Good night, Daddo!
Good Night , Mommy!
Mommy and Daddo leave my room.
I pull the covers up to my chin.
Other Mommy comes out of the closet.
Hi, I say.
I'm so excited to see you again
So begins the newest novel by Josh Malerman.
If that opening doesn’t grab you, there must be something wrong with you. It starts with a bang and never stops. This might well be the scariest thing he’s written since Bird Box.
Bela is an 8 year old girl living with Mommy, Daddo and Other Mommy. Other Mommy used to live in the closet, or sometimes in the bathroom, but now she’s getting impatient. She wants Bela to let her into her heart, and Bela says no every time and that makes Other Mommy angry. If Bela won’t be nice to her, why should she play nice with Bela? The angrier Other Mommy gets, the bolder and nastier she is.
The story is all told from Bela’s point of view. Her parent’s fragmenting marriage is almost as upsetting to her as Other Mommy and her threats. Bela is watching her parents' marriage disintegrate. Josh manages to describe what's happening in such a way that we know exactly what's going on even if Bela doesn't. The innocence in the narrative voice makes the terror going on around her even more erm... terrifying.
The plot with the parents crumbling relationship grounds the story in a heartbreaking reality. Meanwhile Other Mommy is easily the scariest creation in horror fiction in a good few years. I can't remember being as freaked out by a book as this one.
It's an almost perfect horror novel, managing to create a genuinely creepy atmosphere without ever slacking on the pace. This isn't a slow burn to build atmosphere (not that a slow burn is a bad thing- it really isn't), it's straight in there with the scares and never lets up. There are even a couple of jump scares in here.
Basically, go out and grab a copy if you can. you won't regret it.
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