Overall a good story but not nearly as horror chill inducing as I was expecting or what was promised. It was an OK read - a bit predictable. 2.75/5 stars.

This isn’t quite the scary horror story I was hoping for but it’s definitely an enjoyable read.

I have to confess I had my doubts when Perkins announced that she was writing a horror story. She’s my go to author for light and fluffy contemporary romance, so how could she possibly switch over to dark and scary horror. It was going to be either brilliant or terrible.

Having now devoured it in more or less one sitting, I would say it probably falls somewhere in between. There are more than a few problems with the horror side of the story (so it’s not brilliant) but there is a lot to love about it which goes some way to make up for any shortcomings. There is plenty of diversity, our main character is a POC with a friend who is trans, there are wonderfully real family relationships and none of the characters are perfect.

Main character Makani possibly wasn’t the most likeable character in the beginning but she did grow on me through the story. The romantic interest is probably not making my book boyfriend list but there is something kinda sweet (and also mysterious) about him, and the other characters, while not being particularly well fleshed out, are very believable and after only a few pages you get a real sense of them.

The story itself is very Scream-esque, beginning with the brutal murder of a girl from their school, followed by more sudden and seemingly unconnected slayings of their fellow students. Speculation over who the killer could be is rife and with no pattern in the victims anyone could be next. It’s classic horror and is absolutely packed full of all of the horror tropes and themes, something I absolutely loved.

Unfortunately however it lacks the tension and sense of danger to make it a really scary read. The characters who are bumped off are for the most part pretty minor so it’s difficult to care about them, Makani spends most of her time obsessing over a boy (there’s a LOT of kissing) and worrying the dark secret from her past is going to come out and the killings are a little ridiculous at times. I also think too much is revealed too soon and some of the characters motivations and secrets just don’t make sense or aren’t properly fleshed out.
Despite these problems however, I did find it quite an addictive and enjoyable read, although I have to confess that was probably more for the romance than anything else.

It is a book that seems to be getting some very mixed reviews at the moment but I would recommend you give it a go, and if horror is not your thing I promise, it’s not that scary.

Oh my goodness. Where do I begin with this book?

I really enjoyed this book. I'm not usually the type who likes scary things. I hate horror for the sake of horror (i.e. movies that make you jump just to scare the pants off of you), and I think of myself as more of a thriller kind of girl. So I'll admit I was a bit hesitant about reading There's Someone Inside Your House. But, seeing as though I've always loved Stephanie Perkins' books, I decided that I was going to read this one regardless of my initial thoughts. I'm glad I did.

This book got right into the action in the first chapter, which I loved! There's nothing worse than a book that drags on with a slow burn. Also, I definitely was not terrified by this book. It has some great horror elements, but it didn't keep me up at night. That being said, there was one evening where I was reading this book rather late in the night, with all of the lights out (it was an e-ARC), and I heard some noises in my house, which set my heart pounding. I later found out it was my mom doing some weird things in the house, but boy, was I a little nervous. I even got up to double-check the house for anything suspicious.

I think if you go into this book expecting a full-on horror novel, you will be disappointed. But if you keep in mind that Stephanie Perkins is a contemporary writer, I think you will be very happy with this book. There's plenty of romance within this book to appease those who want more of Perkins' swoon boys, but it doesn't feel like it's too much for the genre. That's not to say that there isn't a lot of intrigue and mystery going on surrounding the killer.

I gave There's Someone Inside Your House 4/5 stars.

I feel like this book was more concerned about all the romance than the you know, murder that was going on...

I was really excited to begin There's Someone Inside Your House. Not because I've read the author's other books, but purely because it was the first Netgalley book I was approved for! I decided to buddy read it with some Twitter friends at the end of last month and thankfully it didn't take me that long to read. 

For a horror book, I will start off by saying and can be backed by a few I've already talked to, there wasn't much horror! There were of course the several gruesome murders scattered throughout the book but the focus of the novel was the romance between the main character and the love interest, Ollie. I suppose I should have expected this because of the other books Perkins has written but a lot of the premise for it has been describing it as a "thrilling horror".

