Review--There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins

Scream meets YA in this hotly-anticipated new novel from the bestselling author of Anna and the French Kiss.

It's been almost a year since Makani Young came to live with her grandmother in landlocked Nebraska, and she's still adjusting to her new life. And still haunted by her past in Hawaii.

One-by-one, the students of her small town high school begin to die in a series of gruesome murders, each with increasing and grotesque flair. As the terror grows closer and the hunt intensifies for the killer, Makani will be forced to confront her own dark secrets.
 
Stephanie Perkins, bestselling author of Anna and the French Kiss, returns with a fresh take on the classic teen slasher story that’s fun, quick-witted, and completely impossible to put down.

There’s Someone Inside Your House is Stephanie Perkins’ first thriller novel and I have to say it wasn’t all that bad! Early reviews had scared me a bit because people weren’t enjoying it and I knew Stephanie was known for her previous contemporary series, so I admit I was a little concerned about enjoyment and thrilling levels and really it was a pretty solid read!

Makani has moved to Nebraska after an “incident” in Hawaii and lives with her grandmother. Her grandmother’s health is on a slow decline with sleeping walking issues, so they basically take care of each other. Makani is starting her senior year at high school and things are rather sedate in their quiet little town of Osborne. But then a girl is murdered and pretty much everything begins to fall apart thereafter as it becomes clear that their quiet little town has been invaded by a serial killer.

I started this book on the wrong foot, because apparently Goodreads didn’t use the full description that included Makani! It really just leaves out the first paragraph from the dust jacket that basically clues you in on your main character and who you’ll follow around! So when the book opens with a girl being murdered I was baffled! Clearly reading the sampler to begin the story wasn’t the best idea because it didn’t have the description of the story and it was sort of discombobulating to think that our main character was killed within pages! I started wondering if this is how the book would be told. This is clearly an error on my part and Goodreads for that matter too!

This story also includes romance as well, which I was well prepared for too. Makani had a summer fling with Ollie, one of the police officer’s younger brothers. Ollie has his own dark past and secrets as well. It makes him and Makani a fitting pair in a sense. The romance was kind of sweet too. It may take over the story a little and just as you’re wondering if this will turn into a full on romance novel, someone else gets killed too.

I found it really interesting that we get these chapters from the victim’s point of view. The novel is in third person point of view, but we follow Makani for the most part until the moments when we happen upon a new person and these end up being the killer’s victims. It was a little intense reading those chapters because it lets you see how freaking sick the killer is.

I was also aware that our killer’s identity is revealed fairly early on, but I will say that doesn’t take away the scary factor too much. Despite knowing the name of the killer, the killer (yup vague terms that get repetitive all to protect the identity…of the killer) is still on the loose and still killing.

I have to say that despite the claims that this wasn’t as thrilling as some readers had expected I will say that it was far more gruesome than I anticipated as well! The killings were brutal and sick. But that just shows that Stephanie can write a pretty great villain! The kind of villain that’s real and a type I hope to never ever cross paths with for that matter as well!

There’s Someone Inside Your House was a rather quick little read. It has it ups and downs, but for the most part I was kept on the edge of my seat wanting to know just who will survive this reign of terror the killer is inflicting! Not all will survive and the end pretty left me with my jaw dropped in a few aspects! There’s a darkness to this book as well in terms of past events, but it makes for good reading and well developed-characters! This is definitely the kind of book you want to read on a dark, lonely night when you’re home alone! (Or if you’re like me, midday during broad daylight!)

 
Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars