Published by Balzer + Bray
Released September 18, 2012
304 pages
Where I got it: Signed ARC from publisher at BEA
Rating: 
Description (from Goodreads):
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?
There are some nights when you want to read a book with gratuitous violence. Having no Christopher Pike on hand, Gretchen McNeil’s newest novel, Ten, really scratched that itch for me. Ten teens, convinced that they were traveling to a mansion on an island for a mega party, start turning up murdered, one by one. Slasher movie fans will probably enjoy this, just like I did. No, it isn’t the greatest writing in the world, and the plot won’t surprise you as much as you might wish, but Ten accomplishes just what it sets out to do: provide a creepy background, some contemptible secondary characters, a couple the reader can root for, and an ensuing bloodbath, all during a creepy storm. I read this at night before going to bed, and actually got scared to the point that I needed to put it down and think happy thoughts of puppies and kittens so I could sleep.
Ten weaseled its way into my mind, so that I really wanted to keep reading. The writing flows, so that the story moves along briskly. There was more drinking and sexual carousing than I felt comfortable with for high schoolers toward the beginning of the book, but that’s probably why I never got invited to those kinds of parties in high school myself. I also had a hard time relating to most of the characters, but it’s for the best since they get murdered anyway (spoiler alert, but not really, because you know it’s coming, don’t you!?). Overall, Ten was a fun read, although not one that touched me deeply emotionally or inspired me. It was simply a good scare.
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Hmmm, I’m skeptical of Ten, though I was initially REALLY excited for it, because I really loathed McNeil’s first book. From the reviews I’ve seen, this is really fun and exciting if you haven’t read the book it’s based on, but boring otherwise. I guess I’ll see eventually, since I still want to read it.
I didn’t get invited to those parties either.
Yeah, I had a good time with it, but it didn’t blow me away. I haven’t read Possess yet.