Bela is a young girl living with her mother and father in a quintessential suburban household. Bela is loved very much by her parents, Russ and Ursula. Ursula is the disciplinarian while Russ is usually the fun parent. However, there is another person in Bela’s life who appears when Bela is alone in her room. Bela refers to this person as “Other Mommy”.
The pair talk and play together, but lately, Other Mommy has asked Bela an unnerving question. Bela rebuffs Other Mommy’s request but each refusal only irritates her new friend. Soon, Other Mommy begins to materialize to others and her presence only hints at menace. Bela is frightened of Other Mommy’s potential wrath and her parents realize that their daughter’s imaginary friend is a poltergeist. They will need to liberate themselves of Other Mommy’s presence or risk losing their sanity, if not their lives.
Author Josh Malerman deftly escalates the creeping terror to a nail-biting crescendo in this mind-bending novel. The reader sees the story through the eyes of the precocious Bela and is privy to a malevolent phantasm stalking her and her family. This is a story possessing emotional depth while maintaining its psychological thriller edge.
