Incidents Around the House: A Novel: The Inspiration for the Movie "Other Mommy"
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A young girl’s troubled family is haunted by an entity she calls “Other Mommy” in this chilling tale from the author of Bird Box.
COMING SOON AS THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE OTHER MOMMY, STARRING JESSICA CHASTAIN
“Deeply discomfiting, imaginatively ripe, yet ruthlessly efficient [with] claustrophobic terror that almost transcends articulation . . . Simply put—and I do not say this lightly—Incidents Around the House is the most purely effective horror novel I have ever read.”—Neil McRobert, Esquire
“This book is the monster that lives inside your closet.”—Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author of How to Sell a Haunted House
LOCUS AWARD FINALIST • BRAM STOKER AWARD NOMINEE
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.
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Readers say *Incidents Around the House* delivers deeply unsettling, atmospheric horror that evokes childhood anxiety and dread, with vivid, creepy im...
I consume almost nothing but horror, crime, and thrillers in every type of media that I use as entertainment…. So for a book to scare me, it takes a lot, this was absolutely having me look around corners and double check the dark. The front cover of my copy says “ This book is the monster that lives in your closet.” and I absolutely 1010% agree with that statement! Extremely creepy, full of dread, brings you back to childhood anxiety in somehow the best way possible the interpersonal relationships were great to read as well. I loved the character development. This was probably my favorite book so far this year! (And no- the movie didn’t live up to it sadly)
This is the last book I needed to complete my reading goal and I’m so glad it was this. My fiancee bought me this book because it was honestly my only highly anticipated release of 2024.
Incidents around the house is a story about a demon tormenting Bela’s family. It lives in the closet and asks if it can go inside of her heart, and explains that in order to be reincarnated, they would need to switch places
And that’s exactly what happened
. After the events of the entire book consist of this family literally running from it, and the creature (which is vaguely described, but less information leaves more to the imagination of what this thing could possibly look like, and why its eyes are lower than its head, its height, and that it can shape shift into anything it wants to, and follow the family anywhere), bela finally gives in. I think the one mistake this family did was tellling Bela who her real father was. I think this is what ultimately made Bela break, and lie about Other Mommy’s presence until the very end. I’m upset about the ending, but in a good way.
Incidents around the house is a story about a demon tormenting Bela’s family. It lives in the closet and asks if it can go inside of her heart, and explains that in order to be reincarnated, they would need to switch places
And that’s exactly what happened
. After the events of the entire book consist of this family literally running from it, and the creature (which is vaguely described, but less information leaves more to the imagination of what this thing could possibly look like, and why its eyes are lower than its head, its height, and that it can shape shift into anything it wants to, and follow the family anywhere), bela finally gives in. I think the one mistake this family did was tellling Bela who her real father was. I think this is what ultimately made Bela break, and lie about Other Mommy’s presence until the very end. I’m upset about the ending, but in a good way.
I’m still processing that ending. It looked like it was going to have a wise and transformative end to this scary ride the family experienced. The monster was a metaphor for family secrets and dysfunction, and the child was learning to transform that within herself. Virtually every adult failed this child, and now her grandmother was finally imparting calm and comfort and wisdom. But then- the twist is revealed and all the events of this story are rendered pointless. It’s well written, reads almost like it could be a stage production. But that ending… well.