REVIEW | There’s Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins
“The killer sat on the rug—crisscross applesauce—picked up the abandoned controller, and unpaused the game. There was no hurry.”
Themes:
- What loneliness can do to a person
- Allowing past mistakes to control you
- Prejudices and judgements based on appearance
Okay, so I’m going to start by saying that while I think this was a pretty good book, my entire perspective on it has been influenced by two things. First, I’m kind of a wimp when it comes to certain elements of horror, and this did freak me out enough that I had to take a break from reading at some moments. Second, as you might expect given the first thing, I don’t read or watch much horror at all. Before this, the only horror I’d read was in the form of a few short stories! So, I can’t speak to where it stands within the genre.
All of that being said, There’s Someone Inside Your House was a fast-paced and fun read! I really enjoyed the characters, which surprised me. I think I expected Perkins not to spend the same amount of time building well-rounded characters since it’s a slasher. Um, no, she totally makes you love and lose!
The element of this novel that freaked me out was the psychological aspect. Before each murder, the victims notice that nearby items are missing or out of place. If I read this too late at night, I started to think things were in the wrong place. Obviously I didn’t think there was a killer in my home, but There’s Someone Inside Your House did mess with my head!
One aspect of the book that I love without a doubt is how diverse the characters are! Makani is black and was raised in Hawaii, while one of her best friends, Darby, is transgender. I can’t speak to the representation of either of these (and would love to hear your thoughts if you have read this book and can), but it seemed to be handled well, and I loved both of these characters! While on the subject, Alex is so fun, and I thought Ollie was such an endearing character.
However, there’s one thing about this book that I just don’t understand. Did anyone else think Makani’s secret was so not a big deal AT ALL? What she did to Jasmine was not okay, that’s true, but it wasn’t nearly as bad, in my opinion, as Perkins made us think that big secret was going to be. I also don’t think Jasmine almost drowning was Makani’s fault at all. If you’ve read the book (which hopefully you have because obviously this review contains spoilers), please comment below to tell me how you felt about this. Makani’s months and months of guilt were over that? I do get that it was more about Makani feeling like it meant that she was capable of something malicious, but I thought her actions were the result of alcohol, unhappy circumstance, and justified anger gone one step too far. These are things we can all relate to, right? Which is a great part of this, but I thought the drama inside Makani’s own head was overdone. Personally, I would have paid my dues, said my sorry’s and forgiven myself. But then, everyone deals with things individually, so perhaps that was the point!
Overall, I think this is a quick and entertaining read that would be particularly great for anyone looking to test the waters with horror!
