School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up-n a small town in Nebraska, a series of grisly murders starts with the high school musical's star, who is found with a smiley face carved into her throat. The next one targeted is the football running back, whose head is sliced open and brain slashed. Only high school students are targeted, and recent transfer Makani Young and her friends wonder who will be next while trying to find a pattern in the victims. Meanwhile, Makani is enjoying her blossoming romance with loner Ollie, whose loner status has invited suspicion that he could be the murderer. When Makani is attacked, she and Ollie fight off and identify the attacker. The race is on for the town to catch him, and fear is everywhere. Each character is unique, which is no small feat in this large cast of victims, suspects, and other students. Makani has depth and a history that will resonate with readers. While it might seem that the killer should have been easier to stop earlier between his near misses and careless mistakes, the suspense and action make this a difficult book to put down. The plot is engaging to the very end. VERDICT Recommended for all collections where suspense is popular.Kelly Jo Lasher, Middle Township High School, Cape May Court House, NJ

Voice of Youth Advocates (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

It has been a year since the day of the incident—the day that became Makani’s deep, dark secret. Through her parents’ ugly divorce, she is often reminded of how she has screwed up and how they—and her friends back in Hawaii—will not forgive her. Here in Nebraska, living with her loving grandmother, she has changed her name, made new friends, and started over with a clean slate. Then, her new classmates start dying off one-by-one in a series of gruesome murders. There is no apparent pattern to the murders except the final arrangement of the dead bodies, which have a Jack-the-Ripper-esque quality. When Makani becomes a target, everyone scrambles to uncover the pattern, but if Makani is right, her secret could incriminate her. Perkins’s greatest strength is in how she is able to create full-bodied characters. While this novel is a mystery at its heart—and a chilling horror story, too—the characters drive the story. The relationships between Makani and her friends, Makani and her (sort-of) boyfriend, and Makani and her family are realistically flawed and complex. Makani’s internal struggles—questioning whether she is a good person, the impact of her secret on her relationships—are also interesting. There’s Someone Inside Your House is a modern slasher-horror story spiced up with romance and mystery; it emulates some familiar thriller authors and is sure to be attractive to genre readers and readers who enjoy scary mystery with some romance.—Jane Gov. There’s Someone Inside Your House is disconcerting. The characters will draw readers in, but the plot is the hook. Perkins builds the story slowly and throws in a lot of unsettling scenes and details. The only flaw is that the killer seems to have unrealistic power over the victims. This story will not have readers hiding under covers, but it will make them think twice before staying home alone. 3Q, 4P.—Kara Eng, Teen Reviewer.

ALA Booklist

The ever-popular Perkins (Isla and the Happily Ever After, 2014) takes a sharp turn out of YA romance in her latest offering, a clever d, to fans, no doubt surprising ray into the teen slasher genre. When Makani Young moved from her native Hawaii to her grandmother's house in Nebraska, she thought her biggest concerns would be fitting in, putting her troubled past behind her, and navigating her attraction to a mysterious boy. She didn't expect the students at Osborne High to start dying as murder after seemingly unconnected murder shocks the small town. And Makani certainly never expected herself to be targeted by the killer. Perkins deftly builds the suspense like a pro: an uneasy opening leads to some legitimately horrifying murders, and the identity of the killer isn't quite as important as the motivation. Diverse characters, including a transgender boy, are folded into the tale. This is the same reliable formula that spawned the Scream franchise, and Perkins wields it to great effect: readers will be sleeping with one eye open. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: This is a new direction for Perkins, but even fans wary of horror should be sucked in to this addictive read.

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Raised in Hawaii, Makani Young has moved to small-town Nebraska to live with her grandmother. As her senior year begins, students at her new high school are being murdered by what looks to be a serial killer. After the first death, Perkins (Anna and the French Kiss) spaces out the killings (at first), developing Makani-s story and establishing her romance with classmate Ollie, a pink-haired loner who, like Makani, has some secrets. In so doing, Perkins lulls readers into a false sense of security before twisting the knife, figuratively and literally. The murders are both grisly and psychologically unnerving, and the novel-s intense realism makes them all the more disturbing; Perkins carefully weaves in everyday details that include the casual racism Makani encounters, a football player-s worry about sensing symptoms of degenerative brain disease, and past events in Hawaii that Makani keeps to herself-part of the -wall of unspoken, unspeakable history- between her and Ollie. Even after the killer is identified, the body count keeps rising, leaving readers with questions of motive and where it will all end. Ages 14-up. Agent: Kate Schafer Testerman, KT Literary. (Sept.)

Kirkus Reviews

Someone is murdering high school students. Most freeze in fear, but a brave few try to stop the killings.Senior Makani Young has been living in corn-obsessed Nebraska for just a little over a year. She has developed a crush and made some friends, but a dark secret keeps her from truly opening up to those around her. As the only half-African-American and half-Native Hawaiian student in her school, she already stands out, but as the killing spree continues, the press descends, and rumors fly, Makani is increasingly nervous that her past will be exposed. However, the charming and incredibly shy Ollie, a white boy with hot-pink hair, a lip ring, and wanderlust, provides an excellent distraction from the horror and fear. Graphic violence and bloody mayhem saturate this high-speed slasher story. And while Makani's secret and the killer's hidden identity might keep the pages turning, this is less a psychological thriller and more a study in gore. The intimacy and precision of the killer's machinations hint at some grand psychological reveal, but lacking even basic jump-scares, this tale is high in yuck and low in fright. The tendency of the characters toward preachy inner monologues feels false. Bloody? Yes. Scary? No. (Horror. 14-16)