Haunted House
“A gleeful, mean, old-school scare machine . . . You just have to turn the first page to set it off. ”
Paul Tremblay
author of The Cabin at the End of the World and Horror Movie
“A masterwork of unadorned existential terror.”
Zoje Stage
USA Today bestselling author of Baby Teeth
“Josh Malerman is such an insidious architect. I call all of his haunted houses home, and this just might be his most devilish design yet. ”
Clay McLeod Chapman
author of What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters
“This haunting exploration of the perils of childhood is a story that will stay with you for a long time to come.”
Gwendolyn Kiste
Lambda Literary and Bram Stoker Award–winning author of Reluctant Immortals and The Rust Maidens
“This book does worse than stay with you—it stalks you. Page-turning and nerve-burning—don’t read it after dark.”
Hailey Piper
Bram Stoker Award–winning author of Queen of Teeth and A Light Most Hateful
“Incidents Around the House effortlessly draws the reader in for a deeply unsettling and genuinely frightening read. It’s a masterclass in scares.”
Brian Keene
bestselling author of End of the Road
“Hereditary meets Skinamarink: one of my favorite books of the year.”
Sarah Langan
author of A Better World
“Terrifying, beguiling, bewitching, awesomely constructed, and a masterpiece of voice and dread.”
Nat Cassidy
author of Mary: An Awakening of Terror and Nestlings
“So gripping in terror, I couldn’t put it down. This is everything I'm looking for in a horror story.”
Laurel Hightower
“This book has actual jump scares! Trust me: daytime only in a room with no closets. ”
Sadie Hartmann
author of 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered
“This is what great horror does: Read it and it will never leave you. Josh Malerman is one of the best.”
Thomas Tessier
award-winning author of The Nightwalker, Rapture, and Fog Heart
“A triumph of craft and suspense. ”
Sarah Gailey
“A shocker, a modern horror classic that scared the absolute hell out of me. ”
Jonathan Janz
author of Children of the Dark
“Perfectly frightening . . . feels like an otherworldly warning as much as a story. ”
Johnny Compton
author of The Spite House
“One of the most terrifying books I have ever read . . . I promise it will leave your heart pounding.”
Thomas Olde Heuvelt
Hugo Award–winning author of HEX and Oracle
