Review: Ten

Title: Ten
Author: Gretchen McNeil
Publisher: Harper Teen
Release Date: September 18, 2012
Find it here: Amazon, Goodreads
Source: ARC provided by publisher

And their doom comes swiftly.

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?

My thoughts: 

I was really, really hesitant to read Ten for a few different reasons. First of all, I didn’t know what it was about. Second, I really wasn’t that big of a fan of her first novel Possess because I didn’t enjoy the voice of the main character. But then I saw that awesome cover and after reading the synopsis, it’s sort of a re-telling of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie is one of my all time favorite books ever! I read it about three times when I was in middle school because I just could not get enough of it! So I begged for this ARC! I begged and begged and I got it!!

Because I have read And Then There Were None many times, I knew what to expect from the basic story line. Ten people are invited to this house on a very small island and one by one they are killed off. At first it looks like an accident or suicide but they start to realize that someone is murdering them on purpose. I knew all this was going to happen and that the killer is going to be someone very unexpected. What I didn’t expect was for McNeil to write it so well.

McNeil did a superb job of creating the setting to be very creepy and scary! From the first few pages I understood the sense of dread that the main character felt even though she didn’t know why! Every little thing that happened was scary even when the characters were having a good time! It was fantastic and this is the reason why I love horror!

I liked the main character’s personality! Meg’s a really loyal friend to the point of standing up a guy she really likes because her best friend has had a crush on him forever (and so has she). This really made me want to punch her best friend in the face because Minnie would get mad when Meg was just talking to TJ (their crush). Even though Meg was being a good friend Minnie was not! It was totally a one-sided friendship. Meg and TJ were so cute once they both finally started letting their guard down. But romance was not the main theme of Ten which I’m glad because I wouldn’t have wanted it to overshadow the scary story!

Ten is an absolute must read and such a great scary story for YA! I Have to give Ten 5 hearts because it was a much better read than Possess and because I was literally afraid to turn my light off to sleep!!