Welcome to Litsy!

Happy Halloween Eve! 🧡🎃🧡

I'm starting this today, and I'm really really excited about it! I love all of Josh Malerman's other books, so I have high hopes for this one! Apparently, two of my co-workers couldn't finish this because they thought it was too scary! 😱

All you need to know about this book is that every single one of these reviews is a lie. Theres so much wrong with this book. I almost bailed a few times but i stuck with it and i really shouldn‘t have. What i think it‘s about is family dysfunction turns into a “haunting”. But im not sure because it was all over the place but repetitive at the same time. Also I have no clue what the ending even meant, which irks me.

This is a creepy story, but with all good horror, it takes real life and turns it into the monster we all fear. In this book, Malerman turns family dysfunction into a terrifying story. So often in life, we have a way of projecting who we want to be seen as into the world, but behind closed doors, our secrets turn us into something else. And that "other" side of ourselves can cause hurt, distrust, and trauma.

Weekend camping and a spooky book!

This was super spooky overall, but there are a couple of things that detracted from my experience. The main one is that Bela's maturity level shifts too much. One moment, she seems like a kindergartener, wanting to cuddle with her parents and unfamiliar with grown-up words, and the next, she's grasping philosophically mature concepts her schoolteacher told her class. And the ending is lackluster. But I still got chills, so there's that.

3.5⭐ I genuinely liked the overall story concept. As such I wanted to love this book and give it a full five stars. The premise was eeriely creepy good; however, the characters were almost all truly awful and hard to like (except for the grandma, who was fierce and wholely likeable). The mother was written to be terrible, but my dislike for her went deeper than the intended degree. Actually, most of the characters were horrible people. #audiobook

Here‘s my recommendation for perfect October spooky season reading! This was such a creepy story, made even more so by the narrator of the audiobook 😳. One of my favorite horror book Ives read in a while. #hauntedshelf #skeletoncrew

Creepy and atmospheric. I love the uniqueness of the storytelling from the child‘s point of view. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4.5⭐
-horror of the haunting/possession variety
-Michigan setting
-family secrets
-The fact that the narrator is an eight-year-old girl adds an element of innocence. The repetition of the entity's question, “Can I go inside your heart?” builds tension as the girl grapples with how to protect herself and her family.
-I‘m still processing how I feel about the ending, it seems that some love it, but I‘m leaning the other way, I think🤔

Thanks for the tag @dabbe
These are some of my current faves 🖤
I did add a few more to the form though. I love spooky books 👻
#TLT #ThreeListThursday

“This story is told by a child.”
—JM

I loved this book. It was truly creepy. Eight year old Bela has a secret. There is someone living in her closet that she calls "other mommy." And other mommy keeps asking "Can I go inside your heart?" Bela doesn't really understand what that means, but other mommy is getting more and more persistent ?
#BOTM

This is a very easy book to binge read. There are parts that are creepy/eerie but never scary for me. You're telling me that grown adults are sitting on a child's bed trauma dumping on them and trying to get philosophical about their life. Weird. There were so many bad decisions made in this book. Like, I know this didn't work the last 3 times, but let's try it again.. what is it with the endings lately!?! Absolutely hated it. I need more! 2/5

An old-fashioned, scary story telling style as seen through the eyes of an eight year old girl named Bela. Unfortunately, Bela and her family are haunted by a malevolent entity referred to as 'Other Mommy' and what 'Other Mommy' wants, 'Other Mommy' gets. Don't read this at night because the goosebumps stir up!

Bela is a young girl who begins talking to “Other Mommy” who lives in her closet. Other Mommy begins to terrorize the family, which is extremely frightening. This book is perfect for October reading as it is very creepy.

3.5 rounded up to 4 stars.
A truly chilling story as told from the perspective of an 8 year old girl. Everything was moving along nicely until the ending. An ending where I felt that the author didn‘t really stick the landing. That said, I loved reading this fast paced story at night to up the spooky quotient.

#ReadAway2024

I finished the library ebook on my flight to Hilo Friday & I was glad I was in daylight & surrounded by people. 🫣😱 😆 This was a creepy & at times downright scary horror novel. I‘m pretty tolerant of scary books but even if you are too, I would not recommend reading this one in your room at night or nearby a closet. Overall it was well done & told from the perspective of a little girl which I think made it even more creepy.

