There's Someone Inside Your House

This was a fun horror debut from an author best known for her comtemporary YA. This book read like a teen-focused slasher film and reminded me of I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream. There's a biracial black/Hawaiian female protagonist (our “final girl”) and good sex representation in which teens have responsible sex and feel good about it afterwards. There was some really heavy-handed foreshadowing about the protagonists “mysterious past” that turned out to not be as big a deal as it was built up to be. It was a fun, fast-paced read that I enjoyed more than I expected to.

Got bored of the story & library loan expired and had no desire to renew. 

Loved this story!!! It is great and tense. I gasped a few times. The movie on Netflix should not be allowed to use this title. The movie is absolute trash. But the book is fantastic! Totally recommend.

I haven't read this author before and wanted a quick YA horror to get lost in BUT sadly that isn't what I really got. There is some horror (more gory than anything) but it's mostly a romance between Ollie and Makani with horrific events revolving around them.

For me, this felt like it was a rushed, thrown together wannabe YA slasher read BUT this left so many questions unanswered (I don't want to say for readers who haven't read this yet). The ending had me frustrated too with it's lack of clarity...

I will say it is a very fast-paced and easy read so at least there is that. Overall though I was left disappointed.

Fun and silly little romp of a read.

Rating: 2.4 leaves out of 5
Characters: 2.5/5
Cover: 3/5
Story: 2/5
Writing: 2/5
Genre: Horror/Thriller/Mystery
Type: Audiobook
Worth?: No

I was pretty excited to read this and then it got very ‘woke'. I didn't even finish the book. I decided to just watch the movie and didn't finish that either. If you want a good thriller just watch I Know What You Did Last Summer, the movie not the show.

I really enjoyed this one. It was your typical cheesy teenage slasher with teenage love story thrown in. The story was well paced and was an easy read. Would definitely recommend.

While I was reading this I thought it was going to be a 3 star read, but that ending dropped it to a 2. So unsatisfying.

This book felt really amateurishly written, lots of telling us about people without showing anything (I already forget almost every character because you're just fed a paragraph of info about them and then they all act the same way) and tortured metaphors. The killer's motivation is genuinely ridiculous, as is Makani's “dark secret” and her romance with Ollie.

A few of the scares involving things being moved around in the houses were creepy, but overall this felt like it was trying to be a slasher and a romance and failing at both.

2.5 stars ⭐️⭐️

Picked this up because the title and cover art slap. I'm not familiar with this author but I see now that if I had been, I would have known to expect this book to be more teen romance than thriller. The romance part wasn't interesting, but the thriller part was pretty fun - I just wish the thriller part was more than like 30% of the book.

This book has below average ratings and some scathing reviews for “not being scary enough.” Now, I don't generally read gore or horror so maybe it's just my lack of perspective, but I was chilled by this book. But more so, I think it's because none of these people have been gaslighted. Maybe they're too desensitized by overindulging in horror lit. Idk.

As someone who has been stalked and gaslighted before, this book was a chilling reminder of how horrifying it is. Before every kill, the murderer gaslights their victims by opening and closing drawers, leaving items in odd places, moving furniture, etc. They do just enough to scare them, make them wonder if they did it themselves. I know from experience how unsettling it is and how scary it is to wonder if someone is in your house watching you. This was the most frightening part to me, the emotional tension. The murders themselves weren't terribly gory, but I don't think that's necessary to be scary at all. I think a balanced amount of blood was written in.

Now, folks, this is YA. So yes, of course there's a romance element. And from the time I realized this, I wanted to hate that aspect. But in a fun surprise for all of us, I didn't! Makani and Ollie are well written characters and their romance felt legit, complete with teen angst, family problems, and sexual tension. It didn't feel cheesy, insta, or forced so I actually enjoyed reading about it. They seemed like friends.

As for background characters, wth with Makani's parents??? They are absolute garbage monsters. Which makes me upset but unfortunately, it's reality for many people today. And I HATED the “townsfolk” who thought a serial killer would apparently never be able to hurt anyone they knew and kept leaving their children alone day after day and the people who used it for fun scares on Halloween. I was like “people cannot possibly be that dumb.” But then I remembered the state of the world right now during COVID-19 where people are seeing the danger and running right to it. So I guess that part actually cannot be discounted as unbelievable.

the horror wasn't there and the romance was too there. this was a weird read. i didn't feel for any of the characters and there were too many introduced that added nothing to the story. the ending was so abrupt i thought my ebook was missing pages.

there were some fall vibes so i'll give the book that?

Every October, I watch only spooky-scary movies and read only spooky-scary books, because I love October and Halloween, and horror is my favorite genre. I throw the occasional suspense/thriller/slasher in the mix as well, just to keep things lively. This year, I was getting too antsy to wait until October, so I amended it to “as soon as Fall officially begins, I will start my spooky-scary binge.” Of course, it's still around 80° out, but it's still the best time of the year! I WILL NOT BE DETERRED FROM MY AUTUMNAL ENJOYMENT.

The good news: this is a great Fall book. It takes place in small-town Nebraska in October, so there are plenty of mentions of browning leaves, chilly weather, corn mazes, Halloween, hoodies, etc. It has a nice atmosphere that made me really want to go to a pumpkin patch.

