Ten by Gretchen McNeil

Ten by Gretchen McNeil

Review of Ten

Title & Author:
Ten by Gretchen McNeil
Publisher:
Balzer + Bray
Publication Date:
September 18, 2012
Pages:
304
Source:
BEA

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? – Goodreads

Oh my goodness, I don’t even know how to review Ten by Gretchen McNeil. I loved her first book, Possess, because yay ghosties and exoricists and what not, but Ten just basically knocked my socks off. I haven’t read the original Agatha Christie work, but I didn’t feel like I needed to have read it to really get into the story.

Gretchen McNeil knows how to bring the thriller. I had to pull up my covers and turn all the lights on while reading Ten because I could practically hear the loud rain and see the lightening from the terrible storm that was occurring throughout Ten. She is fantastic at setting up the atmosphere and turning the creep meter to a billion.

I loved the protagonist, Meg. She was sharp and observant and would always think about her words before talking and kind of like the perfect detective, which is exactly what Ten needed. Meg freaked out and was scared just like everyone else, but I loved how she was able to keep a mostly cool head – which helped me to keep a cool head because trust me, even though I was just reading Ten, I was shaking in my figurative boots.

Oh, and how I loved TJ. He wasn’t the most swoon-worthy love interest I’ve ever read, but Ten wasn’t really all about the romance, so he didn’t need to be. He was just real, strong and supportive and attractive. I loved the easy, natural way Gretchen McNeil built up the romance for us in Ten – clearly Ten is a horror story and the last thing I want to read about in a horror story is an epic make out session (hah! I think the moment always calls for an epic make out session, actually) but Gretchen McNeil added in the romance so it all mixed well together.

The whole story in Ten was just done perfectly. The pacing is timed epically. There’s the perfect amount of build up, the perfect amount of time in between each horrifying death, and then twist after twist after twist that had me holding my breath until the very end.

Guys, if Possess didn’t convince me that Gretchen McNeil knows how to write, Ten definitely did. Gretchen McNeil delivers a creepy and brilliant book with Ten, and I can’t wait until an appropriate amount of time passes until I’ve forgotten everything so I can reread Ten. It is a perfect creepy thriller for this time of year and I highly recommend it!

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