Incidents Around the House

“I don’t like to see her like this. Because I can see the backs of her arms and there is dark hair on the backs of her arms.”

Other Mommy’s appearance is revealed gradually through Bela’s first-person perspective. This description shows her to be inhuman and raises the question of why Bela perceives her as another “Mommy.” It also reveals that Bela is somewhat unsettled by Other Mommy’s presence.

“I love you, Urs, Daddo says. I know you do, Russ.”

Though Ursula is quick to chastise Bela for not saying “I love you” back to her, she does not respond in kind when her husband expresses affection. Though Bela does not comment on this exchange, readers quickly understand that something is amiss in Ursula and Russ’s marriage. This tension also contributes to Bela’s sense of unease.

“The closet doors slowly close and I don’t call out for Mommy or Daddo. Let them laugh, I say. Please, let them laugh, all the time, like this. Forever.”

Here Bela puts her parents’ happiness before her need for comfort. This moment highlights the dysfunctional dynamic in Bela’s household. Even though she is a small child, she has already learned to prioritize her parents’ needs over her own. The repetition of “let them laugh” emphasizes Bela’s deep emotional need for her parents to be happy.

“Just watch the geese and the ducks, if you like, Bela. They’re more interesting than they let on. Sometimes I think I see a goose catch a duck…out of the corner of my eye.”

The wallpaper in the doctor’s office seems to be a cheerful nursery pattern of waterfowl, but Bela perceives it as violent. Dr. Smith apparently is attuned to this violence as well. This moment comments on the genre of domestic horror, in which the seemingly safe and idyllic becomes a source of terror.

“I like the sound of them laughing. If there was a sound that was the opposite of Other Mommy’s voice, it would be laughter.”

Bela associates the sound of laughter and joy with the “opposite” of Other Mommy. Though she still conceives of the entity as her friend, this quote indicates that Other Mommy is not friendly.

“Weren’t we friends before? I think we used to laugh together. But now I don’t know if I’m remembering that right. Maybe it was just me who used to laugh. And Other Mommy just watched.”

Throughout the novel, Bela reassesses her relationship to Other Mommy. She initially believed that the entity was her friend, but she now worries that Other Mommy was never really her friend and was using her the whole time. Laughter is used throughout the novel as a symbol of childhood innocence. Rather than participating in Bela’s innocence, Other Mommy watched it in a predatory fashion, weaponizing it against her.

“A blue eye. Buried in the green leaves. I think of something crouched beside the alligator. I think of the doors of the butterfly house opening like closet doors.”

Bela thinks of the zoo as her family’s safe and special place, where her parents have important conversations. Seeing the “blue eye” of Other Mommy there transforms the butterfly house into her closet, a place that feels unsettling and dangerous. Like the alligator and other predators at the zoo, Other Mommy is “crouched” and prepared to pounce.

“But I would tell them what I’m telling you now: parenthood should not be a prison sentence. And if you want to be with one of your husband’s friends? You should do it.”

Pretending to be Ursula, Other Mommy uses a metaphor to compare parenthood to a “prison sentence” from which she finds freedom through having affairs and going out drinking. While the real Ursula wouldn’t say these things, Bela perceives them as a true reflection of her mother’s unspoken feelings, and this adds to her belief that she is a burden to her parents.

“Did that make you feel mad? Yeah. And what else makes you feel mad? When people are unhappy. I wasn’t expecting that answer. That’s a good one. So okay, what else?”

Daddo tries to coach Bela through her fear by having her name her emotions. However, when she talks about what makes her feel mad, she reveals that her feelings revolve around other people. Instead of choosing something that centers herself, she makes choices that center other people’s emotions—something her father approves of.

“To Grandmother’s house we go, Daddo says. And then he starts driving again and then stops right away because another deer crosses the street. We’re not laughing anymore.”

Daddo quotes a folk song, evoking the fairy tale idea of taking a journey to “Grandmother’s house.” However, the family’s lightheartedness evaporates when another deer eerily crosses the street, reminding them that they have entered a version of reality where fairy tales and their monsters seem real. The repeating deer evoke the animalistic qualities of the monster, their strange behavior suggesting that nature has become unnatural.

“But Mommy is sleeping already. And I’m thinking: Why would it be any better in the day? The park was during the day. And why is the light any more true than the dark?”

Bela’s fears of Other Mommy have spread from her bedroom to the world at large. While Other Mommy at first appeared only at night, suggesting that she might be as unreal as a dream, she now appears in broad daylight. Bela associates daylight with “truth”—with the objectively real world, but the monster’s presence in this daylight world leads her to question whether anything is real and whether she is ever safe. She also starts to question how truthful her parents are, versus the dark represented by Other Mommy.

“Do you think it wants to hurt her? Daddo asks. I mean…how can I have any idea what it wants? Mommy says. What does a tiger want? What does a snake want?”

Ursula compares Other Mommy to the predators they saw at the zoo: “What does a tiger want?” In doing so, she emphasizes that the entity isn’t human. Understanding its motives might be as difficult as understanding how a tiger or snake perceives the world. By using predators as an example, she also indicates that the entity is both dangerous and amoral.

