layawaydragon
Written on Feb 1, 2020
"Ten teens head to a house party at a remote island mansion off the Washington coast . . . only for them to picked off by a killer one by one"--Provided by publisher.
- ISBN10 006211879X
- ISBN13 9780062118790
- Publish Date 17 September 2013 (first published 18 September 2012)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint HarperCollins Publishers
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 320
- Language English
Reviews
jeannamichel
Written on Sep 15, 2017
limabean74
Written on Aug 9, 2016
When I started this book I didn’t realized it was based off another one. I didn’t read that one so this was new to me. It sort of reminded me of a movie. I just can’t think of what movie that is but one of those teen b-horror movies you see on the Syfy channel. I love those movies and I actually really enjoyed this book.
Meg and her friend Minnie are invited to a party on an island. Minnie is a little needy and Meg is hiding a few secrets. When things take a drastic turn 10 people are stuck on an island with a killer that is out of revenge. This book was one hell of a ride. I liked the characters, each with a very different personality and voice. I thought Gretchen McNeil did a very good job of writing each character. I am finding myself really enjoying her book. The book is told in Meg’s POV and I really was rooting for Meg the entire time. I felt at some point she got pulled into this without really doing anything but I could see how the killer wanted her involved.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book, I thought the story was creepy and since I didn’t read the other one I have nothing to compare it to so it was a great story and I loved all the twists and turns. Honestly had no idea who the killer was and was sort of shocked when it was revealed. I can’t wait to read more from this author since she quickly becoming one of my favorite horror writers.
Thanks for stopping by to check out my review.
Have a great day and Happy Reading!
This review was originally posted on Because reading is better than real life
cornerfolds
Written on Jun 11, 2015
SECOND CHANCE READ
*Review to come!*
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ORIGINAL REVIEW
DNF'd at 34%
Here's the thing: I LOVE YA! I love it. I'm passionate about YA books. But this one makes me feel like maybe, at 27 years old, I'm growing out of it. Or maybe this just reaffirms why I can't stand contemporary YA. I can't handle the angsty teenage crap. Reading about their dinner together and everything leading up to it made me want to bang my head against a wall.
The biggest question I have is whether the romance was necessary. It felt so stupid to me! Okay, they find a dead body and two seconds later she's all, "OMG he touched me and he needs my help and oooooh I'm so excited!!!1!" Really?
I'm so sorry to all my friends who loved this book. I love YA and I love horror and this book just made me hate life for the two days I attempted to read it.
Sophia
Written on Dec 25, 2014
Nessa Luna
Written on Nov 20, 2013
The Characters – There are ten characters in this book, like the title says; Meg, Minnie, T.J., Gunner, Ben, Kumiko, Vivian, Lori, Kenny, and Nathan. I am not going to spoil the book by telling which of these characters die, of course, but I did find myself laughing out loud when after a while I realized there were only seven left (which is my favourite band, haha). In the end, when it was announced who the murderer was, it surprised me a lot, because I had never expected it of that person. Of course, when this happens, people start panicking, and blaming each other; and that really annoyed me, but that’s good, because that means that the characters felt real. I had this too when I watched the Doctor Who episode ‘Midnight’ in which a group of people get stranded in a vehicle on a planet made out of diamonds, and something from the outside wants to get in.
All these characters felt so real to me, though I never really got sad when another one of them had died. I just wanted to know who the killer was, and I really hoped the book wouldn’t end with all the ten teenagers dead.
The Romance – Like I said before, I had expected it to be full of romance, with Meg and Minnie trying to win T.J. for themselves, but it was far from that. Of course, there were moments between Meg and T.J. but those actually made me smile when I read about it. So yes, I ship it.
The Murders – There was a lot of murder going on in this book, of course. And all of them were different, the characters were all murdered in a certain way, which will make sense when you continue reading the book. One was shot through the heart with an arrow, another simply had his/her throat slit, this is going to sound a bit creepy, but I liked reading about the different ways the characters were killed.
