Oh, what I’d give to be young again.

Sure, high school was rough and being a teenager came with all kinds of obstacles, but wouldn’t it be nice to experience those feelings of ❤first love❤ again? Work at the movie rental store with your silly friends? Not pay f*cking bills, perhaps?

We all had our teenage ups and downs, but I can assume your youth probably didn’t have as many un-survivable moments as “There’s Someone Inside Your House.” This book makes most of our high school experiences look like a trip to Disneyland.

Synopsis

Leaving her mysterious past behind, Makani is sent to Nebraska to live with her grandma. Luckily, she’s made a couple new friends and things aren’t going too bad! But then, she has officially fallen for the town weirdo, Ollie.

Suddenly, seemingly random students in her high school are being brutally murdered. Each murder more grotesque than the last. As terror grows closer and her feelings for Ollie intensify, Makani is forced to confront her own dark past.

My Feels

Oh, young love!

I wasn’t really expecting this to be much of a romance novel based on the cover and title, (what’s that thing people say about books and judging covers?,) but I was actually pleasantly surprised by that part of the storyline.

I was fully expecting this to be a teen slasher / who-done-it, which it totally was, but it was also a sweet story about two outcasts finding love with one another. *awwww* In fact, sometimes this type of book is exactly what you need to cleanse the palate between stories of a darker nature. (See The Devil of Nanking.)

The story moves at a decent pace, leaving enough time for character development and relationship building, but even those things are always moving the story forward in a purposeful way.

Our main character, Makani, has a mysterious and past, that we can only assume is of a sinister nature, because every time she starts thinking about Hawaii, she shudders and changes the subject as quickly as it started. When kids start dropping like flies, even our MC becomes a person of interest to the reader, but no one else in town knows that she has something dark in her past worth hiding… Even her best friends.

It doesn’t help that she’s dating the ‘weird’ kid in school, who everyone immediately suspects as the killer. But from Makani’s point of view, Ollie could never be capable of that kind of violence… But Makani’s friends aren’t so sure about that.

Following Ollie and Makani’s love story, which is developing while a bunch of teens are being brutally slain, is a beautiful escape from the tragic events and also a shimmer of hope in a tunnel of darkness. It made me reflect on my first love during high school and it felt super nostalgic!

Ew… Alright, enough of this mushy stuff, okay? Onto the slayings!

Considering this was a YA novel, I was actually really pleasantly surprised at the amount of detail surrounding the murders! It was not too excessive, but far more descriptive than I was expecting! The killer is strange, creepy, and makes some really interesting and bold decisions. The murderer was well written, and because of this, it was especially fun to watch our MCs scramble to figure out who it could be!

The story ends with a hell of a climax. While we may loose some people we liked along the way, no story would be complete without a little heartbreak, and I was just glad it wasn’t between Makani and Ollie! 😍

My Rating: ★★★★☆

I say 4.5 stars out of 5!

(I can’t do a half star with the symbols. Haha!)

Does this sound like something you’d be interested in reading? Have you read There’s Someone Inside Your House? If so, what did you think of it?

xoxo,

Ande