Review by wyabook234 - Incidents Around the House

wyabook234 's review for:

Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman

4.25

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Incidents Around the House heavily relies on Bela's vulnerability, which makes the readers just as vulnerable to the wrath of Other Mommy. Once you know about her presence in connection with Bela's family, you'll be scouring the pages for anywhere that she'll pop up, and you'll get a sense of how wholly distorted her body is through minimal description, which could be actual accuracy or the result of a child's active imagination. Malerman's writing skillfully conveys a child's perspective and elevates subtle scares within the text. When that text becomes dense paragraphs, the readers must deal with the protagonist's parent needlessly venting their problems upon their child. The venting of their guilt only becomes needed by the later half of the narrative, which could be debated on how that revelation leads to the ending for this family as it is based on destroying every last bit of innocence.

When fellow readers talk about a scary scene from the book, they usually talk about the toilet seat scene from Evelyn's house. While that scene is disturbing regarding how the apparition interacts with Bella, another scene at the beginning of the book managed to spook me early. It is when Bella believes that she has followed Deb into the wood room on the playground, and it turns out to be Other Mommy within the box, with her catchphrase of "Can I Go Into Your Heart?". It caught me off guard when reading, and it led to revealing that Other Mommy is a master of disguise as she later freakishly impersonates Kelvin within Bela's home.

I didn't leave as scared as much as other people would say after reading the book; it is a spooky tale that Malerman has created for the modern age that is reminiscent of Poltergeist.

Content Warnings