Incidents Around the House

Josh Malerman is slow to reveal Other Mommy’s strange physical characteristics. How does Bela describe her? How does this slow reveal of her nonhuman characteristics add to the novel’s tension?

Malerman makes the unusual choice to use the present tense throughout the novel. How does this tense add to the novel’s tension and uncertainty? How does it reveal Bela’s gradually dawning awareness of danger?

When initially meeting Other Mommy, Bela accepts her as real. Why does her reaction differ from those of the adults around her? Choose one of the adults and explain why they react to Other Mommy the way they do, based on Malerman’s characterization of them.

Other Mommy is the novel’s antagonist, but her origins and history are left unknown. In what ways is she like other monsters or demons from works of horror that you are familiar with? How does Malerman characterize or describe her in inventive ways that might deviate from horror tropes?

Ursula and Russ are opposites in many ways, and Ursula characterizes him as the bright to her dark. However, Malerman’s characterization reveals them to be complex, multi-dimensional people. In what ways does each parent contribute to Bela’s distress and the general domestic unrest? In what ways do they both serve as positive or loving parents for Bela?

Throughout the novel, Russ and Ursula ask other adults for help with their situation, but ultimately no one can fix the problem. Why does each person they ask refuse to help or fail to do so? What do these experiences suggest to Bela about Coming to Terms with the Fallibility of Adults?

Daddo tells Bela that “a time comes when you realize the whole world and all of life is your house” (340). Throughout the novel, Malerman plays with the imagery that a person is a kind of house. How does this imagery change or complicate traditional ideas of haunted houses?

Ultimately, why does Bela say yes to Other Mommy? What factors contribute to her decision? How does Malerman foreshadow this ending throughout the novel?