There’s Someone Inside Your House follows Makani, who has moved to Nebraska from Hawaii after some unstated scandal occurred at her school. She is still pretty much an outsider hanging out with a couple of other students but otherwise not really socially active in her school.
One by one students at her school start to die in horrific ways. In the meanwhile Makani had a thing a few months with an outsider kid, Oillie. She restarts the relationship to the chagrin of her friends. Ollie, conveniently is the kid brother of the policeman investigating the murders. They begin to try and figure out who the killer is.
When I read YA one of the things I keep in the back of my mind is what library patron can I “sell” this to. In this case I’m not sure who would appreciate this book. It has Stephanie Perkins usual romantic elements though I’m not sure who would find Ollie appealing. He sounds like a skinny, pink haired skeletal type. The romance fans are also not goin got pick it up due to the horror elements. The horror elements are good in a cheesy Scream kind of way but the horror isn’t hardcore enough for real horror fans.
As to the story elements –
The dark past secret
When it was revealed I was in disbelief. We had all that build up for that? Really? I suspect Ms Perkins was trying to come up with something that wouldn’t make us dislike Makani. The reveal felt disappointing, especially with the constant reminders and it was not really menacing enough for all the build up.
The serial Killer
We find out who the serial killer is about two thirds of the way through the book and we do eventually find out why he was killing all these kids. Unfortunately the reason was ridiculous primarily because there was no character development. In this case I did feel that a little more psychology for the killer’s motivation would have gone a long way in keeping my attention. I suspect that the author was using the usual “but s/he was so quiet, we don’t know why he snapped” explanation but…. Nope it didn’t sit well with me.
Suspense
Okay, someone is indeed inside your house. Make it really obvious that someone is in your house – cabinets being left open, egg timers being moved around don’t exactly say scary. The rationalizations given as to why stuff is happening – grandma has a sleep disorder, the football player may have CTE felt a little forced. Build suspense by leaving creepy gifts like dead birds, or leave a back door open or…..
It would also be really useful if we felt for the victims a little bit. Develop their personalities so we actually feel something when they die. Also, use your locale. Ms. Perkins did a fair job with the corn maze but there are long stretches of flat emptiness and darkness. Even little noises like crickets can become menacing. Go ahead use a couple parked in a car on the outskirts. You’ve already used other stereotypical bits so use this to build suspense.
I applaud Ms. Perkins attempts to step out of the box but in this case I wish she had just gone for full on horror and left out the romance.
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