The Story – Like I said before, it was a surprising story. I just couldn’t stop reading, and I actually had to force myself to put the book down and eat, sleep or work. It was just such a thrilling story, and perfectly written as well, a real page-turner. I had started to suspect people halfway through the book, and I actually made a list of the characters, how they had died, and I circled the people I suspected. Eventually, I was completely wrong, and I actually said ‘NO WAY’ out loud when I read who’d really done it. And that’s what I like about a book. I have read many predictable books, and that always makes me a bit sad, but I just didn’t find this predictable at all! I loved the writing, and I will certainly read another book by Gretchen McNeil, probably 3:59 because there was a preview of the book in the back of Ten, and I really enjoyed it.
Stephanie
Written on Nov 12, 2013
I'm always looking for a good horror book. Anything promising to be scary, I automatically want to read. Ten was the same case. When I was in high school, for the school play one year they did Ten Little Indians, which pretty much has the same premise as Ten. I loved the play, so I was excited to read about teenagers getting picked off by a mysterious killer.
About 50 pages in I thought I knew who the killer was. I was convinced I had it right. There were so many clues that made me think it was a certain person. I should have known from the amount of clues that I was wrong. And I'm so happy I was wrong, because I think I would have been a little upset if it was that predictable.
Ten is a very typical horror novel. I went into Ten expecting a retelling of a common horror story, and I got just that. I was sucked into reading this book, and couldn't put it down until I finished and learned who the killer was.
There were a few things that bothered me, which was Minnie, Meg's best friend, who's very needy and only thinks about herself. She bugged me in the beginning but once people started dying off, I was able to deal with her. Another thing was that it took a while for things to get going, as in, for people to start dying. I remember getting to page 60 and thinking "okay, when do people start dying?". I also didn't find Ten to be that scary. I mean, people are dying, but I went into the book expecting that, so there weren't that many scary scenes.
I really enjoyed the story line of how all these teenagers, who came from 3 different schools, were connected in a way for one person to want to kill them all. Other than the mystery of who the killer was, I really enjoyed this little mystery along side it. It was actually kind of sad in a way.
So, overall I enjoyed this book and it was exactly what I needed at the moment. I was in the middle of 3 other books when I decided to pick up Ten, and I finished it in 3 days, when I've been trying to finish the other books for about a month now.
Amber
Written on Jul 6, 2013
Full review on Books of Amber
pagingserenity
Written on Feb 20, 2013
I think TEN was paced just perfectly. Just slow enough to build the right amount of suspense, but fast enough so the story is not dragging. The story was beautifully written in such a way that it was able to move the story telling go smoothly. Once I started reading, I had a hard time stopping. TEN had just the right amount of mystery and horror in it. I adore mystery books, but tend to dislike horror. I’ll admit that after reading TEN, I had to sleep with the light on. Just kidding, it wasn’t that scary. Just scary enough to make the story seem a bit spooky and alluring. Gretchen McNeil perfectly crafted the story so that the reader wasn’t that confused at what was happening and left you guessing what was going to happen next. She also did a wonderful job leaving clues about why a certain thing happened.
The characters in TEN are all really interesting. They all have their own problems and inner demons. Like I said before, Gretchen McNeil gives you enough hints that you can start to formulate your own conclusions on why things were happening and what was going on. One of the reasons I couldn't put the book down, was that I had a fun time guessing why they were invited to a party that wasn't really a party. What deep dark secrets landed them here? What did they do?
As much as I liked the secrets of the characters, I thought some of them were a bit shallow and were only there so they could add the body count. Others had problems I didn’t get. Meg spends a lot of time taking care of Minnie for what? Sure, Minnie might of sacrificed her popularity to become friends with Meg, and their friendship was amicable before, but now it just seems really weird. Minnie treats Meg like her slave, and Meg lets her. If Minnie says “I need my pills.”, Meg will go and get Minnie’s pills. I feel Meg doesn't really take charge until it’s a bit too late. Plus Minnie is a bit selfish and clingy. Otherwise, I liked most of the characters. I thought they were well developed, or as well developed as a character who was in a perilous situation could be.