The writing style was really good and I particularly liked the characters of Perkins and especially the diversity in the novel. Something I really disliked about this book was that they found out the killer's identity halfway through the book and it wasn't much of a plot twist! I thought as I was coming close to the end that it would turn out to be a misdirection but that didn't happen and I personally didn't understand the motive or see it as believable. 

Overall, it didn't live up the hype that I was expecting it too and I was kind of disappointed at the end. When I read the final page, I was expecting more to come but sadly there wasn't. I don't think this is a book I will remember for long but I loved Makani's gran! What a wonderful, hilarious character!

I loved the characters, the writing was really fluid and full of suspense, I read it in an evening because I honestly couldn't stop. There was a couple of spelling mistakes but this is a review copy so this sometimes happens.

So the book is about a girl called Makini, she has a secret that forced her to move to another school and change her surname. Suddenly, her classmates are being murdered in gruesome ways and Makini and her friends are left wondering who will be next.

The plot was brilliant, it really kept you guessing, and more than anything else it really swept me in. I've read a few books recently that haven't done that for me, so it was pleasing to find one that did.

There are a lot of twists and turns and Perkins keeps you guessing who the murderer is - for once, I hadn't guessed before the reveal which is really rare. The only thing I disliked was the reveal of Maniki's secret as I felt it was majorly over-hyped.

There's a little romance subplot in it that I really enjoyed, I wasn't sure I was going to like their relationship but actually I loved it. It really added a little something extra to the story.

This book was unnerving, there's a lot of the murderer creeping up on the victims and moving their stuff around trying to scare them and it also really creeps the reader out. The murders themselves are gruesome and told from the victim's point of view and I liked that Perkin's didn't shy away from killing off 'main' characters.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to YA fans or murder mystery fans. 5/5

I've been looking forward to this book for years, ever since Stephenie Perkins first announced she was writing a YA slasher story...and I really liked it, it just didn't live up to the expectations I had for it.

I loved the cast of characters (particularly the fact that the main character is mixed race and one of her best friends is trans -- though I can't judge how good the representation is), but I also feel like that's what held it back from being a 5 star book for me. So much effort and page-time was put into character development and character back story, that it didn't totally deliver on the Scream-like slasher plot.

Like Makani's secret -- great for adding depth to the character, but it was more drawn out than the murder plot and didn't feel necessary for the story. And her relationship with Ollie, while I loved it, it definitely made it feel like this was primarily a romance story most of the time with a slasher subplot rather than the other way around.

The plot wasn't bad, far from it. It did keep me hooked, but part of the entertainment of these types of stories is trying to guess who the killer is and all of the red herrings that try to lead you down the wrong path, and the build up to the final reveal, but there was none of that in this. You don't even get a hint at who the killer might be until quite far into the book, the identity is revealed way too soon, and the ending is rushed and abrupt (this is one of those books that could've really benefited from having and epilogue) and the motive fell a bit flat.

Again...that's not to say it was bad, it just wasn't really what it was hyped up to be. There were some slasher vibes to it, but it still felt lacking in that area.

Overall, it is a really good book. It kept me hooked right from the start, I was never bored while reading it...I just wouldn't recommend going into it expecting a novel version of a good 90's slasher movie, because for the majority of the book that takes a backseat to the relationships between the characters.

I'd rate it 3.5 out of 5.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Oh boy, I don’t even know where to start with this book…the action in the story immediately begins and leaves you intrigued from the first chapter. It is a chilling and creepy book throughout and I love that kind of thing so I was very excited to continue reading. The copy I received was an eBook from NetGalley and it was my first ever eBook read. I’ve never liked eBooks but since reading this I am obsessed. I found it very difficult to put this book down so having it as an eBook was super helpful, I even read it as I walked to work in the morning.

Between the gory murders (by gory I mean its at a 9 on a 1-10 scale) and the enthralling love connection between the main characters Makani and Ollie, this book leaves you on the edge of your seat. You find yourself immersed in the teen romance and then all of a sudden your blood runs cold because there’s another gruesome murder in progress. I’m a huge fan of horror and gore so reading about how graphic and brutal the murders were really captivated me. Some people may feel put off by how gory this book is but I feel like there is a sufficient amount of love story and humour to make them feel okay about the horror.

