Ten Review

TITLE Ten
AUTHOR Gretchen McNeil
PUBLICATION September 18th 2012 by Balzer + Bray
READ October 16, 2012
SOURCE Purchased

SHHHH!
Don't spread the word!
Three-day weekend. House party.
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?

Every October I find myself with the urge to take in as much horror as humanly possible. I love all of the Halloween movie marathons on television as well as the spooky decorations that begin to pop up all over town. It felt like the perfect time of year to read Gretchen McNeil's Ten. Ten is about 10 high school students going to a party on a secluded island after all being invited by the most popular girl in school. Once there things don't go exactly as planned, the weather is terrible with high winds and tons of rain and slowly accidents start happening and people start dying.

This novel kept me guessing right up until the end, which is always a welcome surprise because I find a lot of YA to be rather predictable most of the time. I really had no idea who was responsible for the murders, while I was reading it I had moments where I suspected each one of them & at other times I was certain there were paranormal forces at work. The story begins to weave together through a journal that our MC, Meg, finds in her room at White Rock House. As these threads begin to pull together, a bigger picture, that deals with some pretty heavy issues, starts to unfold. This added some great depth to the story and also to the characters.

There are 10 players in this story and they were all perfectly developed in their own way. I have seen a lot of reviews for this novel that say there is very little development as far as the characters go but I didn't feel that way at all. This was a typical slasher story to me, we had our perky perfectionist, our tough but uber sensitive jock, our joker, our snarky chick, even the mentally unstable basket case. Everyone I expected to take the stage did, and I relished every single second of it. Meg was a great character, she was a writer and was so perceptive of the happenings around her. I did get frustrated with her often for her inability to stand up for herself and what SHE wanted to Minnie, her best friend, but the explanation of why she didn't is also understandable. So that brings us to Minnie.... MINNIE.... she drove me INSANE throughout, I couldn't stand her. I know she was sick but she still grated on me something fierce.

Another issue I had with Ten was the ending, things were a bit too... pretty once all was said and done. I mean terrible things happened and tons of lives were lost but there was a bright side that was attempted to be brought out and I just couldn't feel it at all. Despite the few (small) qualms I had, I can definitely say that this novel was a fun ride and quite refreshing. I ate it up in half a day and could have easily read more.