Book Review: There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins

There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins

Blurb:

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.

My Review:

There's Someone Inside Your House was my first read of 2018 and WOW! I definitely made the right choice picking this book up! 

TSIYH channels Scream in this fantastic YA novel. We have our heroine, Makani Young who left behind a dark secret in her native Hawaii when she moved in with her grandmother in rural Nebraska. There's her two best friends, transgender Darby and Alex, who seems to revel in the grotesque. And then there's Makani's love interest Ollie. The loner, goth (not really but sort of) kid with the bright pink hair whose brother is a cop and his guardian after their parents were killed by a drunk driver. 

When Makani's classmates begin dying in a series of gruesome murders the town is suddenly suspicious of everyone. Who could the killer be? And what is his or her motive? None of the victims seem to be connected, they all came from different cliques, yet the killer's methods grow worse with each killing. Can Makani and her friends figure out who the killer is and clear Ollie, who has fallen under suspicion, in time? Or will the killer turn his murderous gaze on her?

I love, love, loved this book! It was gripping and fast-paced, gory yet not too scary. The killings were well plotted (if not a little unbelievable in a couple cases) and when they were woven in with the hints of Makani's mysterious past it really made you wonder what exactly Makani had done for her parents to ship her off to Nebraska. Could she be the killer, I wondered. 

In true horror-suspense fashion I kept guessing at who the killer might be up until the reveal. I was a bit worried, because we find out the identity of the killer with about 100 pages left in the book, about how the author would wrap the book up. Surely the killer wouldn't be able to go on killing once people knew who he was, right? Boy was I wrong! 

This book had me biting my nails until the very end. I only wish we could have seen a little of the aftermath, maybe how Makani's life went back to normal after the killer was stopped. Was it like in Scream? Was her picture and identity suddenly all over the media? Did Makani's mother ever come to Nebraska? That sort of thing.

Overall I thought this book was amazing. I really wouldn't have changed anything about the plot. I'm definitely going to reread this one again at some point.

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

5 of 5 Stars!