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Saturday, August 22, 2015

Book Review: Ten - Gretchen McNeil

with 6 comments
Title: Ten
Author: Gretchen McNeil
Pub Date: September 18, 2012
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Page Count: 296

SHHHH!
Don't spread the word!
Three-day weekend. Party at White Rock House on Henry Island.
You do NOT want to miss it.


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?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11958033-ten

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Ten will go down in history as the first book that's ever scared the crap out of me. - Nova @ Out of Time

I've taken to twitter to complain about my reading slump so as a suggestion, a dear friend recommended that I read a book that wasn't an ARC. I picked up Ten by Gretchen McNeil and I have no idea if my slump is over but I know for a fact that this book really helped. I read it in one sitting at late night and COULD NOT put it down. I was invested in the whole story - start to finish.

At first, I couldn't keep track of all the characters. There are ten of them in total. Really, I felt like a few of them were underdeveloped but that can't be helped as the book is not very long and some get killed off before they have a chance to be understood. McNeil definitely created a figure for each character so I could say something like, "character #1 is snobby and #2 is a ditz.
I was a little confused by Minnie and Meg because their names sounded familiar to me. But by the middle of the book, it wasn't difficult to distinguish the two because despite the names, Meg is the main character.

The title is so interesting to me. Just like any horror movie, the ten get picked off one by one. The title is a gruesome tally of the murderer's kills. I was terrified the entire time I read this book. I'm usually not - typically, I'm in love with the story but the elements of horror aren't there. This is because I typically don't visualize [which isn't the author's fault] but I saw everything in this book. I fact, I'd say that I saw a little too much.

The writing was really well done. There wasn't an overexplaining of gore, which has happened before. Rather, there wasn't much description about gross stuff. What really stood out were the different ways these characters had been murdered and how it was presented. McNeil didn't dwell on the physical causes of death, even though they were very important. She related each to something else and while I realize that sounds really vague, you really must read this yourself to get the full effect of the creep factor.

There also was romance in this book. I let out a sigh. I don't know how I feel about this. Minnie and Meg are after the same guy, except Minnie is the kind of girl who gets what she wants and Meg isn't. Possible motive for a killer? Guess you'll have to read. Anyway, the guy in question, T.J. [WHO IS POC I AM SO OVERJOYED] likes Meg and there are bits of romance. I wasn't really keen on it but I also didn't let it bother me. I just feel like with the intensity of everything that was going around, romance was so unnecessary.

The mystery of this story was so well done. I'm not good at figuring out mysteries at all - sometimes, I can't even figure out Scooby Doo. However, this book did not mess around. There was foreshadowing and red herrings everywhere. No one could've suspected the killer - not even the main character. The ending was a "mind blown" for me even though after an analysis, the motive was very ordinary. The way the story was crafted was certainly not. I couldn't figure out if this was going to be a horror with or without paranormal influences. Seriously -  I expected a ghost to pop up and then something I read led me to believe it was just a thriller and then I went back to thinking it was a paranormal.

To finish, this book created a thousand scenarios in my mind, all which were thrown out the window because I was nowhere close to what really happened. I love this book with all of my soul. I'll probably have nightmares about it but that's okay because FINALLY, a book that's scared me. I've never been happier to have been terrified! [I recommend reading this book at one am by candlelight, in front of a mirror for full effect. That's what I did.]


Gretchen's Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter | Website

Gretchen McNeil is an opera singer, writer and clown. Her YA horror POSSESS about a teen exorcist debuted with Balzer + Bray for HarperCollins in 2011. Her follow up TEN – YA horror/suspense about ten teens trapped on a remote island with a serial killer – was a 2013 YALSA Top Ten Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, a Romantic Times Top Pick, a Booklist Top Ten Horror Fiction for Youth, a finalist for the 2015 Evergreen Young Adult Book Award, and was nominated for "Best Young Adult Contemporary Novel of 2012" by Romantic Times. Gretchen's 2013 release is 3:59, a sci-fi doppelganger horror about two girls who are the same girl in parallel dimensions who decide to switch places. Gretchen's novels have been optioned by Hollywood production companies, and have sold internationally in Chinese, Spanish, and Turkish.

In 2014, Gretchen debuts her first series, Don't Get Mad (pitched as "John Hughes with a body count") about four very different girls who form a secret society where they get revenge on bullies and mean girls at their elite prep school. The Don't Get Mad series begins September 16, 2014 with GET EVEN, followed by the sequel GET DIRTY in the summer of 2015, also with Balzer + Bray. In addition, Gretchen has contributed an essay to the Dear Teen Me anthology from Zest Books.

Gretchen is a former coloratura soprano, the voice of Mary on G4's Code Monkeys and she sings with the LA-based circus troupe Cirque Berzerk. Gretchen blogs with The Enchanted Inkpot and was a founding member of the vlog group the YARebels. She is repped by Ginger Clark of Curtis Brown, Ltd.

 
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6 comments:

  1. ChrystalAugust 22, 2015 at 2:06 PM

    I still need to read this one. And now that I know it had your attention full on and that it scared the crap out of you... I need this book! I need something like that to break up the ARC reviewing. Thanks for the recommendation and great review!

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  2. Zaira FernandoAugust 22, 2015 at 8:59 PM

    I follow you on Twitter and I've seen your tweets about this, which was enough to convince me to read it. Recently I've been interested in YA thrillers and I am so excited to read this!! Especially looking forward to seeing the writing style because of what you mentioned :)

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  3. Alyssa CarlierAugust 22, 2015 at 9:23 PM

    This ... actually sounds 98% like And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. (That 2% is for the romance and the YA.) Is it like a retelling? Because I would eat up a retelling of any Christie story anytime, but if it's not, *bites lip*

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  4. Julia AnneAugust 23, 2015 at 4:45 AM

    Okay. That jacket copy totally got my attention. I've also been in a reading slump, so I'm thinking this is the book for me. I haven't read a book with the ability to scare me in THE LONGEST time. (But this one sounds like it may produce nightmares...LOL.) Thanks for the review, Nova!

    Julia Anne @ Peach Print

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  5. Amanda GrayAugust 23, 2015 at 6:32 AM

    Oh wow, I have never heard much about this novel, but it sounds AMAZING AND WOW. Go this book eh! Great review Nova, you've made me but this on my radar, I love me some creepy! :)

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  6. Mishma @ Chasing FaerytalesAugust 27, 2015 at 12:31 PM

    We have to thank that dear friend from twitter, don't we? *winks*
    Anyway, I am so glad that you enjoyed the book! This sounds so awesome, and that isn't a surprise because this book is released on my birthday! Anything that comes out to the world on that day is bound to be amazing! *flips hair*
    Haha, just kidding. But seriously, this book sounds great! Looks like I have to give it a go.

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