There has been a rave about this book on facebook groups and booktok and I just found out that it had a movie adaption which I won’t be watching because the trailer looked scary as sheiz, and because of that trailer I was kind of doubting to pick this book up and yet I did, late at night and reading through the night. I had to use my flashlight when going to the bathroom with this book, seriously…

The book is called Incidents around the house by Josh Malerman and is a horror / thriller book but the movie is definitely a horror.

Bela can’t remember the first-time other mommy came out of her closet to spent time with her, they were friends at first you see? But now other mommy is scaring her with talk about carnations and always asking her if she could live in her heart. Bela asked once what she meant, if she would agree where would Bela live? In the closet where other mommy is from? She told her she doesn’t live in the closet but didn’t specify. At first other mommy only came out of the closet at night and would go back inside to watch me sleep but now she’s out during the day to which scared Bela a lot because what if mommy or daddo saw her?

Mommy has gone of the work and daddo works from home, it’s still summer so Bela won’t have to go to school yet. With daddo on the phone a lot, Bela goes to play upstairs. After daddo is done with his call the asks for Bela to come and play downstairs but other mommy is out and in her room so she doesn’t want to play downstairs, afraid she will follow. Daddo comes upstairs to see what Bela is doing only to find her in the middle of her room staring at nothing. Daddo sniffs the air and smells something foul; he doesn’t know that it’s actually other mommy he smells. He goes into the bathroom attached to Bela’s room where other mommy just went to hide. Once downstairs Bela can’t wind down because she knows other mommy is always watching, she can hear the creaks coming from upstairs from her moving around.

Mommy takes Bela to the park the next day so she can play with her friend Deb. Bela is asking questions about if Deb would save her when… and she explains a bit about other mommy, scaring Deb who is running away from Bela. Bela thinks she saw her going into a wooden little house on the jungle gym and follows; once inside of the wooden house, she keeps going with her questions about other mommy and if Deb will save her if… and then Deb turns, but it isn’t Deb in here it’s other mommy and Bela knows the question she is about to ask ‘Can I live in your heart?’ Bela screams and backs out of the wooden house only to trip over the slide and fall down.

It’s been a long time since she told her parents about other mommy but her parents thought she was talking about some imaginary friend. There is a party at the house that evening and it will be the first time other mommy shows herself to one of the family friends and not long after mommy sees her as well. Freaking out and taking Bela out of the house but this entity or demon or whatever it is seems to follow them wherever they go. It’s like it is attached to Bela.

How many people will actually see other mommy? Will she hurt them? Can they find someone to exorcise this thing from their home? What happens in the end? Will Bela accept the question or will other mommy cease to exist?

I’m giving this book a definite ⭐⭐⭐⭐ star rating.