Trauma, Loss, and Grief
In There’s Someone Inside Your House, an anonymous killer (later identified as David Ware) embarks on a gruesome killing spree, murdering and mutilating the high school students of Osborne, Nebraska, in an increasingly horrific fashion. The murders leave the close-knit farming community traumatized, afraid, and grieving. Everyone struggles to understand how such evil could befall their otherwise ordinary town. Students panic as they try to identify a pattern to the killer’s targets, trying…
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Guilt, Shame, and Redemption
Before moving to Osborne, Nebraska, Makani Young attacked her best friend Jasmine in a cruel hazing ritual that went awry. Afterward, Makani’s friends turned on her. Their abandonment hurts, but Makani also feels that she deserves it. In Nebraska, she constantly fears that her new friends, Darby and Alex, and her crush, Ollie, will abandon her if they find out about her past. Makani isn’t the only character who is hiding a shameful…
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Alienation
There’s Someone Inside Your House explores the stereotypical teenage experience of feeling different and misunderstood. Even though it’s been almost a year since she moved to Nebraska, Makani struggles to fit in with her peers at Osborne High. Her best friends, Darby and Alex, have known each other since childhood. Although they don’t intentionally make Makani feel like a third wheel, it’s difficult for Makani not to feel left out when they reference inside…
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Gossip vs. Communication
Osborne, Nebraska, is a small town where word travels fast and nothing stays secret for long. When a mysterious killer starts murdering students at Osborne High, rumors about the killer’s identity spread throughout the school like wildfire. Students wonder who the killer could be. They also wonder what secrets the killer’s victims are hiding that may have caused the killer to target them. While gossiping about the murders feeds students’ morbid curiosities, many of the…
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Inner Change
Many of Osborne’s teenagers feel stuck or dissatisfied with life in small-town America. They dream of one day leaving Osborne to seek out more diverse cultural experiences and opportunities for personal growth. Ollie obsessively reads travelogues that transport him to foreign lands. Makani feels homesick for the landscape and cuisine of her native Hawaii. But leaving a place like Osborne is no easy feat; within the world of the novel, it’s hard to abandon the…
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