Incidents Around the House

This terrifying tale of a family’s haunting is told to readers by an eight-year-old girl. Bela lives with her Mommy and Daddo, who both love her but don’t seem to love each other. At night, Bela is visited by an entity known as Other Mommy. She starts off as a friend, but Other Mommy begins to scare Bela, especially when she asks little Bela if she can go inside her heart. Other Mommy soon starts tormenting the entire family. As their family begins to fracture under the pressure, Bela considers saying yes to Other Mommy. When building this haunted house, Malerman (Spin a Black Yarn) hooks listeners, then tightens the emotional screws with his sympathetic yet flawed characters. Delanie Nicole Gill’s stellar narration makes Bela seem young and full of roiling emotions, especially fear. Gill spends most of the novel portraying young (and mostly terrified) narrator Bela but switches seamlessly into voicing adult characters.