Stephanie Perkins writes in a way that really makes you suspect everybody of being the killer and I was going crazy trying to work it out. I was pleasantly surprised that the killer was revealed quite soon in the story, as I feel this made it scarier and more suspenseful than if we were to find out at the very end. From the beginning we are made aware that the main character Makani Young has had something crazy happen in her past and I found myself intrigued to know what had happened that was THAT bad. The only issue I had with this book is the reveal of Makani’s ‘secret’. The way it was written made me feel like it was going to be worse than it actually was and it was anticlimactic for me when I found out the truth. Although it was still an awful thing to have happened, it just wasn’t as shocking as it was built up to be.

It is a very intense read and I found myself lying awake in bed at night unable to stop thinking that someone was inside MY house. I give it a rating of 4 out of 5 stars and I highly recommend it! I’m definitely going to purchase the physical copy of this book and re-read it, probably around Halloween time to make it even more atmospheric

I will be honest and admit that the main driving force behind me requesting an ARC of this book was that I wanted to see if Stephanie Perkins had stepped up to the mark; I really enjoyed Anna and The French Kiss and wanted to see if an author who is very much in the contemporary young adult romance scene could successfully make the leap into the horror genre. There was also the slight fascination at the idea of a young adult horror novel as it is kind of an anomaly in the current market. Maybe it will take off and this time next year, book shops will be saturated with young adult horrors, but unfortunately this book doesn't bode well for the niche in my opinion.

If you read it expecting a horror novel, I can say with confidence that you will be disappointed. This, to me, read like a teen romance with a handful of murders happening to side characters that - for the most part - we don't have any interaction with whatsoever until the murder scene so you don't particularly care about them dying anyway. Bearing that in mind, I'm going to do this review looking at the aspects of the novel rather than the novel itself as it was a bit of a let down on the horror angle.

It is very sex positive and it was honestly refreshing to read a novel about teenagers acting like teenagers (by which I mean - hormones and sexual stuff galore!) even though towards the end I was rolling my eyes a little. The writing itself isn't terrible which is always a plus. I think it is the first time that I have read a young adult book where the main character is a black Hawaiian and the Hawaiian-ness of Makani seemed very well researched, at least as far as I could tell as a British girl that has never been to Hawaii! I really appreciated that Dalby (main characters best friend) was trans as well; the more and more frequent appearance of characters that aren't cisgendered heterosexuals is something that I can get on board with.

All in all, it wasn't terrible. It just really failed to deliver on what it set out to be.

My review can be found in this video: https://youtu.be/Q_e0Elzs7dc

I was very torn whilst reading this book. It was an enjoyable read but it felt like it lacked identity? It was a mash-up of a horror story, and a love story, and so landed in a gray area in-between.
However, I very much found myself not being able to put it down, it had enough twists and surprises to keep me turning page after page well into the night.
Would definitely recommend as a stepping stone into the horror genre.

I had to just admit to myself I would never finish this book. It is marketed as a thriller, but what I was reading was a contemporary. These beginning of the book was eerie and creepy, but then it quickly lost all of that feeling because of the developing love story. I wasn't scared or thrilled when i was reading this, I was bored. Unfortunately I wanted to like this book, but it ended up having to be DNF'd because of the change in pacing and story.

FIRSTLY. HUGE Gigantic thanks and appreciation to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I had put off starting it because I had originally obtained a partial galley from BookCon this year and I just knew I wouldn't be able to stand not knowing how it ended.

Any thoughts expressed are my own and quotes from the book are pending the final copy.

There's Someone Inside Your House is delightful and terrifying and delightfully terrifying. Think Scream, When a Stranger Calls, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and basically all other movies like this...

I flew through this book, even AFTER finding out who the killer was. Which...is pretty good considering my interest usually wanes after finding out whodunit. The diversity was on point. I felt like this book was a lot about how easy misconceptions are to make about people. How we can overlook or point out issues with someone just based on the way they look or act or talk.

Anyone could look sinister when viewed through the lens of fear.

I don't want to say anything else for fear of giving something away but 10/10 would recommend.

There's Someone Inside Your House will be released on September 26, 2017 and I highly recommend picking up a copy and avoiding all spoilers.

eARC received via NetGalley in exchange for honest review.