I‘m normally not a fan of books written from a child‘s point of view but this worked for me. I‘m a seasoned (older, haha) horror fan and barely any of the newer books scare me, but this had some genuinely scary parts and an overall creepy atmosphere.

I feel like I was watching a horror movie and covered my eyes with my hands but was peaking between my fingers. Definitely a book worthy of the freezer. Had to put it down a few times, it was so scary.

Book 64📚 4.6⭐️

Oooo this is what I‘m talking about!👏🏻

It‘s got the thrill, the spook, the tension and anticipation!! Other Mommy is truly a terrifying monster in your closet…😱
She ain‘t getting in my heart!🫶🏻

This…was…TERRIFYING!!! It‘s been a long time since a book freaked me out but this book left me feeling unsettled and the narrator of the audiobook (I listened to that when I couldn‘t sit with my physical book) did such a good job I had to stop from time to time because I was getting scared 😂. The mom was a horrible character (Other Mommy too, obviously) but everyone else was so real and touching - especially Daddo and Grandma. Love it! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Lots of dread, anxious, sad feelings around this one. Writing from an 8 year olds perceptions of the world while being haunted by an entity was a brilliant idea.

Bella‘s narrator was CREE PEE !!! That narrator made the book so dark. It sounds like a kid!!!! Haunted house? Haunting? Who is Other Mommy? A figment? Is Bella an unreliable narrator? Fun finding out.

It was so creepy I forgot to rate it. 😆

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Overall, I liked this one. It has a feeling of dread throughout. Warning about the audiobook-most of the voice work is in the tone of a small child, so it may be annoying to some listeners, especially if you listen sped up. 4⭐️

The wide range of emotions this book made me feel was crazy. Anger, fear, sadness. This book is living rent free in my head and I loved this horror novel. I definitely look forward to reading other books by this author!

Yikes. Creeptastic. I love that this is from a kid‘s perspective, and the lack of long paragraphs and the many page breaks guarantee that you‘ll fly through it just like I did. Interesting. Tense. If there‘s a sequel, I‘m definitely reading it.

“And we‘re just dumb enough to have listened to her.
“Desperate […]. We‘re desperate. There‘s a big difference.”

This books has properly scared me while reading and I LOVE it!! 😍 Highly recommend this one if you‘re looking for a spooky one! It‘s told through the eyes of a child, so you can only imagine, right?! 🙌
“Incidents Around the House” by Josh Malerman

Ooh, as horror stories go this is a creepy great one! Any time the MC of a horror story is a young girl, my mind takes me back to my 12 yo self with my first grown-up all-night read that I snuck from my dad‘s bookshelf (The Exorcist) - then had to pretend the dang story didn‘t affect me in the least. That was me again reading this story.

“The road, Grandma says, can make a tribe out of anyone.”

“Yes, well, a bit of a headache. But I have a firm rule: no hangover of mine is going to stop me from doing what I planned to do. If hangovers broke my plans, I‘d become a hermit.”

Whew… I read this in one very tense sitting! Despite it being broad daylight, and delightfully warm in the yard where I read the majority of this spooky book, I had genuine goosebumps and even my ankles tingle just thinking about Other Mommy. Told from young Bela‘s perspective, Other Mommy started off nice, but lately she‘s different… and when Mommy and Daddo see her, everything changes. Fast-paced & actually scary, this is my favorite of his yet!

So excited for all 3 of these books!! Finally #botm does not disappoint!!

Haunted library book haul. I also recently borrowed Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay as well.
#LitsyLoveReads

What a rollercoaster of a read! The tension was palpable - it was just the right mix of spooky with real, palpable fear. The crux of the story reminded me of the film ‘The Babadook‘ - taking a familiar emotion/reality of everyday life and juxtaposing it against the innocence & confusion of a small child. In doing this, it arguably ratchets up the tension by using a relatable reality to underscore the scare device. 😰👀🏡👨‍👩‍👧👹 Overall, solid.

We got snow overnight, looks like it‘ll stick around for a lil. Perfect excuse to curl up inside & hopefully finish this ARC. I‘m enjoying it so far - a mixture of spooky & relatable.