Two Lists
Today you get two spoiler-free lists: the Josh Malerman books in order, and books like Incidents Around the House, with the right one to start with.
Spoiler free here means I won’t reveal any twist, death or ending in any book I mention. I’ll tell you what each one is about, the year it came out, and the kind of reader it suits. Everything here is as of October twenty twenty-six.
Do You Need An Order?
Good news first. You don’t need a strict reading order for Josh Malerman. The only true series is Bird Box and its sequel, Malorie, and you should read those two in order. Everything else is a standalone, so you can jump in anywhere.
He’s written novels, novellas and story collections for years, and many came from small presses first. If you want my short advice, start with whichever premise appeals to you most, and I’ll help you choose in the next few minutes. Think of this list as a menu, not a homework assignment. If you read only one thing before Incidents, make it Bird Box, because it shows the same talent for building fear out of simple rules.
The Order By Year
Here is the quick list in publication order, so you can screenshot it. Twenty fourteen, Bird Box. Twenty sixteen, A House at the Bottom of a Lake. Twenty seventeen, Black Mad Wheel and Goblin. Twenty eighteen, Unbury Carol. Twenty nineteen, Inspection. Twenty twenty, Malorie.
Then twenty twenty-one, Pearl. Twenty twenty-two, Daphne. Twenty twenty-three, Spin a Black Yarn. Twenty twenty-four, Incidents Around the House. And twenty twenty-six, Pictures of You. Dates come from publisher and library listings, and small press editions sometimes appeared earlier or later.
Bird Box
First, Bird Box, from twenty fourteen. It’s the book that made him famous. Something has appeared in the world, and anyone who sees it is driven to violence, so survivors live blindfolded. The story follows a woman named Malorie, who must lead two small children down a river with their eyes covered.
It was adapted into a Netflix film in December twenty eighteen. The book is faster and stranger than the movie, and the dread is built entirely out of sound. If you liked how Incidents works on your nerves, start here.
Malorie
The sequel is Malorie, from twenty twenty. It returns to the same character, years later, after she has found some safety with her children. News that someone she believed dead might still be alive pulls her back into a world she has tried to leave behind.
It is more of a thriller than Bird Box, with longer set pieces. Read it only after Bird Box, because it spoils the first book’s ending. And Netflix has reportedly been developing a film based on it, though I haven’t seen a release date.
The Standalone Novels
Now the standalones, roughly in order. Black Mad Wheel came out in twenty seventeen. Unbury Carol followed in twenty eighteen. It’s a horror western about a woman named Carol Evers, who falls into comas that look like death, and her husband plans to bury her alive while an old love rides to save her.
Inspection, from twenty nineteen, is a near-future story about young people raised separately in isolated schools deep in the woods. Pearl came out in twenty twenty-one, and Daphne in twenty twenty-two. I haven’t covered those two here, but they show how far his ideas range.
The Closest In Spirit
For the closest match to Incidents Around the House, I’d pick A House at the Bottom of a Lake, from twenty sixteen. It’s a short novella about two seventeen-year-olds, James and Amelia, on a canoe date, who discover a house under the water of a lake.
It’s quiet, eerie and sweet, and it shares the idea of a house as a place that holds feelings. It reads in one sitting. If you wanted more of the claustrophobic mood of Incidents with less family drama, this is where I’d go.
Short Fiction And New Books
If you like short fiction, try Goblin, from twenty seventeen, a linked set of six novellas. Notice that Goblin is also the name of the city the family visits in Incidents. It looks like a nod for his readers. Then there’s Spin a Black Yarn, from twenty twenty-three, a collection of novellas.
His newest novel, Pictures of You, came out from Del Rey in September twenty twenty-six. It’s a psychological thriller about a woman waking up in a room she doesn’t recognize, and I haven’t read it yet, so I’ll leave my verdict for another day.
What Ties Them Together
What do these books share? Malerman likes a simple, frightening idea and then lets ordinary people react to it. A color, a house in a lake, a woman who can’t wake, a closet. He cares more about how people behave under pressure than about explaining the monster.
He also writes songs for a Detroit band, the High Strung, and his prose has a rhythm you can hear. If that sounds good, almost any book on this list will work. If you want your horror explained, you may prefer the books by other authors coming up.
Books Like It: The Name
Now, books like Incidents Around the House from other authors. The first is the obvious one. In Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, from two thousand and two, a girl discovers a door in her house to a world with an Other Mother, who wants her to stay forever. The names match, and so does the offer.
Coraline is written for younger readers, and it’s gentler and more wondrous, but if the Other Mommy idea hooked you, you owe it a read. It makes a great pairing, because the two books are almost mirror images.
The Other Mother in Coraline has button eyes, and she builds a world that looks like a better version of home. Other Mommy in Malerman’s book wears the same idea more quietly: a copy of a parent who promises what the real one can’t give. Read them a week apart and the contrast is fascinating.
Books Like It: The Classics
Next, two classics. The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson, from nineteen fifty-nine, is the standard for houses that seem alive. It’s about a small group who stay in a haunted mansion, and its dread comes from atmosphere, never gore.
And The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James, from eighteen ninety-eight, is a short ghost story where children seem to know things the adult doesn’t. If you enjoyed the gap between what Bela understands and what we do, this is where that idea started.
Books Like It: Modern Picks
Two modern picks. A Head Full of Ghosts, by Paul Tremblay, from twenty fifteen, is told by a woman remembering the year her teenage sister seemed possessed and her family fell apart. It has a similar blend of horror, family pressure and an unreliable viewpoint.
House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski, from two thousand, is a very different animal. It is a puzzle book, with a house that is larger on the inside than the outside, and unusual text layouts. It’s challenging, but if you liked Malerman’s layout experiments, it takes that idea to the extreme.
One More Classic
If you want the scariest end of the scale, The Exorcist, by William Peter Blatty, from nineteen seventy-one, is the famous novel about a girl and a possession. It’s harsher and more explicit than Incidents, but the question underneath is the same: what do parents do when something is wrong with their child that nobody can explain?
Be careful with content. Most of these have disturbing scenes, and The Exorcist is graphic. Incidents is milder than it, but if you’re sensitive, I’d skip it.
Content Notes For These Picks
A quick word on content, as my own assessment. Coraline is for younger readers, though it can scare them. Bird Box and Malorie include violence and the death of characters, and Unbury Carol has the premise of being buried alive. Hill House and The Turn of the Screw are mild by today’s standards.
A Head Full of Ghosts and The Exorcist go further, with a possessed teenager, religious horror and disturbing scenes. House of Leaves is the hardest to read, more for its form than for gore. Choose according to what you can take, and remember that you can always put a book down.
Which To Read Next
So which to read next? If you want more Malerman, go to Bird Box, then Malorie. If you want the nearest mood, A House at the Bottom of a Lake. If you want the Other Mommy echo, Coraline. If you want a classic haunted house, Hill House.
Your Turn
Tell me in the comments which one you’re picking, and what book you’d add to this list. If this helped, subscribe, and thanks for watching. I’ll see you in the next video.
