There's Someone Inside Your House | Book Review

There’s Someone Inside Your House

Written by: Stephanie Perkins

Number of Pages: 287

Average Rating: 3.59/5 stars

My Rating: 3.75 stars

Published: September 26, 2017

Read in October 2017

Summary According to Goodreads

One-by-one, the students of Osborne High are dying in a series of gruesome murders, each with increasing and grotesque flair. As the terror grows closer and the hunt intensifies for the killer, the dark secrets among them must finally be confronted. 

My Thoughts

Let it be known, I love Stephanie Perkins and her Anna trilogy. so this was very high on my anticipated releases. I wasn’t disappointed, but I was definitely expecting more. 

I am a huge fan of the thriller/horror genre, and would pick one up before I would a romance. I love to be scared, and this one did keep me on the edge of my seat at times, but never spooked me. When I first read the synopsis I was hooked, and as I mentioned earlier, I have been waiting for this novel for a very long time. Unfortunately, the plot was not anything unique, and didn’t completely grab me. Reading this novel was almost like reading a screenplay for another Scream movie, as the motives, the drama, and the characters were similar. As I reader I was never questioning who was safe and who the killer was, because it was revealed fairly early on in the novel - probably even by the halfway point - which was a total let down as I love to be kept guessing! There wasn’t enough suspense or thrill in this novel for me, and the most horror was the gruesome killing. I would have loved to see something more developed and diverse, but I don’t think horror is Stephanie’s strongest genre. 

The characters were much stronger than the plot was, but still basic YA. I enjoyed watching the relationship develop between our two main characters, and loved how they were both so realistically awkward with each other. I also enjoyed watching our main character Makani grow into herself and become a little bit more confident than the beginning, but I think her “big secret” was a bit overreacted. Writing a novel with this dark of a plot, I was expecting a much darker secret.

Stephanie Perkins has such a smooth writing style, she can make a grotesque scene read poetic. To make this novel even better I would have loved multiple perspectives, because a killing spree like this affects so many people and I think it would have added a lot more dimension to the story. I was still never completely sucked into the plot, but I couldn’t stop reading because her writing flows from one page to the other that I flew through it. 

Overall, this was an enjoyable read. If you are interested in the plot I would suggest going into it expecting more romance than horror, which isn’t what I was hoping for. This is a good read for the time of year since Halloween is coming up, and I think it would be enjoyed by many!