Friday Night Frights: There's Someone Inside Your House

Hey Bookdragons! Welcome to the 4th installment of the Friday Night Frights meme!

How It Works:
On your blog feature a horror novel you loved (it doesn't have to be a new release) and recommend a horror movie you love then come back here and post your link in the comments! That's it, as simple as that! 

There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins

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.

What I loved about There's Someone Inside Your House:

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.

Movie Rec: Alone in the Dark

My grandmother watched this movie first. It was 3 am and she wakes me up to tell me about this terrifying movie she's watching on Turner Classic Movies. I caught maybe 5 minutes before I went back to bed, promising my grandmother I'd add it to the Netflix queue so we could watch it together. 

"Dr. Bain (Donald Pleasence) precariously presides over an eerie asylum that houses its fair share of eccentrics and very dangerous figures, including the murderous Frank Hawkes (Jack Palance) and the holier-than-thou Byron "Preacher"Sutcliff (Martin Landau). Not even the arrival of kindly Dr. Dan Potter (Dwight Schultz) on the scene can keep everyone in check. And when the lights go out mysteriously all over town, mayhem starts to rule."

I went in not knowing what to expect from this movie. Was it as scary as my grandmother said? Would it frighten me, the unfrightenable? 

Alone in the Dark is classic 80s horror in all the best ways. It's got an asylum run by a doctor who should probably be a patient, not one - not two - but FOUR crazy killers, an unsuspecting doctor who comes to work at the asylum leaving his family at home after a blackout.. and that's just a taste. 

If you like Friday the 13th, Halloween, or the original Nightmare on Elm Street and it's classic slasher horror format you need to check out Alone in the Dark ASAP!

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!

"What I'm Reading" Wednesday #105

For my first read of 2018 I'm in the middle of one of the books I received for Christmas and absolutely loving it. This "WIR"-Wednesday I'm Reading...

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.

Why I Chose This Book | What I Think So Far:

I first wanted to read this book back when I was doing my fall 2017 releases blog because it sounded amazing and reminded me of Scream but then when it came out I had second thoughts because I'd had a difficult reading year. Then just before Thanksgiving I flipped through it at Half Price Books and it looked good so I asked for it with the other things on my Christmas wishlist. I picked this one to read first because it was one of the shorter two I got and it grabbed me right away. It's thrilling and page-turning without being too gruesome and there's a lot of hints as to Makani's past so I can't wait to see what she did that was so wrong. I just got past the second murder which was a great scene - if a little unbelievable - to read. I'm not exactly sure, depending on the weapon used, that what the author suggested was the fate of this character would really be possible that easily. One thing is for sure, whoever the killer is and whatever their motive, they sure have a lot of strength!