Some horror novels make you afraid of an unfamiliar place. Incidents Around the House makes you afraid of the people, rooms, and routines that should make a child feel safe.
Josh Malerman’s novel follows eight-year-old Bela, whose family life is threatened by a presence she calls Other Mommy. The entity’s repeated request to enter her heart turns a seemingly simple question into an escalating nightmare. Malerman’s publisher describes the premise as a haunting that puts Bela’s entire family at risk.
If you are looking for books like Incidents Around the House, the closest matches share more than a haunted building. They explore vulnerable children, fractured families, possession, or the frightening possibility that something dangerous has already become part of everyday life.
These ten recommendations are chosen for those connections. Some deliver direct supernatural terror; others lean into uncertainty or Gothic atmosphere. The descriptions below avoid major ending spoilers.
1. A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
Best for: A child’s perspective on a family falling apart.
The Barrett family’s troubles intensify when teenage Marjorie begins displaying disturbing behavior. Her parents disagree about what is happening, and a reality television production turns the family’s crisis into public entertainment. Years later, her younger sister Merry revisits those events. The publisher’s synopsis establishes the collision between a possible possession, family distress, and television spectacle.
This is the strongest starting point if Bela’s limited understanding was what unsettled you most. Both novels make a young girl’s place within her family central to the horror. Adults offer explanations and make decisions, but their authority does not necessarily make the child safer.
Tremblay gives uncertainty more room than Malerman does. Read this for conflicting accounts, an uneasy sibling relationship, and questions that remain uncomfortable after the final page.
2. Come Closer by Sara Gran
Best for: An invasive presence that gradually takes control.
In Come Closer, Amanda’s ordinary life begins changing through unsettling experiences and behavior she cannot comfortably explain. What initially seems manageable becomes increasingly difficult to contain. Sara Gran’s short possession novel brings the threat inside the narrator’s own experience.
Other Mommy is frightening partly because she wants access. Gran explores a related fear from an adult’s perspective: what happens when the boundary between yourself and an unwelcome presence begins to disappear?
The appeal here is intimacy rather than a large cast or elaborate mythology. This is a compact, disturbing choice for readers who want the feeling of something getting closer with every chapter. It is less about protecting a child and more about losing ownership of yourself.
3. The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
Best for: A parent confronting a supernatural threat to her child.
Before its famous screen adaptation, The Exorcist was a novel about actress Chris MacNeil, her daughter Regan, and a terrifying crisis that resists ordinary explanation. The book’s description centers on a malevolent presence invading Regan’s mind and body.
The connection to Incidents Around the House is the vulnerability of the family. A parent can seek help, insist on answers, and try every available explanation while still struggling to protect a child.
Blatty gives religious belief, doubt, and the adults’ search for understanding substantial attention. That makes it a different reading experience from Bela’s immediate perspective. Choose it if Other Mommy left you wanting a more explicitly religious possession story with a deeply personal struggle at its center.
4. The Devil Crept In by Ania Ahlborn
Best for: Childhood fear and danger close to home.
When Jude disappears from Deer Valley, Oregon, his cousin Stevie becomes determined to find him. The search leads toward disturbing secrets in a town where danger has already left its mark. Ahlborn’s publisher introduces the novelthrough Jude’s disappearance and Stevie’s desperate concern for him.
This recommendation is especially suited to readers who connected with Bela’s vulnerability. Stevie’s attachment to another child gives the threat an emotional urgency: the mystery matters because someone he loves may be in danger.
The setting extends beyond a single household, making this a broader story than Malerman’s domestic nightmare. Still, the overlap is strong in its attention to childhood insecurity and the difficulty of understanding a frightening world. Expect a dark choice rather than a comforting adventure about children investigating something strange.
5. Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak
Best for: Disturbing clues involving a young child.
Mallory Quinn takes a job caring for five-year-old Teddy. His drawings begin changing, producing images that seem far beyond his abilities and may point toward something sinister. The publisher’s account of Hidden Pictures sets up Mallory’s attempt to understand those images and protect him.
Like Incidents Around the House, this novel uses the gap between childhood experience and adult interpretation to generate suspense. Something associated with ordinary childhood becomes alarming, and the person paying attention has to work out what it means.
The important difference is structure. Rekulak places more emphasis on clues, investigation, and revelations. Pick this if you want supernatural unease paired with the momentum of a mystery, rather than another novel built primarily around relentless dread.
6. How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
Best for: Family conflict and frightening childhood objects.
