Review: Ten by Gretchen McNeil

Ten by Gretchen McNeil

Release Date: September 18^th, 2012

Number of Pages: 304

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Source: ARC from BEA

It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their reasons for being there (which involve T.J., the school’s most eligible bachelor) and look forward to three glorious days of boys, booze and fun-filled luxury.  

But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.  

Suddenly people are dying, and with a storm raging, the teens are cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn’t scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?

I made the mistake of reading this book while I was New York, alone in a tiny hotel room, where there was a lot of strange noise. Let’s just say, I’m not the most courageous girl in the world, if I’m completely honest…  I usually don’t want watch scary movies when I’m on my own, since I know that the following night will be short... And of course, this book made me freak every time I heard a strange noises. Now, let’s talk about the book. I’ll try to stay vague, so I won’t give too much away for you.

I was so excited about this book, even though I still haven’t read Possess. I also haven’t read Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. Yes, I know, shame on me for that. So I can’t really tell you how it related to that, but to me, this book simply rocked. There were some great characters, some really annoying ones, and some we sadly don’t learn enough about, but it is understandable. We can’t really get to meet Ten characters in 300 pages that well, especially since some will die earlier than others in the book. I have to say I really enjoyed following Meg as a narrator, since she seems to be the most interesting one to me. There’s the whole “We need to find who is trying to kill us”, then there’s the whole friendship with Mimi, and there’s the whole thing T.J., who Mimi is in love with (and Meg, but she doesn’t want Mimi to know, of course).

Is it strange if I say that I really liked the way the characters die? It was a little more gruesome that I had imagined they would be, but I really liked it. This book was simply amazing, and I think many will enjoy it. Definitely perfect for Halloween. Now I really need to read Possess, since this book was excellent.