Note: We received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Everyone has known that Stephanie Perkins was writing a slasher/horror for the last two years. Now I finally have my hands on it, and boy was it…different to what I was expecting. After being known for Anna and the French Kiss and other lovey-dovey titles, I thought Stephanie Perkins would be really stepping outside her comfort zone. Turns out There’s Someone Inside Your House managed to have about five deaths, but still be 98% romance. And when I say romance, I mean carnal teenage ‘relationship’ because there was no romance to be seen. So let’s talk about it…

There’s Someone Inside Your House is all about a small town in Nebraska, and how there’s this crazed killer knocking off members of the student body for reasons unknown. Our main character, Makani, has only lived in Nebraska for the last year, after being forced to flee Hawaii due to some terrible scandal. Over the summer, she was having sex with a boy called Ollie (who has pink hair, what a rebel *eye roll*) and then after some miscommunication for the sake of tension, becomes his girlfriend when school begins.

The book rotates, largely in favour of teen sex, between Makani and Ollie’s budding relationship and the killer’s next victim. Because it’s told in third person, you’re with the victims when the killer arrives, and then it’s up to Makani and friends to find out who’s wielding the saw edged knife.

The reason this book is so ridiculous – wait, change that to reasons – is:
a. Someone’s running around killing teens and the one safety precaution they make is to close the school, when over half the murders happened at the victim’s home, so it makes no difference to the body count.

b. We find out who the killer is at 60% through the book. What the heck happens next?

c. I’ll tell you. They decide, knowing what they do, to confront the killer when he’s armed and dangerous and expect people not to get hurt. Mind boggling.

d. The terrible scandal Makani was in was more everyone else’s fault than hers and yet she has to become a pariah for essentially playing hairdressers in a physically and mentally tortured environment.

There were so many strands to this story that could have fleshed out the plot besides Makani and Ollie’s libidos. Like, what happened to Grandma Young’s sleepwalking problem? We’re told she almost cut someone’s nose off with garden sheers and yet, it’s just glossed over. Did Darby have feelings for Alex? There was a lot of tension between them, or at least potential for a crush. Why did Makani’s parents hate her?

I was expecting so much more from this, and especially a side step from the romance. In all honesty, I was skimming through the many make out sessions just to get to the next killing and even they didn’t really leave me freaked out in my living room, making sure the door was locked.

Overall, I’m giving There’s Someone Inside Your House 2 stars. More creepy, less kiss-y please.

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