“I said do not interrupt me, and I am not done. There’s a little girl pretending to sleep on the living-room floor. You think you’re scared, Ursula? Imagine all you’re feeling and tag on an unhealthy dose of realizing your parents can’t protect you like you thought they could.”

While Ursula and Russ frequently try to avoid the truth or soften it for Bela, Grandma Ruth is insistent that they need to be honest with her. She is the only adult in the novel who consistently looks out for Bela’s wellbeing. Josh Malerman characterizes her as someone who prioritizes truthfulness and honesty.

“Daddo called Mommy again but she’s not answering. I’m trying to be okay about that. I keep telling myself Mommy is scared too. She saw Other Mommy. But no matter how hard I try, I keep getting mad instead.”

Bela struggles to accept her negative emotions, including anger. Her mother has temporarily abandoned her family in a crucial moment, but Bela still feels guilty for being “mad” and tries to excuse the behavior because “Mommy is scared too.” This passage reveals that Bela is used to putting other people’s feelings before her own.

“She’s never said something like, if you don’t let her in, she’s going to hurt someone? I think of Other Mommy sliding on her belly across my bedroom floor. I think of her eyes on the side of her face under my bed. I think of her floating out of the closet.”

When Lois asks Bela if Other Mommy is dangerous, she focuses on the ways Other Mommy appears inhuman. She slides across the floor, floats out of the closet, and has eyes “on the side of her face.” Though Bela wants to believe that Other Mommy is her friend, she must acknowledge that she appears capable of violence.

“I look a goose in the eye on the side of the road as we pass.”

When Bela and her family are fleeing in the car, Bela sees a goose on the side of the road and makes eye contact with it. This animal is a callback to the predatory geese from the wallpaper in her doctor’s office. It also raises questions as to whether she sees a real goose or Other Mommy appearing as goose to frighten her and remind her that she is in danger.

“And think of Pester outside your bedroom door and how badly she wanted to get in. And the longer you left her out there, the more sad she would get. Until one day the sound of her meowing could drive you crazy. Until one day she could get mean.”

While Other Mommy tries to be reassuring by telling Bela to think of her as one of her pets, she reminds her that Pester the cat used to cry outside the room until she was let in. Other Mommy uses the cat as an analogy for herself, telling Bela that the cat “could get mean,” warning her that Other Mommy could also be mean. She is only willing to appear nice and patient to get what she wants, but if that doesn’t work, she will shift to more violent or intimidating tactics.

“I still see her as Other Mommy. The woman whose eyes were a little less dark than the rest of the inside of the closet, the first time she ever spoke to me.”

Even in Bela’s happy memories of Other Mommy, the entity is associated with darkness and danger. She first appears in the closet, but Bela thinks her “eyes were a little less dark” than the rest of the closet. This imagery symbolizes the darkness already present in Bela’s home, which caused her to be attached to Other Mommy as a potential confidante and friend.

“But I have closets, she says. I do. I love your daddo more than you’ll ever know, but sometimes I wonder if you’re supposed to marry someone with a similar floor plan.”

Throughout the novel, houses represent people’s lives, especially their inner lives. Ursula thinks of Russ as a house with no secrets, whereas she has “closets” and hidden darknesses. She thinks that the two of them might be happier if they had a “similar floor plan.”

“And one time she told me that when I say yes, it’ll be as easy for her as slipping into a dress.”

Other Mommy tells Bela that reincarnating herself in Bela’s body will be “as easy […] as slipping into a dress.” The simile emphasizes that Bela is not a person but a thing to the entity, and the real goal is taking over her body. Lois is disturbed by this idea, but in her naivety, Bela thinks the idea “sounded pretty.”

“Lois puts her glasses back on. Her face is red. She’s shaking. They’re all so scared and embarrassed and full of lies.”

After she finds out that Russ is not her biological father, Bela begins to think that the adults around her are untrustworthy. She is suddenly attuned to the ways that they conceal the truth and sees them as vulnerable humans, rather than all-knowing or wise grown-ups. She also realizes that they are frightened and use their lies to cover up this fear, a realization that highlights her own loss of innocence.

“It’s like I can hear it, Daddo says. The echo of it shattering. Something made of glass. And now I feel like I knew all along it was too close to the edge of the table.”

After they tell the truth about her parentage, Russ admits to Bela that he feels guilty and thinks something has been permanently ruined. If her innocence was “made of glass,” he is partly responsible because he knew “all along it was too close to the edge of the table.” Though Ursula is the more overtly neglectful parent, his overly permissive and optimistic attitude has also contributed to their family’s issues.

“I want you to think of your heart like a house. This house, if it’s easier. There’s only so many rooms, right? But at the same time, there’s a lot of room.”

In the guise of Grandma Ruth, Other Mommy uses another analogy, comparing Bela’s heart to a home she wants to enter. She coaxes her into the exchange by pointing out that the house only has room for one person in it and that Bela’s heart is already full of sadness and darkness from her parents’ marital issues. Bela comes to believe that saying yes is the only choice she has.