The bad news: if the rest of my Fall reads are as uneven as this book, it's going to be less “spooky-scary” and more “meh-whaaa?”

There's a lot of good to this book, like a pretty cool cast of characters, the sex positive attitude, the (mostly) authentic feel of a small town, and some genuinely cool and creepy moments from the killer. The idea of someone methodically moving everything slightly around your house, making you second-guess whether or not you are actually home alone? Shivers! And being the weirdo that I am, I am pleased that this book was fairly gory, especially considering the YA audience. But the not-so-good parts, like the too-early reveal of the killer, the tonally inconsistent romance aspect, and the constant references to Makani's “incident” back in Hawaii, which didn't really live up to the mystery although the awful "hazing" incident made me glad I never joined anything other than marching band in high school... outweighed the good, in my opinion.

Honestly, I think I would have liked this more as two separate stories, because I liked Makani and Ollie and their friends, and felt that outsider aspect could have been fleshed out, but didn't think it gelled well with the murder mystery. Once the murderer is revealed, it just sort of lost steam as well.

Considering how disparate I found the two different stories being told, I'm also just not sure what audience to recommend this book to. With all that considered, I'm giving this a very medium 3/5 stars.

I picked this up to skim so I could booktalk it as a “quick pick” and ended up reading the whole thing. So I guess it IS a quick pick! Geez, the body count, though! And more gory than I was expecting. But I do think this is a great serial killer mystery for teens: quick pacing, good characters, and plenty of blood. The killer's motives didn't work for me but I can see how it would for others. Fun!

2.75

wasn't expecting this to be as gruesome as it was... Tip: dont read this at midnight. You won't sleep.

wasnt expecting all that death either

anyways the first half of the story was sooo boring and the second half was so fast paced and addictive.

Its 1:30am and I know I'm not sleeping tonight, thank u Stephanie Perkins

Ooof. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that romance writer Perkins created a make out/(consensual)sex heavy book that also happened to feature really gruesome slasher scenes. Unfortunately, the tension was low and the mystery wasn't interesting...or really a mystery. The characters checked diversity boxes (sort of, she did dead-name the trans character...nope) without being developed or engaging. The only non-boring parts were the slasher scenes, and that's only because they were Scream-syle detailed, yet the rest of the plot didn't get that level of attention. Have booktalked and will again, curious to see if there's an audience of teen interest for this.

3.5 stars

I totally forgot to write a review about this one and now I'm still not sure how I feel about it... probably even more confused.

I enjoyed read it, let me start with saying that. I did like this.

I loved the diversity element. I didn't realize it would be here, but was happy to see it. The differences and scenes that changed to fit it, were nice.
I also liked the romance. I feel like it happened really quickly, mostly because it was off screen before the book happens, but it was sweet and I loved them together. Ollie is totally someone I would have had a crush on in High School, so I might be a bit biased. There are mentions to teens having sex, although there are no sex scenes and safe sex practices are discussed. I feel like these are all good things that help the book be allowed (or allow more people to feel comfortable) to read it.

The murders are told in explicit detail and honestly, I took this as a good thing. There were still times I went “ungh” when the murders were discussed, but it was pretty mild. It did make the murders more intense and thrilling – I really liked it. It is a thriller though, so guessing the bad guy isn't really the important thing. Catching them, is. I won't say this had me going “oh my god, oh my god, ohmygod” like many thrillers do, but I still had fun with it.

The thing is, I also remember that I didn't exactly like how the ending went down. I thought some things were too easy, some things made me kind of roll my eyes, and I believe I did groan at one point. I can't say what happens though! And, I'm probably being picky, but how I feel at the end of the book is really important to me. It is that last feeling you are given.
Also, the dark secret Makani is hiding from her friends? I think it was overhyped a bit. I also don't see why she was the only one vilified.

So, in the end, I did enjoy this book and I might try another book by this author. I'll be recommending it to people who are looking to try out a Thriller or Horror for the first time or likes contemporary romance, but wants something more.

cw: statutory rape, suicide

I wasn't sure what to expect going into a YA slasher, but I had heard it was less scary and more corny, which is totally up my alley. If you're like me and love horror but get scared easily, you might like this book. I was on the edge of my seat a few times, but mostly comfortable with my reading experience.

I adored the romance, I'm a huge sucker for YA romance and as far as that part of the storyline went, this leaned toward YA contemporary. I did have a few issues, which is why this wasn't a five star read for me. While I enjoyed the writing as a whole, I tripped over several awkwardly-written sentences and grammatical errors. I also didn't care for Makani's mysterious backstory. Maybe it was just me, but it felt kind of forced and more like filler than anything else.

There is a huge yikes moment at the beginning where the author deadnames a trans character. From what I've seen and been told, this was brought up to the author by beta readers and was still put into the final copy. I'm cis and can only speak to the topic so much, but it was an unnecessary inclusion and could have been easily adjusted or removed.

Other than those issues, I did enjoy the book. It was a quick read that could have used a little more polishing.

I do love me some Stephanie Perkins but this is Weak. Wanting to branch out into something gorier than fluffy romance is admirable and I hate to sound discouraging because parts of this are quite enjoyable, however this feels rather like a failed experiment.

I got this book free from the library and I am in no way obligated to mention that legally. Libraries are awesome, though, and I've decided I am morally obligated.