There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins - NO

There’s Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins, 287 pages. Dutton Books (Penguin), 2017. $18.  

Content: Language: R (116 swears; 29 swears); Mature Content: PG-13; Violence: R.  

BUYING ADVISORY: HS – NO  

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE  

Makani has been living with her grandmother for a year and has a crush on the goth boy Oliver at school.  When a popular student at school is murdered, it shocks everyone and because Oliver is a bit unconventional some people look at him suspiciously.  What they don’t know is that Makani has a suspicious past as well, which is why she was sent to live with her grandmother.  As the murders start to stack up Makani notices things have been moved around her house, which is one of the clues that the murderer leaves before he kills and she has to figure out who she can trust before she is the next victim.  

I like a good scary book, especially young adult, because it’s usually the right balance between scary, realistic and not too gruesome.  This book is none of those things.  The body count is so over the top that it’s not even scary because you know that the people are going to die.  The story isn’t believable and becomes even more unrealistic when you find out who the murderer is and why he/she is killing in a disappointing short paragraph explanation.  My least favorite part of this book is the rated-R descriptive, gruesome, over-the-top callous murdering of young adults.  Makani’s secret past is also alluded to throughout the book and ends up being a weird story furthering my disappointment.  

C. Peterson