There's Someone Inside Your House

This book is every person’s nightmare turned into a reality. Whether you believe in intuition or not, everyone has those moments in life when you feel as though you are being watched, as if there is someone just out of your line of sight that is keeping tabs on your every move. Some people feel this more strongly than others, and for those of us, myself included, who feel this so strongly that the hairs stand up on the back of our necks, I would offer a word of caution before reading this book; this book takes the illusion of your home representing safety and security and smashes it to pieces. A lifetime of horror movies have taught me to trust my intuition and that you never investigate mysterious sights/sounds, especially if it’s coming from your dark, musty basement.

The concept of this book is absolutely brilliant. Stephanie Perkins crafted a tale that forces you to think about every tiny detail of commonplace objects and routines and has you second guessing minute details wondering if you’ve missed some clue that something sinister is afoot. This book is a psychological roller coaster that leaves you wanting to shut the book forever because you’re creeped out, while forcing you to keep reading because the anticipation of what’s next is too strong.

In “There’s Someone Inside Your House,” Perkins tells the story of Makani Young, a native of Hawaii who was forced to relocate to her grandmother’s house in Osborne, Nebraska. It’s clear that Makani’s parents never played an active role in her life, or had any true desire to be parents, but it was an event in Makani’s past (which she has kept secret from everyone) that resulted in her moving to the other side of the country. Makani finds a group of friends--and even has a summer romance--but when the school year starts she feels as though she is out of place. Makani saw herself as a third wheel to her friends, Darby and Alex; Ollie Larsson, her romantic beau from the summer wasn’t speaking to her; and she was trying to fit in as the only mixed race girl in her school. As if Makani wasn’t dealing with enough, her classmates started turning up dead in horrific displays of violent mutilation.

Not only were the murders of these high school students horrific, the pre meditation process was designed to be psychologically torturous. Breaking into--and hiding--in their homes for extended periods of time, the murderer would disturb the victims routine, or move small objects around the house in order to make the victim begin second guessing their sanity. Whether it was seeing a cupboard open in the morning that you could have sworn was closed when you went to bed, or finding a knife you left in the sink had been placed in the dishwasher, or the puzzle you left unfinished suddenly seemed have more pieces popped into place, the murderer toyed with his victims until their anxiety and uncertainty was running rampant before finally killing them in perverse and dramatic fashion.

As the identity of the killer is revealed and secrets are forced into the open, Makani and her friends fight to save their classmates and themselves.

This book is one that definitely should not be read in bed at night (I made that mistake), but it should be read. It was easy to fall into the beautifully written community of Osborne, Nebraska, and I felt myself rooting for them to catch the murderer and have their midwestern town return to idyllic bliss. This book certainly has suspense, drama, plenty of action, and a teen romance that’ll make your heart flutter. Another feather in Perkins’ cap is that she wrote this book to feature a cast of nontraditional characters that create a stark contrast to the image of the typical Nebraskan.

With all that being said, there was just something about this book that left me wanting more. I can’t quite put my finger on what (perhaps the ending wasn’t as fulfilling as I had hoped), but I would still recommend this book to any fan of psychological thrills.

4 out of 5 stars.