Ten

Rating: 5 Stars (No halves, no conditions. 5. Actual. Stars.) This review originally appeared on my Goodreads Profile and my blog, "In Review". Oh. My. Goodness. This. Book. I tried so hard to come up with a flaw that this book had. Ever since I saw the blurb I was SO excited to read this, and so, naturally, I half-expected it to be awful, or at least have some major problem that would ruin my excitement and enjoyment. SO not the case. I'll admit, this book does start slow. You have a handful of chapters of somewhat annoying exposition, with the main character, Meg, being a little whiny and a little annoying, and all the other characters being VERY annoying. You have the standard love triangle with a twist (the twist being one side of this love triangle is kind of insane). Then you have hints towards past events that aren't fully explained, which make the reader go "wait, did I just miss...no, okay, they're not going to tell us what that means yet." Once you get past this beginning, however, the book begins to pick up. People start to die. (That isn't a spoiler, the blurb clearly states it.) And then, once you hit the halfway point or so of the book, it TAKES. OFF. My reaction on just about every page of the second half was "OHMYGOODNESS, really?" "THAT happened?!?!" "Are THEY the killer?" "No, it has to be THEM." "OMG NO HOW COULD IT BE....WAIT WHAT." In addition to the fast pace and the legitimately fright inducing writing, this book had a real plot. And it was a FANTASTIC plot. And I was freaking out the whole time trying to figure it out. Maybe I'm just stupid, but I do watch/read a lot of murder mysteries, and I totally didn't figure this one out. The author sufficiently twisted my brain around and kept me from seeing what was right in front of me, and it's safe to say I didn't know exactly how this would turn out until the ending. Once I saw it laid out, it made perfect sense, and I was SO HAPPY. The entire book I was terrified the ending was going to be stupid, and it was anything but. Another major plus to this book: It has a message. It's a somewhat hidden, underlying message about the potentially tragic effects of bullying, and the consequences of your actions, and the author never chooses to hit her readers over the head by reiterating it, but it's there nonetheless. And, besides being a great and poignant message, it also serves to make this book modern, relevant, and relatable to YA readers. If you like murder mysteries or horror stories and you haven't read this yet, you really need to fix that. If you're trying to get into the genre with something creepy but not gut-wrenching, I definitely recommend this as well. Even if neither of these categories applies to you and you just want to read a really good book, I would still give this a try. In a nutshell: READ THIS BOOK. You won't regret it.

THIS IS A SPOIL FREE REVIEW. “Ten teens. Three days. One killer. It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives-an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie are looking forward to two days of boys, booze, and fun-filled luxury. But what starts out as fun turns twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine. And things only get worse from there. With a storm raging outside, the teens are cut off from the outside world…so when a mysterious killer begins picking them off one by one, there’s no escape. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on one another, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?” I’ve had this novel sitting on my kindle for some time until I decided to dive in and I’m glad I did. I will admit, I went in with a little hesitation since the book centers around teens out for a weekend intended for booze, boys and the inevitable hookups which I have outgrown, but the sinister twist the weekend takes is what drew me in. I’m usually not a fan of cliquish teens competing and complaining about boys, which this book defiantly has, maybe a little too much, but I found myself trying to piece all the clues scattered through these pages alongside Meg. I had theories about who was behind the killings and a few times I stood by those theories, thinking I cracked the case, but then the next clue would be revealed and I found myself back to square one. None of my theories measured up to the big finale, and I was very surprised and impressed with how it alluded me, I never saw it coming. However, there was an aspect of the book that I was not crazy about; the tone. While some parts of the book were written very well, the dialogue was a little painful. While, yes it’s about ten teens, I must have forgotten how petty high schoolers can be, and some of these teens were off the charts. Drama. A lot of petty drama. Aside from the serial killer lurking in the shadows, these guys decided it was the perfect time to wash their dirty laundry in front of everyone. Maybe that was because of the serial killer lurking in the shadows. But still, the dialogue less than desirable. A lot of cheesy one-liners were put in place where a simple description of an expression or body language that would have sufficed and still get the point across, maybe even make it stronger. In the end, this was how the author wrote, and I still enjoyed her book very much. I quickly connected with Meg and felt her pain when it came to the sacrifices she made for a friend, someone who was ultimately toxic, but her big heart prevented her from walking away. She simply couldn’t, and I admire her for that. The characters became very real to me, and I quickly loved some and hated the others. The story engulfed me. I let it, and I enjoyed it. Hopefully, you enjoy this book if you’re just diving in, and if you’re still on the fens about picking it up, give it a try if you like fast-paced action, suspense, and gruesome murders.

