There's Someone Inside Your House

by Stephanie Perkins

Now a Netflix Feature Film!

“A heart-pounding page-turner with an outstanding cast of characters, a deliciously creepy setting, and an absolutely merciless body count.” –Courtney Summers, New York Times bestselling author of Sadie and The Project

A New York Times bestseller

It’s been almost a year since Makani Young came to live with her grandmother and she’s still adjusting to her new life in rural Nebraska. Then, one by one, students at her high school begin to die in a series of gruesome murders, each with increasing and grotesque flair.

As the body count rises and the terror grows closer, can Makani survive the killer’s twisted plan?

• ISBN10: 0525426019
• ISBN13: 9780525426011
• Publish Date: 26 September 2017 (first published 15 September 2017)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Dutton Books for Young Readers
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780525426011

Reviews

[Angie]

Proceed with Caution:

This book contains bloody murder, attempted murder, and mentions of parental death and suicide.

The Basics:

This book is narrated in third person, mainly from Makani's perspective, but occasionally from each victim's.

We're constantly reminded that they're in Osborne, Nebraska. We get it. No need to mention it on every other page. But it's set in a tiny town, Osbourne, Nebraska, where the most exciting things to happen are the high school football games. At least until a serial killer comes to town and starts picking off the teenagers.

My Thoughts:

I was really excited for There's Someone Inside Your House despite how long it took me to get to it. I don't read many thrillers, but I adore this author, and it sounded exciting and eerie. Unfortunately, it fell completely flat. The characters were flat. The suspense was flat. The motivation was...I don't really know, but it was flat. The one thing that I did really like was how the killer would rearrange furniture or move things inside the victim's home before murdering them. I'll need to keep an eye out...

Makani has a secret, which is randomly brought up throughout There's Someone Inside Your House. She's convinced that if anyone finds out, they'll hate her. She's even afraid of being a suspect at first! I was really curious to find out what she did, but then it's revealed. The big secret is seriously stupid. She was blamed for something she didn't even do. Well, she did one thing that was totally unacceptable, but not worth the consequences she faced. And certainly no reason for a serial killer to target her. It was just plain silly and ruined the vibe.

There's Someone Inside Your House is also more romance focused than I expected. As a primarily Romance reader, this normally wouldn't bother me, but that's not what I was expecting. It would have been shorter and faster paced if we weren't following the developing relationship between Makani and Ollie, which didn't add to the suspense plot at all.

In the beginning the narrative was definitely trying to make Ollie seem super suspicious, but it was going too hard. Like he should have been wearing a shirt that said "red herring" on it. The killer is revealed about halfway in, and was anti-climactic. I honestly did not care about this person. Their motivation was purely speculation and seemed like a reach. Then it took half the book to catch them after announcing who it was, so it was just a matter of time. I was bored.

There's Someone Inside Your House was a disappointment. None of the characters had any personality. No one stood out, not even the killer. It's already a short novel, but it's chock full of filler that didn't add to the plot, and actually detracted from it a bit. I'd pass on this one if I were you.

[boghunden]

Story definitely grew on me, but the writing was pretty lacking in my honest opinion

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

I thought There's Someone Inside Your House was just okay.

Makani Young moved to Nebraska where she's far away from her mysterious past and her negligent parents. Here, she lives with her grandmother and is just trying to resume a normal life. She's got two friends and a crush and everything seems to be going fine until the serial killer shows up. With teens dying and the whole town afraid, it seems like there's no way to be safe and nowhere to run.

As far as a thriller goes, it had its moments. There were a couple really vivid, well-written, gross murdery scenes that fulfilled its requirements as a horror novel, but this one just felt like a contemporary romance at its core. Despite the serial killer on the side, the real plot seemed to be the Deep Dark Secret that Makani had been hiding from her new friends and boyfriend. And even though it was not good, it was built up so much that by the time she told *that* story, I was completely underwhelmed.

I was here for the slasher story and not for the romance that permeated this book, so for the most part, I just wanted to get on with it. When the killer is revealed about halfway through the book, the rest of the story started to drag for me. A lot of the timings were strange, and there really weren't any surprises here. Overall, it was an okay story, but I think that you need to go into it expecting a contemporary first, and a horror novel second.

[Sam@WLABB]

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Was this my favorite Stephanie Perkins book? No, but it wasn't as bad as everyone had me believing.

Perkins was going for teen slasher, and I think she captured that in the book. It definitely reminded me of those slasher flicks I watched as a teen, where I constantly questioned the characters' decisions, and lamented their bad choices.

I was a fan of Makani and Ollie. Both had some interesting baggage, and I liked them together.

I thought it was an interesting choice to unmask the killer so early, but then I guess that gave us more time to wonder about the motive.

Although I had a little trouble, because this book was so different from what I had grown to expect from Perkins, I was still interested and entertained. I found a need to keep listening a little more, and I wanted to know more.

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

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[nitzan_schwarz]

Okay, I'm a bit unsure how to rate this one.

It kind of sits around a 3 star, but I feel really bad giving it that rating when I enjoyed this one A LOT MORE than I did Isla's story, and I gave that one a three-star rating. Meet in the middle and drop Isla's rating to two?

