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“Can I go inside your heart?��

Eight year-old Bela has been seeing someone in her closet. Other Mommy comes out at night pretending to be her friend and asks if she can go inside her heart. Bela becomes so frightened that she tells her parents about her. When others begin to see Other Mommy too, the family attempts to outrun Other Mommy and make her disappear.

I became a Josh Malerman fan after reading Bird Box, which scared the living daylights out of me. Since that book, I have read or attempted to read all of his other books. None of them are anywhere near the caliber of Bird Box. I was starting to wonder if it was a one-hit wonder for Malerman. Then I was given the opportunity to read Incidents Around the House. It seemed creepy and reviewers have been raving about this book as his next big hit. So, I listened to the audiobook while following along with the Ebook.

My thoughts:

Disappointing. While it is atmospheric, scary, and creepy, Incidents Around the House felt like a remake of the 1980s hit movie Poltergeist with Bela as Carol Anne. While Poltergeist actually had a plot that I could follow and made sense, I never really figured out why the boogie mama was in the closet. The plot just fell apart for me in the end. I pride myself on being able to understand the psychology behind deeper meanings, but this one just wasn’t clear. It seems that Malerman enjoys creating open endings, but after reading almost 400 pages, I NEEDED to know why.

Stylistically, this book will not appeal to everyone. The story is told from the perspective of an eight year-old and short and repetitive sentences are used over and over. The audiobook reader sounds like Minnie Mouse (probably an adult’s voice recorded at a higher pitch) and is grating on the ears. I sped the audio up to 1.5X which really made the repetition stand out.

I’m still waiting for Malerman to write another stand out horror novel. This just wasn’t it.

3.5/5 stars rounded down

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Ballantine for the ARC of IncidentsAround the House in exchange for an honest review.