After her parents die, Louise returns home and must deal with both their possessions and her difficult relationship with her brother, Mark. Selling the house turns out to involve far more than sorting through old belongings. Hendrix’s publisher describes the setup as a homecoming complicated by grief, family friction, and a house that resists being sold.
This is a good match for readers interested in how horror can emerge from family history. Objects associated with childhood comfort become unsettling, while the siblings’ disagreements make confronting the threat harder.
Hendrix also brings more humor and theatrical energy to the story than Malerman. The combination of grief, sharp sibling exchanges, and supernatural menace gives it its own identity. Choose it when you want another dangerous family home with a more varied emotional register.
7. The September House by Carissa Orlando
Best for: A household that treats haunting as routine.
Margaret refuses to abandon her dream house, even though its supernatural disturbances become especially intense every September. When her husband Hal disappears and their daughter Katherine arrives looking for him, Margaret’s carefully managed existence becomes harder to sustain. Orlando’s publisher outlines the family crisis against the house’s recurring hauntings.
One of the most unsettling parts of Incidents Around the House is the way an impossible presence becomes familiar to a child. The September House approaches a related idea through an adult who has learned to accommodate the intolerable.
The comparison is strongest in how both books make the household’s response to danger matter. Orlando adds dark humor and an adult narrator’s perspective, so this is a useful choice if you want domestic horror that examines what people learn to accept.
8. The Shining by Stephen King
Best for: A child sensing danger while his family becomes isolated.
Jack Torrance brings his wife Wendy and their son Danny to the Overlook Hotel for a winter caretaking job. Danny’s psychic abilities make him unusually sensitive to the building’s horrors. Stephen King’s official novel page establishes both the isolated setting and Danny’s frightening gift.
Bela and Danny are compelling points of comparison because each child experiences danger that the adults struggle to handle. Their families’ existing problems also matter: the supernatural threat enters relationships already under pressure.
King’s novel is longer and gives more space to the parents, the hotel, and Jack’s internal struggles. Read it if you want an expansive family horror story in which a child’s awareness makes him vulnerable rather than simply giving him an advantage. Even readers familiar with the film should approach the book as its own work.
9. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Best for: Children, ghostly appearances, and uncertain interpretation.
A young governess arrives at a country estate to care for Miles and Flora. She begins seeing figures she believes threaten the children, but understanding what is happening becomes increasingly difficult. The publisher’s introduction to Henry James’s novella places the governess and her two charges at the center of the story.
The appeal for Malerman readers lies in the anxiety of protection. What do the children understand? What should an adult believe? Can the attempt to keep someone safe become frightening in itself?
The style is an important consideration. James’s sentences and narrative distance demand more patience than Malerman’s immediate child narration. This is the choice for readers who want an older Gothic work that rewards close attention and leaves room for competing interpretations.
10. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Best for: Psychological vulnerability and a deeply hostile house.
Eleanor Vance joins a small group investigating Hill House, where the building’s unsettling atmosphere becomes entwined with her longing for connection. Shirley Jackson’s classic novel is a strong choice for readers drawn to the psychological side of a haunting.
This is a less direct match for Bela’s story because its central characters are adults. The connection is the frightening relationship between emotional need and supernatural danger. Wanting acceptance or belonging can make an encounter with the unknown especially disturbing.
Choose Jackson if atmosphere and the pressure of a hostile environment matter more to you than a clearly explained monster. Its quieter approach provides a different kind of unease from Other Mommy’s increasingly urgent demands.
Which Book Should You Read First?
For the closest combination of childhood perspective and family distress, start with A Head Full of Ghosts.
If Other Mommy’s attempts to gain access were the most frightening part, choose Come Closer. For a child-centered supernatural mystery, try Hidden Pictures. Readers who want another haunted household with dark humor should pick The September House or How to Sell a Haunted House.
The best next read depends on what stayed with you: the entity itself, Bela’s vulnerability, or the realization that a family can struggle to protect someone even when everyone knows something is wrong.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the closest book to Incidents Around the House?
A Head Full of Ghosts is the strongest overall recommendation here because it combines a young girl’s perspective, family distress, and a possible supernatural threat. Its storytelling is more ambiguous than Malerman’s.
What should I read if Other Mommy frightened me most?
Try Come Closer for an invasive presence and the erosion of personal control, or The Exorcist for a possession story involving a child and her mother’s search for help.
Are these recommendations suitable for children?
This is a list for adult horror readers. Children appear in several of the stories, but that does not make the books children’s fiction.
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