So, I liked Ollie and Makani's relationship A LOT. There was the original mishap of the miscommunication, but from that point on they were golden. They were sweet and awkward and mature - this book has sex, and heavy make-out scenes, and at least two versions of The Talk. I don't mind this at all, but I can't recall any other Perkins book like that so I thought I'd mention it, though I might be wrong.

Anyways, they were a great couple, and I enjoyed reading of them. The outside drama helped maintain their relationship and I didn't have to deal with force separations or relationship angst like in Isla (which was my main turn off with that one). So a huge plus for that.

But... BUT.

This was a lot like a slasher film--with all of the exaggerated death scenes--but also mostly a teen romance. Which is why I feel like the killing part was really underdeveloped. We're not even left wondering about the killer's identity for long, because... well, because he doesn't really matter. I also felt like a lot of deaths were unnecessary.

Like Alex's death, in the final chapters. We didn't even get to see anyone reacting to that. It was almost just so Stephanie Perkins could say "see, no one is safe", but it felt so... meaningless. I didn't even feel anything when it happened, just a general sense of "okay, but why?", especially since we DON'T see it through her eyes, the way we did all the other deaths. I felt far more emotional about Katie and Matt than I did Alex, and she is the MAIN CHARACTER'S BEST FRIEND.

And at the end of the day, that really made this novel lacking. I still don't really get the killer. I don't get his exaggerated methods or what had made him this way. I don't get why I needed to see all those death scenes from the victim's eyes if at the end of the day it's all meaningless and decoration for the main character's story. Was it all for some inspirational crap about change coming from within at the end there? Because that felt really... shoehorned.

IDK, it was all so darn meaningless at the end, and I'm not here for it. Speaking off... THAT'S your ending? That's it? What the heck? It seemed like there should have been at least a few more chapters after that. But no. That's the whole shebang. Is there supposed to be a sequel or something? Becuase... that felt unfinished.

*shrug*

Also can we take a minute to discuss Makani's secret? Because... why was SHE the one in trouble in that scenario?? Why weren't those upperclassmen who tortured the girls in custody or in jail or facing charges or whatever?

[alisoninbookland]

Too much kissing; not enough terror.

[Stephanie]

I love Stephanie Perkins' books, but this one kind of fell a little flat. I get what she was trying to do with the story, but I just didn't connect with it the way I did with her pervious novels. I love murder mysteries, and I love romance, but both aspects didn't work for me here. The romance felt a little too pushed for me, I wasn't into it. Makani and Oliver didn't seem right for each other. Maybe it was because the book was so short, and there was murder's going on, so I didn't get enough build up to their relationship.

The murders happening were a lot more interesting than the romance. The first one that happens from page one really unsettled me, mostly because we don't get to read about it like we do the others. We're just left hanging with the sound of a timer going off. But as the story progressed, and we actually get to read about the murder from the killer's perspective, it kind of lost it's flair. Then finding out who the killer is only halfway through the book makes it even less interesting.

Although finding out who the killer was so early didn't effect me too much, it did to an extent. I would have definitely enjoyed the book more if the suspense was there for a little longer. While there is suspense till the end, it's not the same as an unknown killer running around.

While I think the story fell a little short, I still enjoyed it. It kept me entertained, and I wanted to keep picking it up to read more, but that was mostly because of the murder, not the romance.

[Amber]

3.5, really.

I’ve been waiting for this book for the longest time. Probably along with the rest of Perkins’ fans, right? There’s Someone Inside Your House had a completely different feel to it than any of Perkins’ contemporary novels. I think if I hadn’t known they were by the same author then I wouldn’t have connected the dots.


There’s Someone Inside Your House is a short book, but it doesn’t lack the classic slasher horror feel that was revived with movies like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Perkins writes some excellent creepy scenes. In the book, the killer messed with people by moving things around the house and leaving cabinets open. While paranormal horror doesn’t tend to get to me, I am always thoroughly creeped out by home invasion stories, and I think Perkins hit the nail on the head here. It was so freaking spine-tingling! Plus, there was a good amount of gore. Like, a huge amount. Don’t read this book if you’re sensitive.

The main character, Mariko, is mixed race, and one of her close friends is transgender. Yay, representation! I feel like the close friend could have had more to do though.

I do have a couple of complaints, though. First of all, there was too much romance. I’m not a massive fan of romance anyway, and if I’m reading a horror/slasher/thriller, I don’t want to be reading about teenagers falling in love and/or getting it on. There doesn’t need to be romance just because it’s YA! The romance in this wasn’t too over the top, thankfully, but I didn’t care for it. Especially because it was such a short book.

My other issue was that the “big reveal” was a bit crap. I was expecting it to be better, or at least for there to be more to it. If you’re expecting There’s Someone Inside Your House to be a really intelligent and twisty tale, then you should probably lower your expectations. Go into it expecting a gory horror novel, but it’s definitely not full of twists and shocking reveals.

That said, I’d definitely be interested in reading other thrillers or horror novels written by Perkins. This wasn’t a bad book by any means, it just wasn’t as hard hitting as I had hoped.