There's Someone Inside Your House

July 3, 2017
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.

Stephanie Perkins merges romance with horror, and narrator Bahni Turpin does both justice. She gives an especially convincing portrait of the complex character at the center of this story. Makani Young, a transplant from Hawaii, has come to an insular Nebraska town. Warm with close friends, she has a veiled quality that comes from a secret she's hiding and from feeling like an outsider. But she finds her coldness thawing when she develops a crush on Ollie. In Turpin's performance, Ollie's calm contrasts Makani's passionate nature. Interspersed between scenes of their growing relationship are Turpin's chilling renditions of a ruthless killer who stalks, taunts, and murders teens. Turpin increases the tension as the body count grows, reflecting the town's mounting terror and Makani's fear after having barely escaped death once before. S.W. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine