There's Someone Inside Your House

There's Someone Inside Your House

Author	Stephanie Perkins
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Horror Thriller Young adult
Publisher	Dutton Books
Publication date	September 12, 2017
Media type	Print (hardback and paperback) Audiobook E-book
Pages	287[1]
ISBN	978-0142424988

There's Someone Inside Your House is a horror novel by American author Stephanie Perkins, published on September 12, 2017, by Dutton Books.^[2] The novel's film adaptation, a slasher film of the same name, was directed by Patrick Brice, and was released on October 6, 2021 on Netflix.

Synopsis[]

Makani Young is still adjusting to her new life in the small town of Osborne, Nebraska. It has been one year since the inciting incident that caused her parents to send her away from Hawaii to live with her grandmother in the rural town. Though Makani befriends a few friends named Alex and Darby and even flirts with a romantic interest named Ollie at Osborne High School, she is still haunted by the secrets of her past life. However, all of that is put to the side when the students at her school start getting killed in a series of gruesome murders. As the terror grows closer and the hunt intensifies for the killer, the dark secrets of the past will finally be revealed.^[3]

Plot[]

Within hours of the brutal murder of Haley Whitehall, news of her death reaches her classmates at Osborne High in the morning, including new senior transfer Makani Young who attends the same school. Makani has been sent to permanently live with her grandmother in Osborne, Nebraska from Hawaii due to her parents' divorce as well as a past incident that she was involved back in her hometown. At this point, Makani has been in Osborne for a better part of the year and has made some friends in her town including Alex Shimerda and Darby. She even had a brief summer fling with the socially recluse, Ollie Larsson, who she still has feelings for, but their relationship ended suddenly and without explanation.

After their fling ended, Makani decides to mend her relationship with Ollie but fails to reconcile at the start of the new school year. In the aftermath of Haley’s murder, students at Osborne High are startled with her murder case. Shortly after, the rumour mill immediately takes off with some having suspicions of Ollie being the killer. Makani tries to reacquaint herself with Ollie again, this time with great success. The pair manage to pick up their relationship, where they left off in the summer but without the awkwardness that preceded their previous encounter. The pair hang out for a while but Ollie is called into work at Greeley's Foods, after another employee gets fired for stealing. Ollie also knows a lot about Haley's murder because his brother works for the police force. He divulges to Makani that he has overheard some conversations surrounding the case and also sifted through his brother's confidential files.

When the shock of Haley’s death is beginning to settle down, Matt Butler, another student at Osborne High is murdered, this time inside the school. Due to the recent murder cases, fear and suspicion spread across the entire town of Osborne. During Matt's murder investigation, every student and member of staff at Osborne High is questioned by the Osborne PD including Makani, but she is nervous, thinking that the police including Ollie’s brother, Chris Larsson might uncover secrets from her past.

Afterwards, Ollie and Makani head back to his house but before they can even leave the school grounds, a reporter grabs Makani. In response, Makani screams but then quickly leaves the scene with Ollie. After getting back to Ollie’s, she looks into one of the files that Chris has left lying around and realizes the sheer level of violence and gore at Haley’s murder. During her conversation with Ollie, she relays her concerns. Soon after, they have a moment, which is quickly interrupted by Ollie's brother, Chris who happened to notice them in the room at Ollie's place. After Chris leaves the room, Ollie and Makani later theorize that the killer might have a history with Matt and Haley.

In the wake of the third murder with Rodrigo's death, the police have no leads to follow but Makani and Ollie discuss the events and both realize that it must have been someone who knew Rodrigo. They arrive at the assumption due to noting how the killer was comfortable staying inside Rodrigo's house, hours after they murdered him, and knew information about his parents being away at the time. They also highlighted that Rodrigo didn't fit into a pattern and that he was a different type of victim unlike Matt and Haley, considering that he wasn't very popular and had a small group of friends. Later, this murder divides Makani’s friendship group at her high school, as Darby and Alex still suspect that Ollie might be involved and after Rodrigo’s death, Alex is even more likely to believe it since she had a crush on Rodrigo.

A while later, the killer enters Makani's house, and decides to move around objects to psychologically torment her. When Grandma Young attends a sleep clinic, Ollie, and Makani head back to her place, but Makani realizes a few hours later that certain items were suspiciously moved to different parts of the house. She quickly puts two and two together from the knowledge she has about the previous murders and realizes she is being targeted. As soon as the killer emerges from the shadows, they begin to attack her. Luckily, both Ollie and her grandmother are quick to the scene and the killer is no match for the trio and flees. But before the killer does, they slice Makani’s arm and stabs her grandmother. Moments later, Makani and Ollie learn the identity of the killer as none other than David Ware, Rodrigo’s best friend. In the aftermath of the attack, Makani is perplexed at David's motive for trying to kill her as she didn’t interact much with David at Osborne High. Later, she assumes that the only reason that he targeted her was because of something related to her past.

