There's Someone Inside Your House: Stephanie Perkins

super fun read, feels like watching Scream or any other teen horror.

2,5 stars. I kind of expected more but then again, Perkins is known for her romance YA books, not for her horror books. The focus of this book is more on romance and the murderer is revealed quite early in the book, so there’s not even a big mystery left. no important character died and the killer wasn’t really ‘well known’ to the reader, so there wasn’t a lot of suspense. However, the writing style was good and the bodies were displayed in a twisted way, which made it more interesting. Contrary to the Anna and the French Kiss series, these characters aren't memorable.

actual rating: 3.5 Nothing gets you more in the right mood for Halloween than a murder mystery type book. Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays and autumn for sure is my favorite season so I love getting in the right Halloween mood by reading some scary book. It was actually the book title that made me preorder the book as soon as I heard about it on social media. It reminded me so much for the movies Scream and I know what you did last summer that I simply had to buy it, no matter what. Of course I started reading as soon as it arrived on my doorstep. If you want to know if I liked the book or not, go ahead and please keep reading: I love scary movies and I for sure love scary books, especially around this time of the year, however I didn’t find this book to be as scary as I originally thought it would be. So if you are more of a chicken when it comes to reading scary books or anything else that is horror related, you can definitely read this one. It did remind me of those cheesy High School slasher movies though, which is not a bad thing. Actually I found myself enjoying this book a lot. It’s not one of those books that will keep you up at night for the next couple of weeks. It’s not scary like that; maybe for some people it is but it wasn’t for me. Some things creeped me out to be honest and it made me jump whenever my boyfriend sneaked up on me when I thought he wasn’t home and when for a second I thought there actually was one inside my house but that was pretty much it. A GREAT DIVERSE CAST What I loved so much about this books were the characters. I was really happy to see a biracial character leading the story. Our main character, Makani, is an African American – Native Hawaiian teen and we also have some great LGBQT+ representation in the book. I also think Olly is a very unique character and a pleasant love interest. It’s not love at first sight and I love how sex positive the whole book is, even though it’s not a very big part of the story. Everything just seemed so real, which I always love when I read a book, especially a YA novel because I think it’s really nice to see teens behave and act in a book like they might actually do in real life. This makes it so easy to relate to the characters; to fully understand their behavior and why they decided to do/say certain things. I just loved how different all these characters are from each other; they aren’t all blonde, straight and white. But I was hoping to see a bit more of Darby who’s a transboy in a small town. I was so happy that the author included such interesting and diverse characters in her story but I really hoped to learn more about them and their past. The kills in the book were real bloody and I loved it. I mean, I’m not some sick person who loves to see people get killed or something but I loved how I had to take a couple of breaths at times because it was so gruesome at some point that I needed a little break. It’s already bad and scary and bloody when you watch it on screen but written on paper I found it even more disturbing to be honest, because it’s your own Imagination you use and I think that makes it even more scary. I did wonder sometimes how this book actually made it into the YA genre since there is a lot of swearing in it, some sex as well and a lot of bloody kills. There was one thing actually that kind of disappointed me to be honest. There was this constant reference to Makani’s mysterious and bad past but in the end, even though what she did turned out to be something very very wrong, it was nowhere as bad as I thought it would be. I’m not saying I would have wanted her to be a girl how killed half her class or anything; I’m just saying that all the references and the conversations made me so curious and excited and in the end it was just somewhat disappointing. For me at least that was. MORE BLOODY THAN SCARY There’s someone inside your house is definitely no hardcore horror book and I’m sure hardcore horror fans maybe might not enjoy it that much since it really isn’t very scary, it’s more bloody than scary actually but still I did really enjoy this book and I had a lot of fun reading it and sometimes even goosebumps. This was also my first book by Stephanie Perkins and I’ve got to say, I absolutely love her writing. I’ve already heard so many good things about her other books and now that I read this one I cannot wait to read her other books as well. If you are looking for a quick and sometimes scary read with a lot of bloody scenes; a book which is kind of a written version of Scream and I know what you did last summer and pretty much every cheesy High School slasher movie you could think of, this is the right book for you. It has some vicious scenes, is mysterious and also a bit funny with a great diverse cast and wonderful writing. I absolutely enjoyed the book and would definitely recommend it. BLOG: https://ivybooknerd.com/