The romance in TEN gave me mixed feelings. I liked how romance itself did not really become a huge factor until later in the book. But I kind of disliked the way it was being featured in the beginning. Basically, Minnie and Meg are both “in love” with the same guy. Only, Meg knows Minnie likes him, but Minnie doesn’t know Meg likes him, (she lies every time the subject comes up). What makes it interesting and confusing is that the boy in question likes one of them. But Meg is willing to forget her feelings in order to keep her best friend. Did I mention I hate love triangles?
Originally posted on Icy Cold Reads
celinenyx
Written on Nov 30, 2012
I'm afraid me and Ten got off on the wrong foot. It's written in third person perspective, following Meg. I absolutely hated Meg. She's been best friends with bipolar Minnie forever, and she has to care for Minnie and look out for her constantly. Apparently Minnie isn't just bipolar, she's also just a very awful en delusional person. That's a reason for Meg to constantly lie to Minnie about liking Minnie's long-time crush, while every person with eyes can see that Meg is head over heels over this boy. I get that Minnie treats Meg badly - she does, and there is no excuse for that (no, it's not because she's bipolar). But to constantly lie about something to the person you call your best friend? That's NOT how a friend should act. EVER.
It doesn't matter to me how Meg justified it for herself, it's just not something I can accept from a character. Overall I didn't get her character anyway, the way she is described doesn't comply with her actions. She is called a geeky writer, yet when the bodies start hitting the floor she doesn't write to get things off her chest. She doesn't write one word in the entire book. She's not even very observant, or something else that might explain the constant "oh my god I'm a writer so I am soooo awkward around people". She gets called shy and someone that doesn't like to talk in groups, but from the start of the novel she makes weird and inappropriate sarcastic comments. She's also extremely judgemental (there is a girl who's a bit of a control freak - Meg is denigrating her in her mind all the time, even though she just met her). Overall, let's just say me and Meg are never going to be friends.
Then there is Minnie, the bipolar needy friend. First things first. If you write about an illness, do your research. There is quite some talk of Minnie not taking her meds, her antidepressants. She shouldn't! Manic depressed people don't take antidepressants! Antidepressants can bring on a continuous state of manic episodes, which are dangerous for the patient and the people around him/her. Bipolar people take mood stabilisers, to stay in the sweet spot between manic and depressed episodes. I'm not sure what Minnie had, but she doesn't really seem to act bipolar to me. It's like she's a very, very flawed character with bipolar disorder on top, making her almost entirely unlikeable. I would have very much preferred her to be bipolar (and therefore quite often hard to live with) but overall a good person. She doesn't seem to have any redeeming qualities.
There is also the love triangle between Meg, Minnie and the hunk TJ. I'm starting to think these guys deserve each other. TJ isn't a saint either. He is controlling and slightly weird. He also declares his love to a person in the book, saying "Oh, I have loved you for months!". Said person reacts "Yeah? Well, why did you date fifty people in between?". TJ goes on to state that he constantly thought of said person while he was dating them. Erm, yeah right. Why the hell did you date at all if you were in love with someone else? That doesn't seem fair to the people you're dating either. I call bull shit!
Now I'm done ranting about the characters, I will get on with the mystery part of Ten. I actually liked that one (hurray!). It was quite a spooky read in places, and a very quick read overall. Once the bodies start dropping, the pace picks up and the story gets interesting. I haven't read And Then There Were None, so I can't say anything about how Ten's story relates to the original, but I liked the way it was presented. I wasn't that impressed with the resolution, it was a combination of something very predictable and something that felt like a deus ex machina. Yes, I'm being vague on purpose, since spoiling the ending of a mystery novel is awful.
Ten is an okay YA mystery novel. Even though I hated the characters, I enjoyed the plot itself. If you can get around the characters (which I know most people have and will), I'm sure you will enjoy this novel. If the story interests you, don't be afraid to give it a try!