While her grandmother is recovering in the hospital, she decides to come clean about her past to Alex, Darby, and Ollie because she feels there is no way she can keep it a secret especially after David’s escape. Makani tells her friends about her sordid past. She was involved in a hazing incident in her old swim team which got out of hand. As a result, she assaulted Jasmine, the girl she claimed was her best friend at the time of the incident. Since the event, she has carried around the guilt of that act for so long but her friends assure her that even though she did a bad thing, she isn’t a bad person. Ollie also confides in her about his past and how he hurt his brother with his actions and attitude after their parents’ death, which makes Makani feel a lot better about herself and more confident in their relationship now. Feeling relieved, Makani realizes now that he isn’t going to leave her just because of what she did in the past.

Later, Makani, Ollie and her friends come across news of a recent string of murders connected to the serial killer. They later uncover the identity of the victims Caleb Greely and Katie Kurtzman, who were killed by David, whilst escaping from the authorities. While these victims seem random, they are also students that were very passionate about their aspirations and hopes for the future. During his spree, David tries to target another victim, but Makani and her friends figure it out and rush to Rosemarie Holt’s house. While they manage to save her, Alex is killed in the process devastating Darby. The trio then head off together after David who has fled into the corn maze. When the group finally catch up to him, David states that he isn't going down without a fight. Stabbing both Darby and Ollie, he leaves Makani alone to chase her down. In pursuit, David is still intent on killing her but Makani manages to survive the harrowing ordeal, as people surround David making it impossible for him to escape. When he quickly lunges for Makani, she retrieves his knife and stabs him landing a fatal blow. It turns out David targeted people who wanted to leave Osbourne, like Haley and Matt, or people he felt didn’t belong there in the first place, like Makani, but in the end he failed. While Alex is dead, Darby is alive and Ollie is injured but he will survive. In light of the recent events, Makani realizes that she does have some wonderful people who love her and care about her, even if her parents don’t.

Characters[]

• Makani Young – Main character of the novel and a new transfer senior student at Osborne High. She is a half Hawaiian and half African American who moves to Nebraska from Hawaii, a year before the story begins. Makani was forced to relocate following an incident that occurred in her Hawaiian hometown.
• Oliver "Ollie" Larsson – Nicknamed Ollie, he is a reclusive student at Osborne High and a romantic interest of Makani. He has a part-time job at Greeley's Foods. Osborne Police Department considered him one of the leading suspects behind the new murder cases at the town.
• Haley Whitehall – Osborne High's president of the drama club.
• "Justine" Darby – A transgender student who attends Osborne High. He is one of Makani's school friends.
• Alexandra "Alex" Shimerda – Makani's goth friend and a student at Osborne High.
• Zachary Loup – Osborne High's resident burnout. He is infamously known to be quite abrasive to his friends and classmates at school.
• Grandma Young – Makani's maternal grandmother and legal guardian.
• Matt Butler – A popular football jock and student at Osborne High.
• Chris Larsson – Oliver’s brother and police officer at the Osborne PD.
• Caleb Greely – The son of Pastor Greely, a student at Osborne High as well as a weekend supervisor at Greeley's Foods.
• Jessica Boyd – Haley's understudy at the drama club and a student at Osborne High.
• Rodrigo Morales – Alex's romantic interest and a student at Osborne High.
• Lauren Dixon – Matt's girlfriend and a student at Osborne High.
• David Thurston Ware – Rodrigo's best friend and a student at Osborne High.
• Katie Kurtzman - Osborne High's student council president.
• Rosemarie Holt - An aspiring jockey and student at Osborne High.
• Buddy – Matt's best friend and a student at Osborne High.
• Brooke – Haley’s best friend and a student at Osborne High.
• Jonathan – The lead in the school production of Sweeney Todd and a student at Osborne High.
• Jasmine Oshiro - Makani's former best friend and a student at Kailua-Kona High, Makani's old school in Hawaii.
• Kayla Lum - A senior student at Kailua-Kona High.
• Gabrielle Cruz - A senior student as well as the captain of the swimming team at Kailua-Kona High.

Reception[]

MJ Franklin of Mashable praised the novel, stating that it is a great homage to "classic slasher movies like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer".^[4] Christina Ledbetter from The Washington Times praised the book, mentioning that the elements of "teen romance and grisly murders crawl into the backseat of the car for a make-out session, producing a read that is as eerie as it is delightful."^[5] Booklist stated in a positive review of the book that it is a "clever—and, to fans, no doubt surprising—foray into the teen slasher genre."^[6]

Film adaptation[]

In March 2018, Deadline reported that Netflix had partnered with 21 Laps Entertainment and Atomic Monster Productions to adapt the novel into a film.^[7] After an official announcement, it was confirmed that Shawn Levy, James Wan, Dan Cohen and Michael Clear would serve as producers on the film.^[8] In March 2019, it was announced that Patrick Brice would direct, from a screenplay by Henry Gayden.^[9] In August 2019, Sydney Park, Théodore Pellerin, Asjha Cooper, Dale Whibley, Jesse LaTourette, Burkely Duffield, and Diego Josef were set to star in the film.^[10] Initially expected to be released on Netflix in February 2021, the film was later delayed^[11] to October 6, 2021.^[12][13]

References[]

External links[]

• Official website