- 4,5 stars ✰ "People live through such pain only once; pain comes again, but it finds a tougher surface." This was such a "fun“ read. I don’t know if you can call a book fun, when people get brutally murdered, but I did have a good reading expierence. I loved how this book felt like these old school american high school slasher movies like fear street, scream or even john carpenters "halloween“. I think it’s really hard to try to put these kind of stories into books and it’s really tough to deliver the vibes of the "slasher movies“ in a book, but this author did incredibly well with that. Her writing was so fluid and vivid, the characters all felt so alive to me (well until they weren’t. see what I did there?). I love it when a creepy book makes your own head jumpscare you it’s one of the best but also scariest feelings ever. I found it interesting how the killer was revealed so early. For me that kind of took away the anticipation of finding out who did it. The plottwist was also a bit bland and boring, probably the only reason this book doesn’t get a full five star rating from me. The povs we got from the victims, before they were killed, was such a good thing to add. It really made you emphasise with them a lot, and it made them feel less like random characters that were just killed for the purpose of the story. The only other negative thing about this was, that it ended so abruptly. I would have loved to see a bit more about the aftermath of the "Osborne Slayings“. How people were coping with their grieve, what happened to Makani Young, after she did what she did at the end. But otherwise this was such a fun book that kept me on the edge of my seat the entire way through and I’m so excited to watch the movie. Now I just gotta find a friend to watch it with me because I’m way to scared to watch horror movies alone… "Well, I know that our regrets change us, and that’s how we grow - for either better or worse. And it seems to me, you’re growing better.“ "And if you don't deal with those feelings, they don't go away on their own. They keep building and building until they force their way out." "I always pay attention to you. I always see you.“ "She had to believe that every mistake was still a choice. She had to believe that Ollie was a good person, because she had to believe it about herself.“ "It had been so long since Makani had felt any amount of genuine happiness that she'd forgotten that sometimes it could hurt as much as sadness. His declaration pierced through the muscle of her heart like a skillfully thrown knife. It was the kind of pain that made her feel alive.“

