Incidents Around the House

My experiences with Malerman's books vary so widely and unfortunately Incidents Around the House was a miss. To start with the positives: I thought the premise was unique. We follow eight-year-old Bela, whose parents have a slightly tumultuous marriage. Bela has been seeing an entity in her room, who she calls Other Mommy. The descriptions – and lack thereof – of Other Mommy make her truly creepy. There are some genuinely terrifying moments in this, and Malerman is great at keeping the tension up.

Unfortunately, I also felt like a lot of this dragged for me. Between the eerie moments, there were a lot of monologues. My issue was primarily that I didn't understand what he was trying to convey here. I also struggled a bit with the writing style and would often have to reread passages to fully understand what was going on and who was speaking. My caveat being that I'm not sure how much of this was due to the writing or due to it being an advanced copy. Either way, I do seem to be in the minority as this has a pretty high average rating. So if it seems up your alley, it's probably worth checking out.

disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for review consideration.