There’s Someone In Your House
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Series: None
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Horror
Release Date: September 26, 2017
Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers
Summary:
It’s been almost a year since Makani Young came to live with her grandmother in landlocked Nebraska, and she’s still adjusting to her new life. And still haunted by her past in Hawaii.
Then, one by one, the students of her small town high school begin to die in a series of gruesome murders, each with increasing and grotesque flair. As the terror grows closer and the hunt intensifies for the killer, Makani will be forced to confront her own dark secrets.
Stephanie Perkins, bestselling author of Anna and the French Kiss, returns with a fresh take on the classic teen slasher story that’s fun, quick-witted, and completely impossible to put down.
First Sentence: The egg-shaped timer was on the welcome mat when she came home.
My Review:
I never thought that Kelly + Stephanie Perkins + a two star rating would ever happen, but alas, I’m sad to say that yes, it’s happening with There’s Someone In Your House. Stephanie Perkins is one of my auto-buy authors – I absolutely loved, loved, loved Anna and the French Kiss (despite that very cringeworthy title) and even enjoyed Isla and the Happily Ever After, so not enjoying There’s Someone In Your House makes me extremely sad.
“None of this is your fault,” Grandma Young said.
“I know,” Makani whispered. A lie.
“Do you?”
Makani nodded. Another lie. (ARC 186)
I didn’t have an opinion when I first heard that Stephanie Perkins was going to be writing a horror novel – all I knew was that I had to get my hands on it – but now, I wonder if I should have been like others and worried about it more. The main problem I have with There’s Someone In Your House is the fact that the entire book felt like it was a romance novel rather than a horror novel and that completely threw me off. Once I reached the halfway point of There’s Someone In Your House, I realized that only two short chapters of the book was focused on the horror aspects while the other pages were focused on Makani’s developing romance with a guy. Usually, I wouldn’t mind if there was a lot of romance in my books, but since I went into the book expecting lots of bloodshed and screaming moments, it left me feeling disappointed. There’s Someone In Your House frankly felt like it was going through an identity crisis, trying to decide whether it wanted to be a romance or a horror novel.
One thing I love about Stephanie Perkins’ other books is the romance. Let’s face it, Stephanie Perkins writes the best romance books ever. She makes you swoon, fall for the guy, and even think about the guy book all day long. Even though about 90% of There’s Someone In Your House was focused on the romance, I didn’t root for Makani and her boyfriend at all. In fact, I wasn’t even that invested or interested in their romance once they got together. I think the writing in There’s Someone In Your House is a huge reason why that happened – it was just extremely hard to connect to anything – the events happening, the romance, and even the characters.
“I can’t just sit here,” she said. He might be looking for me. (ARC 263)
Other little aspects of There’s Someone In Your House that I thought could be done better was that it was extremely weird how the killer was revealed at the little over the halfway point of the book and everything went on as normal, only now the killer has a name and a face. The killer was barely even in the book before it was revealed that he was the killer, so it did not have the desired OMG IT WAS HIM! effect. Another thing I thought was weird was how Makani kept referring to her dark past so often that I thought her past would be so bad – like I once murdered a living thing that’s not a plant bad – but it turned out to be something that was a letdown.
Overall, if you’re a huge fan of Stephanie Perkins like me and want to read There’s Someone In Your House, I really hope you’ll enjoy it more than I did. Maybe it’ll help now that you’ll know what to expect.
I’ve seen so many people disliking this book lately. I thought it was pretty decent – I haven’t read anything else by Stephanie Perkins though, so maybe that’s why i liked it? Not sure. I was so bummed out that it revealed the killer so early in the book though – it kind of took away from the mystery of it, and it just made it feel sort of rushed.
Hmm, There’s Something In Your House is REALLY different from Perkins’ other books. Once you read Anna and the French Kiss, you’ll definitely see why I – and other people – were sadly disappointed with this one.
Kelly recently posted…ARC Book Review: Forest of A Thousand Lanterns – Julie C. Dao
Oh no!! I’ve heard not so great things about this one. I’m still interested, but will be sure to lower my expectations a bit and now that there is a lot of romance. I think it’s so weird that the killer was revealed so early on! That’s so strange…
I’ve read books where the killer was revealed early on, but in those books, we get to know the killer beforehand so it had a huge impact. There’s Someone In Your House on the other hand, didn’t do that.
Kelly recently posted…ARC Book Review: Forest of A Thousand Lanterns – Julie C. Dao
I agree that it was all over the place in terms of wanting to be both a romance and a thriller/horror. I do wonder if that was mostly down to the publisher, though. They tend to want ALLLLLL the romance in YA.
And nope, it didn’t have a great reveal either because who even was that random person?
Eeee, I hope not because that’ll be really disappointing. If the publisher was behind this mix, I hope they see reviews and learn from this.
Kelly recently posted…ARC Book Review: Forest of A Thousand Lanterns – Julie C. Dao
I totally agree with you regarding how the novel was more focused on romance compared to horror. I guess it’s a good book for people who aren’t huge horror fans and it helps them transition from genre to genre but unfortunately I was disappointed with the book. I love Stephanie Perkins’ Anna and the French Kiss companion series but I felt like this book fell flat. I was hoping for the killer not to be revealed midway either. I wanted more suspense until the very end.
Yes, yes, yes to everything you’ve said. I was hoping to LOVE this one, but it ended up feeling so flat. I’m so sad that I had to really push myself to finish this one too.
Kelly recently posted…ARC Book Review: Forest of A Thousand Lanterns – Julie C. Dao
I haven’t read any books written by this author, I know..shame on me. I love the title of this book, it makes me want to read it, just because I would think it’s creepy. So sad to hear that it’s a let down. I will start with Anna and the French Kiss. :)