Inhalt: Makani Young dachte, sie hätte ihre Vergangenheit auf Hawaii zurückgelassen. Sie hat in dem beschaulichen Städtchen Osborne zwei gute Freunde gefunden und auch ihre zarte Romanze mit dem Außenseiter Ollie scheint immer ernster zu werden. Doch als eine Reihe grausamer Morde, bei denen Schüler auf brutalste Weise getötet werden, die Stadt in Angst un Schrecken versetzt, scheint es, als würde ihre Vergangenheit sie wieder einholen. Und niemand ist wirklich sicher, denn der Mörder scheint wie ein Geist zu sein und er dringt in die Häuser seiner Opfer ein... Meine Meinung: Das Cover Ehrlich gesagt verstehe ich nicht so ganz, warum das Cover mit dieser schrecklichen neon-pinken Leuchtschrift gestaltet wurde. Es passt so gar nicht zu der Geschichte und sieht irgendwie leicht "billig" aus. Das Cover der deutschen Version "Es ist jemand in deinem Haus" ist deutlich passender und schöner. Die Figuren Makani Young hat mir als Protagonistin wirklich gut gefallen. Für einen Teenager scheint sie relativ reif und ihr Charakter hatte eine gewisse Tiefe, die es ermöglicht hat, sich gut in sie hineinversetzen zu können. Ollie war (zusammen mit seinem Bruder Chris) mein Favorit in dieser Geschichte. Ich fand seine ruhige und schüchterne, aber zugleich mutige und liebevolle Art unglaublich toll und konnte sehr gut verstehen, warum Makani sich gerade in ihn verliebt. Die Art und Weise, wie er mit Makani und auch mit ihrer Großmutter umgeht, fand ich so schön. Auch sein Bruder Chris, der nach dem tödlichen Autounfall ihrer Eltern quasi deren Rolle übernommen hat, hat mir total gut gefallen. Makanis Großmutter ist eine etwas verschrobene, aber wirklich liebenswürdige und vor allem mutige Frau. Mehr als einmal musste ich über ihre witzigen Kommentare schmunzeln. Darby und Alex, Makanis beste Freunde, fand ich ebenfalls sehr unterhaltsam und ich konnte mir gut vorstellen, mit den beiden wirklich befreundet zu sein. Leider sind sie in der Mitte der Geschichte etwas in den Hintergrund gerückt, dafür am Ende aber voll präsent. Den Mörder fand ich wirklich schrecklich. Er war unheimlich und unberechenbar und ich habe mich während des Lesens mehr als nur einmal beobachtet gefühlt. Meiner Meinung nach ein wirklich gut gelungener Charakter. Die Geschichte Mit meiner guten Bewertung stehe ich laut Goodreads ein bisschen alleine da. Viele waren von diesem Buch nicht sehr angetan, aber ich muss sagen, dass es mir wirklich gut gefallen hat. Alles beginnt mit dem Mord an der Schülerin Haley. Man sieht aus ihrer Perspektive, dass in ihrem Haus etwas Merkwürdiges vorgeht und wie sie es immer mehr mit der Angst zu tun bekommt. Ich fand die Stimmung schon da sehr bedrückend und als man im nächsten Kapitel erfahren hat, dass sie auf grausamste Weise ermordet wurde, dachte ich: Wow, die gute Stephanie Perkins legt ja sofort so richtig los. Das war dann im Endeffekt leider nicht der Fall. Bis Seite 100 passierte außer zwei Morden eigentlich nichts, außer, dass Makani und Ollie so langsam mit einander anbandeln und einer Menge Rumgeknutsche. Daran konnte man sehen, dass Perkins normalerweise eher für ihre romantischen Young Adult-Bücher, wie z.B. Lola and the Boy next Door, bekannt ist. Das hat der Spannung leider einen kleinen Abbruch getan und deswegen gab es von mir auch einen Punkt Abzug. Aber keine Sorge: am Ende hat sie die fehlende Spannung gleich doppelt wettgemacht. Die Kapitel aus der Sicht der Opfer waren extrem bedrückend und unheimlich. Ich musste beim Lesen echt häufiger mal einen Blick hinter mich werfen, weil ich mich auch schon beobachtet gefühlt habe. Und die Morde waren ziemlich brutal. Ich bin ja einige Graumsamkeiten von Chris Carters Büchern gewohnt, aber Stephanie Perkins kann es in Sachen Brutalität fast mit ihm aufnehmen. Und sie hat an bildhaften Beschreibungen echt nicht gespart, man konnte sich also alles sehr detailreich vorstellen. Zum Ende hin hat das Buch dann deutlich an Tempo aufgenommen und wurde so spannend, dass ich es nicht mal mehr aus der Hand gelegt habe, als meine Blase schon ziemlich gedrückt hat. Das war echt mal ein Showdown, der sich gewaschen hatte. Ich war am Ende dieses Buches so dermaßen fertig mit meinen Nerven, dass ich erstmal nicht einschlafen konnte und ein beruhigendes Hörspiel zur Entspannung brauchte. Der Schreibstil Ich liebe Stepahnie Perkins' Schreibstil. Ich fand schon "Anna and the French Kiss" und "Lola and the Boy next Door" unglaublich toll und auch im Thriller-Genre schlägt sie sich meiner Meinung nach echt gut. Klar, hin und wieder kam am Anfang ihre romantische Ader zum Vorschein und ein wenig die Spannung gekillt, aber gegen Ende hin hat sie das echt wieder ausgebügelt! Ihr Schreibstil ist sehr locker und flüssig und dadurch fliegt man immer geradezu durch ihre Geschichten. Fazit: Ein sehr gelungener und spannender Thriller, den ich einfach nicht aus der Hand legen konnte!