Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins

19 reviews

abbiemreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

This book was gruesome and entertaining, it had all the elements of a good slasher but the killer reveal didn’t have a good twist, it fell a bit flat for me. The motivation wasn’t as built up as I would have liked either as it’s just kind of explained with a line at the end and not much more? The main characters past was also set up as a huge plot point but didn’t seem to have high-stakes or really help with the killer plot, which is an interesting twist, but the motivation really just needed more time. 
Good characters, written to captivate and overall very fun, but I wanted more explanation around it all. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, Alcohol, Bullying, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

julienicole1106's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Stalking, Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Violence, Cursing, and Murder

racheldkidder's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Death of parent and Sexual content

Minor: Suicide attempt, Drug use, and Adult/minor relationship

tkatt20's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I needed a quick and interesting read and this book delivered. It read exactly like some of my favorite teen slasher films and had me devouring every page as the tension grew. The first 50 or so pages read more like a contemporary romance and was not what I was expecting but I stuck with it and and very quickly realized how necessary it was to lure you into a false sense of security. All of the characters were extremely well written and diverse. Each major character especially had their own trauma and flaws but it wasn't an excuse for the characters to be irrationally rude or unpleasant, which seems to be a trend with YA books I've read in the past. Every character seemed extremely fleshed out (no pun intended) and had their own personality and I was so shocked at how accurately this book portrayed the media and community response to the tragedies that were happening and how screwed up it was.

I highly recommend this book for any horror/slasher movie fans out there. Some other reviews mention that the killer'  motive wasn't realistic and ended up being disappointing but I didnt get that at all. I  was very realistic to me and terrifying since it shows that you never really know what goes on in someones head. There was a perfect balance of heart-pounding scenes and lighter and funnier moments in between so nothing became to over or underwhelming and the writing style was perfect for me. I loved these characters and if the author ever decided to bring them back for future books I would be first in line for a copy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gaslighting, Gore, Murder, and Stalking

Moderate: Abandonment, Bullying, Sexual content, and Vomit

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Car accident, Drug use, Suicide attempt, and Transphobia

gobo5519's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Overall, i enjoyed this book. I love the chilling, cold Nebraska atmosphere that the author created. The death scenes were also super intense and a few of them *actually* scared me. The only things that I didn’t enjoy was the slow beginning (which felt more like a romance than a horror) and the dialogue. Sorry, but teenagers really don’t talk like that lol. Overall, I enjoyed!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Stalking, Torture, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

lghoney's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Blood, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Murder, and Stalking

house_of_hannah's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Unfortunately, this really didn't feel like a thriller until the last 50 pages. Up until then it was a boring romance with a lot of teen drama thrown in. A good chunk of the book was just the two MCs, Makani and Ollie, trying to be alone to get into each other's pants. Pass.

The very first chapter is the first murder, so it starts off promising, but quickly tapers off. In this first chapter we get to see what is probably the best part of this book: the way the killer toys with the victim's minds. They are constantly doing things like opening drawers/cabinents, moving mundane objects, rearranging furniture, and other things like that to make the person second-guess themselves. I thought this was a really interesting aspect to the murders. 

One thing that took me by surprise is that we discover the identity of the killer about half way through the story. It felt way too soon, and made the book feel longer than what it is. This combined with the abrupt ending, and Makani's "secret", just left the whole book feeling very unsatisfying. 

But seriously, wtf was up with her secret ? They were being fucking hazed, and everyone was drunk/exhausted/pissed. Cutting someone's hair with a knife is pretty tame compared to everything else that was happening that night, and better some hair than someone's arm or something.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Violence, Stalking, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Alcohol, Sexual content, and Bullying

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Suicide attempt, Kidnapping, Car accident, Death of parent, Drug use, and Vomit

sarah984's review against another edition

funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

This book felt really amateurishly written, lots of telling us about people without showing anything (I already forget almost every character because you're just fed a paragraph of info about them and then they all act the same way) and tortured metaphors. The killer’s motivation is genuinely ridiculous, as is Makani’s "dark secret" and her romance with Ollie.

A few of the scares involving things being moved around in the houses were creepy, but overall this felt like it was trying to be a slasher and a romance and failing at both.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Murder

Moderate: Blood, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Stalking, and Sexual content

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Vomit, Torture, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Racism, and Transphobia

There is a detailed scene involving hazing.

kuz's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I really wanted to like this book. I liked chapters with murders, but other than that it was a bit dull. Too much romance, for starters. (Usually I can tolerate some romance - it's not like I can't skip scenes if they are not important to the main plot, but with this book I could just as well skip to the last chapter).
There's no investigation at all. Author tries to be realistic about how a teenager can help with a search for serial killer, and you can guess how exciting it is.

Except for last chapters, where Makani is suddenly chasing killer for no reason 

I loved Makani's grandmother, though. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Suicide attempt