Rating:

Can I Go Inside Your Heart?

Author: Josh Malerman

Eight-year-old Bella’s imaginary friend just won’t stop asking her a question: “Can I go inside your heart?” Other Mommy started out in Bella’s closet, then she floated around the room, then she sat on the bed. Now, she is everywhere. In the bedroom. In the bathroom. On the playground. And her question just won’t stop. She needs an answer. The answer has to be yes . . . or else.

It started with only Bella seeing Other Mommy. A charming childhood friend. Then Mommy saw the entity. And Daddo. And Grandma Ruth. And guests at a party. Other Mommy wants a heart. She wants Bella’s. The answer better stop being no, or else.

Incidents Around the House is a terrifying, page-turning book. This is not your usual ghost story – or demon possession. Other Mommy is not bound by a place. She is tied to a person, and she is everywhere, and yet, getting closer too.

What makes the story especially spooky is the narration by Bella herself. Normally I don’t care for the simplistic nature of child narrators, the obvious adult-pretending-to-be-a-child motif. Here, however, it works. Bella is old enough to know some things, and like most kids, she soaks things in like a sponge. Things she doesn’t understand, but that we do. Like her parent’s acerbic conversations. Like Mommy’s guilt. Like affairs and broken families. But Bella is still young enough to be in a world of magic and improbabilities. Other Mommy is just one of those. Other Mommy with her floating facial features doesn’t scare Bella . . . but she sure scares us. Oh, and when Bella mentions Other Mommy’s explanations of “carnation” (reincarnation), we start to get really, really scared.

The story involves a lot of hopeless running, a lot of incidents. These manifestations pull at our characters’ minds, and we watch the parents unravel, the problems with their relationship widening as they band together to tackle something otherworldly. They do a lot of dumb stuff, but it makes sense in the context of the narrative, even if their midnight talks to what they presume is a sleeping Bella are staged for the audience’s knowledge (no adult tells even an unconscious child about their guilt over an ongoing affair and the worries of motherhood).

The horror tropes are steadily encountered and dismissed here. Our non-religious characters are willing to get hope from any corner. Maybe there is such a thing as God . . . and as devils. But the church won’t believe them, won’t perform an exorcism. One after another, they go to people claiming to have the answers, and it goes from bad to worse as Other Mommy escalates. Finally, they get a well-meaning woman and a truly eerie beach scene where Other Mommy appears in the distance, a weird dog-like form walking endlessly but getting no closer. It’s just downright scary. Other Mommy is as large as the ocean or as small as the space behind a car seat. Color me terrified.

The ending is expected but glorious and gory and tragic and all things good horror. You won’t sleep. You won’t want to eat, and you’ll certainly have visions of a haunting entity in your head. Keep the lights on, the coffee perking, and some crucifixes and Holy Water on hand, because you’re going to need them. Highly recommended.

– Frances Carden

Follow my reviews on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/xombie_mistress

Follow my reviews on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/FrancesReviews

Frances Carden
Latest posts by Frances Carden (see all)