There’s Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins
Published: September 26th 2017 by Dutton Books for Young Readers
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Goodreads Summary:
Love hurts…
Makani Young thought she’d left her dark past behind her in Hawaii, settling in with her grandmother in landlocked Nebraska. She’s found new friends and has even started to fall for mysterious outsider Ollie Larsson. But her past isn’t far behind.
Then, one by one, the students of Osborne Hugh begin to die in a series of gruesome murders, each with increasingly grotesque flair. As the terror grows closer and her feelings for Ollie intensify, Makani is forced to confront her own dark secrets.
This book has been on my TBR shelf since I found out about it last October. I saw it at Half Priced Books the other day and bought it on a whim and two days later I finished the book. Perkins definitely knows how to write a quick read! I also couldn’t put the book down, because I wanted to find out who the killer was (I loved that it was completely surprising when the reveal finally happened!).
He couldn’t be dead, because he was still so alive in her mind
This book reminded me a lot of The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things by Ann Aguirre, probably because I just read it a few months ago and the two main characters had an incident in their past that they are hiding from their new friends and life. The only difference is in the reveal of said tragedy, and how it affected their current relationships.
I guess you never really know what’s going on inside someone else’s head.
I was a little confused in the beginning, so much so that I had to go back and read the summary. I was wondering why we were spending the first chapter getting to know this girl, but then it is revealed quickly that she is the first victim. I think I definitely enjoyed the murder scenes a lot more, because then it seemed as if the plot would start to move again. Almost like “oh yeah, there is a murder loose. Let’s go back to trying to figure out who it is.” I understand that the author normally writes romances, and this book has plenty of teenage angst all throughout. There is constant back and forth between Makani and Ollie on whether or not they like each other or not or whether their past will keep them from being together. ::insert eye roll here:: I picked this book up for the horror aspect of it! Which the author did not disappoint the further we went on in the book.
They didn’t talk much, but their silence was companionable
Some aspects that I really enjoyed about this book:
(1) The diversity of characters. I liked that even though this was a small town in the middle of nowhere, there was still some diversity. The main character is half black and Hawaiian for starters. There is even a transgender, that isn’t treated like a total pariah.
(2) The murders. Like I mentioned above, they really helped get the plot moving after another victim was found. While they weren’t exactly on the horror scale of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, they still held up pretty well. They were definitely out of the box and very bloody.
His declaration pierced through the muscle of her heart like a skillfully thrown knife.
It was the kind of pain that made her feel alive.
One major flaw that I did not like about this was the motive behind all of these murders. I mean once the killer was finally revealed, it totally makes sense as to why that person would become a serial killer. But, the main reason as to why the killer went on a rampage in the first place? kadsjfalskj <– that’s how I felt about it when I found out.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. Yes, there was some flaws but it was a nice quick read. I would categorize this as a mini fluffy romance with a serial killer thrown in for some fun (definitely the best parts of the book). As someone who doesn’t like horror all that much, this wasn’t that bad and I would read more books like it.
Once and for All by Sarah Dessen
Sam's Little Corner 