I have to start by saying that this is not my normal genre of choice so this will be short and sweet as I am in no way an authority on this one. However when I saw that Stephanie Perkins had written it, I had to try it and I absolutely was not disappointed. I think I felt all the spine chilling intensity at all the right moments and I was without a doubt intrigued from the start. My only issue was that I really didn't connect with any of the characters which meant I didn't care a whole lot when they were becoming the victims of a psychopathic killer. Discovering the MCs back stories also didn't really help with this either, it maybe came a little too late in the plot for me and to be honest there wasn't a whole lot for me to feel any kind of sympathy for.

Overall it was well written and thought out. I liked he multiple PoVs and how it played out in my mind like a movie. The writing certainly made it easy to visualise everything that was going on. If thrillers are your go to genre then you will likely love this more than me but if not I do recommend giving it a try. You might be pleasantly surprised too!

This is a pretty good High School horror/slasher story in a similar vein to the Scream movies, though it lacks the humour of that franchise. The murder set pieces are quite suspenseful and fantastically gory but the intervening story, particularly in the first half of the book, is a little slow at times and I found myself mentally shouting at the book to 'kill somebody already!' ... Ahem. Anyway, the story picks up quite a bit in the second half, as does the body count. The fact that it is set near Halloween was a tad cheesy but it does work quite well in the final act. I was pleasantly surprised at the romance, which isn't totally unbelievable and does not take over the story, as often seems to be the case in young adult fiction of late. Overall an entertaining, quick read, with a decent plot and a good dollop of gore.

To categorise this book as either a horror or thriller is a complete joke. The book was a cheesy, juvenile romance with random murders thrown in to create tension. This book was bad. At about the 50% mark the killer was revealed and the rest of the book was a joke. Why was the police not able to arrest a teenage serial killer who remained in the immediate vicinity after he was outed? Perkins tried to create additional tension and mystery by adding in sub-plots about the backstory of certain characters. When these 'mysteries' were revealed, it turned out the explanations were laughably mundane. The main problem with this mystery is that the murderer was a side character and there were no clues leading to him and the reason for his actions was bizarre and implausible. I think Perkins should probably read a few books in this genre before trying something like this again.

SJW trash.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I was really intrigued by the idea of this book, mostly because the author, Stephanie Perkins, is well known for her contemporary romance series. I did enjoy her writing in her previous books, so when I heard she was writing a horror novel like Scream, I was definitely interested in picking this up.

I really liked the diversity of the characters (having biracial and trans characters in a YA book is very refreshing). However, while the main character was very fleshed out and her diversity was explored, I felt like the trans character was only briefly mentioned and nothing else to do with their character was particularly explored. I felt like a lot of side characters fell flat, and only Makani and Ollie were explored with any real depth. I also enjoyed the extra mystery surrounding the main characters regarding her past. To be honest, it was the only thing that kept me reading once I got to who the killer was.

Overall, I was slightly disappointed with this book. While it had its moments of tension, the murders were all very similar and you could tell immediately when one was about to happen. Finding out who the murderer was earlier than I expected to was also a bit of a disappointment. Especially since I didn't feel any shock at finding out who it was. Perhaps if there had been more build up, or some extra characters had been in the story more often, I would've cared more.

Everything was quite stereotypical for a slasher book (where the murders took place, etc.). I also felt like the motive wasn't properly explored and a lot of the murders were just lots of gore for the sake of it. The big reveal of the side mystery was also sadly not as interesting as the build-up to it. I really thought it was going to be something enormous and it just wasn't.

Overall, I felt like this was an okay horror story. Perkins writing was enjoyable and fast-paced and I was able to read the book in under a day. It will probably frighten people more if they haven't already seen films like Scream or other slasher horrors. I'm sure some people will absolutely love this book, so it's worth picking up for your own opinion, but it just wasn't for me this time.

Although I haven’t read any of Stephanie Perkins other popular releases as soon as I heard her latest creation was set to be a YA horror novel I decided it was one for my TBR.

There’s Someone Inside Your House is a teen slasher movie in novel form. With all of the classic ingredients from the small town setting, to gory scenes and a group of teens who run towards dangerous situations rather than away from them, the book is a fast-paced tale created for fans of the genre.

