Genre: YA

I received this book for free from Dutton Books for Young Readers in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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.

While I admittedly have some complex feelings about Anna and the French Kiss, I can wholeheartedly say that I enjoy Stephanie Perkins’ writing style and that when I heard about There’s Someone Inside Your House, I was extremely excited to see how her unique writing style would translate across genres.

It did take me a while to get into There’s Someone Inside Your House so it is slow-going but as soon as things started getting bloodier and gorier, I was HERE FOR IT and I just got sucked in.

While it does kind of suck it took me a while to get into There’s Someone Inside Your House, I think it also makes sense because it is drawing from the classic horror movie, Scream and classic horror movies take time to built up suspense and excitement until you’re just hit in the face with all the action. This just makes the ride sweeter, I guess? Who knows. I am not a writer, just a reader.

One of my major issues with the book, and the reason I didn’t love it (even if I did enjoy it), was that it was a tad romance heavy for my tastes. I am not necessarily surprised but if there is a killer on the loose, I’d rather more time be dedicated to solving the mystery as opposed to kissing and relationships developing. The problem is that even though bonds are created under stressful situations, there was no real urgency to the pace at which their relationship progressed. I don’t mean in terms of insta love or anything but rather that everyone was just taking their sweet time doing things even though teens were being murdered.

Makani & Ollie’s romance may have been a little off putting but they are also both characters I enjoyed and I thought Perkins did a good job developing them and making it so they weren’t caricatures.

There was also a whole slew of secondary characters that made the story more entrancing and I enjoyed their stories as well. I do wish we had gotten more details about Makani’s parents though because they seemed odd.

Overall, I think that There’s Someone Inside Your House is a good, spoopy (not a spelling error), horror read to get you in the mood for Fall. The romance does dampen the horror a bit but the plot will definitely get your heart racing!

3 Hot Espressos