Thursday 5 October 2017

Review on There's Someone Inside Your House



When Makani Young's parents divorce, she is forced to move away from her home town in Hawaii to Nebraska to live with her grandmother. However, Nebraska isn't as peaceful as Makani thought it would be, as a year after starting at her new school, one of Makani's classmates is brutally murdered in her own home. As more of Makani's classmates start to be murdered, it is soon apparent there is a serial killer on the loose, targetting students seemingly at random. When Makani herself becomes the next target, she starts to wonder if the attacks are truly random after all. Could Makani's past have something to do with her being targeted, or could it be for a completely different reason? 


One thing that I am not ashamed to admit is that I am a huge horror movie nerd! From the most terrifying, jumpscaresque, to the truly ridiculous, I will gladly watch them all. When I saw that There's Someone Inside your House was being compared to Scream, one of my all time favourite horror movies, I was excited to read read it!

The book follows Makani Young, a girl who's parents send her to live with her grandmother due to their divorce. However, we soon learn that this isn't the only reason for the move, as Makani has commited a crime, forcing her to change her name to stop her new friends from discovering her old life. I loved that the book immedietly gave us unanswered questions, such as what Makani had done in the past, who the killer was, and why were they targeting certain individuals.

The way the book started out was perfect! It immediately gave off a creepy vibe, and by chapter two, I could definitely see why the book was being compared to Scream.Although I thought the first chapter was shockingly brilliant, the novelty wore off by the third time that a chapter opened with a character other than Makani, as it was obvious what was about to happen. It felt a little repetitive after a while, as I just knew what was about to happen. I felt like the only time the book diverted from this was when one of the chapters focused on two characters, where only one was the killers next victim. I loved this chapter, as I had no idea which character was going to be the next victim, and it created that brilliant suspense that I last experienced from the first chapter.

I loved the characters in this book! Although 
there were a few minor characters in the book, there wasn't too many major characters. I particularly loved Darby, one of Makani's friends. I feel as if there are never enough transgender characters in YA, and when there are, they are almost always girls, so I was extremely happy to find a transgender boy in this book! Although Darby tended to jump to conclusions, and was quick to accuse Ollie, I loved how much he cared for his friends, and how determined he was to keep Makani safe. I also loved Ollie, as he was such a shy and sweet character. However like Darby, I also had my suspicions about Ollie! As we all know from the Scream movie (spoiler alert) the boyfriend ends up being the killer, so Ollie was definitely in my list of suspects!

So sadly I have to talk about something that I really wasn't keen on, which was the romance. There was just so much of it! Now I realise that Stephanie previously wrote a contemporary romance series, but the title and description of this book definitely aren't screaming out romance. I was both confused and disappointed that after the first murder, the plot focused on the romance between Makani and Ollie, and nothing else really happened until past page seventy. I was not expecting the book to be centred on romance as much as it was, and I almost DNF'd it at one point because of this. I felt like I was just slogging through the first quarter of the book, waiting for something to happen that didn't involve Makani and Ollie kissing or having sex. I felt like it had a great start, but then just petered out until the next murder. I personally felt as if the romance needed to be toned down quite a bit!

Something that bothered me was the fact that Makani barely knew most of the victims. The deaths were mostly characters who were only mentioned once or twice before being killed off, and I felt as if their deaths would have made more of an impact if they had been Makani's friends. As a reader we don't actually have any emotional attachment to the characters who are killed. I felt as if the book would have been scarier if the killer had been targeting Makani's friends earlier on in the book.

Although I wasn't keen on the romance, I did love some of the other real life aspects, particularly Ollie's relationship with his older brother, Chris. After their parents died, Chris was forced to take on more of a parental role, having to take care of Ollie by himself. I felt sorry for Chris, as he was forced to grow up quickly, and act more like a parent than a brother. There were times where you could see just how truly young and vulnerable Chris was, and I felt sorry for him losing his parents and having to worry about if Ollie would be the killers next target.

Apart from the few things that I mentioned, I did eventually end up enjoying this book, and I'm glad that I gave it a chance. I loved the final showdown with the killer at the end of the book, and how everything was tied together to answer all the remaining questions. I thought the murders themselves were pretty gruesome, so maybe avoid the book if that makes you squeamish! I loved how there was mixture of horror, slasher and murder mystery. I always love a good whodunnit! If you're looking for a creepy slasher to read this Halloween, this is your book!



There's Someone Inside Your House is now available to purchase!


  | Amazon Book Depository















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