Our main character occupying the ‘final girl’ role is Makani Young, a who moved from Hawaii to Nebraska to live with her grandmother following a mysterious incident. We are also introduced to several other characters most notably Makani’s boyfriend Ollie and besties Alex and Darby.

The book strays from the usual horror structure as we don’t have to wait until the very end to find out the identity of the killer, and this element seems to have divided opinions amongst readers. Personally I found this to be an interesting idea and liked that despite the early reveal the killer's actions are not clear until later on, meaning there is still something to keep you guessing.

Whilst I enjoyed the mystery elements of the story There's Someone Inside Your House just wasn’t as scary or full of suspense as I’d hoped, leaving me slightly disappointed. Having said that, the book was an entertaining read overall and made a day of train travel fly by much quicker! I’m sure many readers will love Perkins' take on the teen slasher and am interested to see if she will explore the genre further in her future books.

**Scheduled to go live on my blog, social media, and Goodreads on 21/08/2027**

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This review will contain a tiny spoiler, which is marked as a warning.


There’s Someone Inside Your House was one of my top priorities for YALC. I hadn’t read anything by Perkins before, but it looked like the absolute perfect nostalgia trip. Growing up in the 90’s, teen slasher flicks were everywhere. While I was too terrified to actually watch most of them until I was older, they hold a special place in my heart. I absolutely had to get my hands on a copy of this book and was prepared to be scared.

Scream meets YA in this hotly-anticipated new novel from the bestselling author of Anna and the French Kiss.

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.

International bestselling author Stephanie Perkins returns with a fresh take on the classic teen slasher story that’s fun, quick-witted, and completely impossible to put down.*

I’m sad to say that I was a little disappointed by There’s Someone Inside Your House. I’m not sure if my disappointment stemmed from my expectation of what this novel would be or if it was truly ‘just okay’. I feel that the copy you see above is incredibly misleading because the book is maybe 40% slashy goodness and 60% romance.

Makani moves from Hawaii to Nebraska following a horrible, life changing event that she feels immense guilt over. She’s adjusting to a new school, new friends, and a crush on the resident weird kid when the murders begin. Makani and her friends try to figure out who is behind the killings and why before one of the group ends up dead. However, most of the book follows the development of the romance between Makani and Olly, which should be really interesting. They’re not your typical YA couple — she’s wracked with guilt over the mysterious event that caused her to be sent to live with her grandmother and he’s the school weirdo/scapegoat with pink hair. Their relationship doesn’t even really have a big conflict like you normally see with a romantic subplot, making it a little bit dull. The conflict is that he doesn’t fit in with the typical Nebraska high school crowd and no one trust’s him – with the exception of a few fleeting doubts, Makani is always solidly in his corner. The focus on the main plot — which is what I imagine most of us are reading this particular book — gets lost amongst scene after scene of making out.

There were two big parts of the actual murder plot that I felt were quite weak. First of all, Makani’s mysterious reason for moving is incredibly anticlimactic. There’s this huge build-up to this reveal, which was artfully done, but when we find out why she had to leave her home and come live with her grandmother in Nebraska it just felt…lame. I rolled my eyes on the couch over how worked up she got about it. This is a book with high school kids being murdered and mutilated — I would have thought that Perkins would push the boat out on this major revelation.

The second big issue I have, and ***this is where very minor spoilers come into play***, is that fact that we find out who the murderer is halfway through the book! I kept waiting for there to be a twist because there was no way we’d just be told exactly who the killer is so soon. This reveal removes every last bit of tension, build-up and thrilling excitement. The killer’s motivation also makes so little sense because there’s really nothing there to explain what it is — you just have to assume and roll with it.
Overall, I was really let down by what should have been a fantastic book. There were good bits to be sure and I was indeed entertained, but it could have been so much more. The nostalgia trip I was hoping for wasn’t there at all — it is so unlike the slasher films I was expecting it to be – and the tension fell flat midway through. Perhaps this is on me — I was thinking it would be I know What You Did Last Summer in book form. Perhaps it is on the author – going from sweet romance to horror is a pretty tough leap. If you’re looking for that kind of book, if say give this one a miss. However, if you’re looking for a summer beach read that’s fun and flies by, you should consider picking this up.

I’m struggling to rate this one because it’s not bad, but it’s not great.

Rating: 2.75/5

*copy courtesy of Goodreads