Ever since I heard that Stephanie Perkins’ novel, There’s Someone Inside Your House, was getting adapted into a film at Netflix, I’ve been itching to get my hands on it. Despite it being a young adult novel, the premise (and the title, come on) sounded perfectly creepy and right up my alley! And it was! This delivered both the spooks and the gore and I hope they really commit in the adaptation.
The film follows Hawaiian transplant, Makani Young, who’s lived in Osbourne, Nebraska with her grandma for the last year and a half. Why she moved is treated with some suspect secrecy, which just adds to the overall suspense of the novel. Aside from Makani’s secret, some select students are getting viciously murdered. Most of the novel is told from Makani’s perspective, but the students who are getting murdered get their own chapters told from their perspectives right before they die. A similar thing is being noticed by all of them before it’s too late: things are mysteriously out of place in their houses.
After three students are murdered in the normally docile town, everyone starts freaking out, but staying in your house doesn’t seem like the right route to take, does it? That’s what everyone does anyways, and Makani is next on the list. Lucky for her, Ollie, her crush, and grandma Young both are there to help stop the psychotic student who is doing this to everyone. It’s wallflower, David Thurston. This revelation was revealed only just halfway through the novel! The rest of the time was spent trying to figure out why he was killing everyone, where he was, and potentially who was next on his hit list.
Makani is able to team up with Ollie and her two friends to try and figure it out, but there is a lot more bloodshed before everything comes to an end. Lots of injures and some more deaths seem to overshadow Makani’s big secret, which really wasn’t as exciting as I was anticipating, but it was still nice to have two mysteries to try and figure out for most of the novel. Through all of this Makani was able to strengthen the relationships she had with her friends, and with Ollie, and luckily her grandma would be making a full recovery to keep looking after her. It was clear neither of her parents were going to do that.
Overall, I would compare this novel to the Scream franchise. I mean the beginning is practically just like except there was no phone call! Look, I was a little disappointed with both Makani’s secret like I said above, but also with who the killer was. I’d only ever seen his name on the page briefly two times before the reveal. I get that it makes it more shocking because he seemed like the least likely person to kill people, but he was also never around. Perhaps this is where the film can excel. At least have him in more scenes so you know he’s around! So yes, not having someone within the inner circle be the culprit seemed like a bit of a missed opportunity, but I did appreciate the graphic detail of the kills. I hope they don’t tone that down in the adaptation. Ultimately though, this was a fun read, and it’s made me look forward to the film that’s coming next year.