Ten teenagers are invited to White Rock House, stately mannor on a private island. Meg and her best friend Minnie just wanted to have a fun weekend and enjoy the party, but someone on the island has different plans for them. When they find a DVD with a vengeful message, people start disappearing and getting killed. Of course the killer is after the two girls as well. TEN is a mix of all the teen slasher movies that you've watched, turned into a book. The setting for TEN is very glum and isolated, a tiny island with only two mansions and a storm brewing. These factors are expected to make our characters' quest for survival harder and even though they often say they shouldn't separate they do exactly that. They were just as infuriating as teens in horror movies. Admittedly both setting and characters are a bit clichéd and the plot felt too generic. It could've been more extensive in explanations and allowed some more time to work on a stressed-out reader instead of rattling through the murders in a row, offing people like ticking off a check list. TEN comes along with a story of friendship, a small love story for Meg and one of the boys on the island and its grand killing spree. The story of our teens is supplemented with diary entries of an unknown person, whose past and entries are the key to finding out who's behind the murders. 3,5/5 ***/* TEN - A mainstream YA horror slasher story, with creepy occurrences and gruesome murders according to schedule. I read TEN during my summer vacation, in a lonely cottage on the Danish coast, while rainy and windy weather broke through the quiet of the night. So you can imagine a portion of the story's intended tension and creep-factor were definitly delivered to this reader.

Was looking for a novel for my high school students…. Perfect

Awesome book, really interesting

A tous les fans de Mrs Christie :évitez-vous cela; si la romancière était encore vivante,elle pourrait presque attaquer sa collègue pour plagiat éhonté : la trame est presque toute empruntée à "and then there were none" aka " dix petits n.......";tout y est :l'île, les dix qui ont quelque chose à se reprocher , l'hôte qui n'est pas là, le disque représenté par une bande video , les crimes suivant une "logique " (la comptine remplacée par un journal) , la "ruse " de l'assassin -totalement incompréhensible-même la fin est empruntée à la version théâtrale du livre de AC. Alors que Mrs Christie détaillait ses personnages ,ici ces ectoplasmes ont la consistance d'une victime de la série "vendredi 13" ; on a du mal à distinguer ces jeunes tant ils sont interchangeables ,le livre semble écrit à la vas-y -que-je-te pousse ,;je ne sais s'il a été traduit en français ,mais sa version originale est aussi indigeste que la salade qui manque étouffer un convive . "and then there were none" est le best-seller de tous les romans policiers ; il a été souvent imité ,jamais égalé ; mais ici on touche le fond.

Ten is about 10 teens that are invited to a party. It's not an original party, because it's a party on an island. ' SHHHHH! 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, but soon, it turns into a game of Hide and Seek and a very good place for a killer to hunt his prey. ' And their doom comes swiftly' Ten had me hooked from the very first page. I brought this book for Halloween, as i don't actually read horror books, but it turns out that i didn't have time to read it, because i had other books that i had to read first. But i really wish i would have read it sooner. The style of writing was very easy to like, and i think everything was well described, except maybe the characters. And speaking of which - they were one of the reason why i didn't really,really love it. As we already know, this book is about a killer, so obviously some people died. I think there were like 3 teens that died in a day, and the others thought that it was an ' accident'. They kept on thinking that, and i was so irritated! Only when we get to like page 190, do they finally come to their senses and realize that it wasn't an accident, and that actually there is some psychopath trying to murder them all. Like really?! How stupid are they!!!? And what also got on my nerves was Meg's ( main character) ' best friend' - Minnie. Meg was worried about her like every single second. There is this boy, named T.J ( What a stupid name/ nickname by the way) and both of them have a BIG crush on him. T.J wants nothing to do with Minnie, and wants Meg instead. And Meg is more than happy to be with him, but she doesn't because of her crazy friend ( and when i say ' crazy' i mean crazy), she is worried she will hurt her feelings if she finds out that she has a crush on him as well and wants to go out with him. BIG... DEAL... It seemed like literally EVERY girl has a crush on him. One word that i can think of to describe my feeling to that is - ANNOYING! The killer mystery was another thing that i didn't really like. I mean i liked it, but i suspected who it might be since the character appeared in the book. And i was right. So it wasn't a very big surprise for me. The thing that i liked the most was this cool diary that Meg found, i love reading diary's. It was so interesting! I have to admit, i was not expecting to be scared whilst reading this, but much to be shame, i was. Seriously! I was like looking around my bedroom thinking that someone might come through the door or something and slice my throat open or worse. Guess that's why i don't really read horror books. The very ending, as i told you, wasn't very full of surprises for me, but Ten still had some twists that i didn't see coming. Overall, Ten is a very well written, and engaging book that kept me guessing and turning the pages. Scary, spooky and totally awesome! I highly recommend it to people who like horror/thriller books, but not so much to people like me, who think the killer might magically appear out of the pages and stab you with a knife until you bleed to death. Urggghhh, me and my imagination... i better not read books like this, you never know what i might imagine next...