Book Review: Ten

Title: Ten
Author: Gretchen McNeil
Pages: 294
Publication: 18 September, 2012
Rating: A for Acceptable
Copy: Received by HarperCollins Publisher

Review: Who doesn’t love a good murder story? I mean seriously, we go out in big groups and pay close to fifteen bucks just to see a bunch of teens make bad choices and get killed by one person. As pathetic as it sounds, it’s very exciting watching the gruesome ways they get killed and what the motive behind it all was. So when I heard about Ten by Gretchen McNeil I just knew I HAD to read it. Finally, HarperCollins Publishers sent me a copy and I couldn’t wait to dive in.

I knew that I would enjoy the book that was centered around murders and I did enjoy it. There were just some things that were a bit off. I should break this into parts so that no one here gets confused. The story. I enjoyed the story, I immediately tried to predict who the murder would be and hoped that I was wrong. And it was fun seeing who was being killed one by one and knowing that my predictions were possibly coming true. I kind of wished that it didn’t stick to the cliché of who makes it towards the end and who doesn’t because it kind of killed the mood but whatever.

I enjoyed the different ways that the killings were portrayed, as odd and cruel as that sounds. But seeing it connected to the motive was actually pretty cool. There was specific ways each one died and it was because of something they had previously done. Kind of like Saw only less gruesome and less of a chance to survive. But the characters, that’s where things started to get complicated.

I truly did like the characters to a certain extent. I felt like a novel of this type should’ve been a bit longer and possibly not YA because it just doesn’t give me that same factor as movies or adult books. While some of them I cared for, others I couldn’t even begin to worry about that someone was after them. One minute they were there and the next minute they were gone. I could try to explain this by comparing to another book about dying teens but it wouldn’t help. It just didn’t give me enough to care about them.

My main problem was with the main character. Again, I did like her character but there were certain parts where she really pissed me off and not in a good way. Not in a, “this character is so dumb omg!” but more in, “why did this author just do that, she ruined a good thing.” You might not see a difference but there is. When you’ve just seen someone dead from being hanged, you don’t think of certain things. So when the guy you like gives you a tap on your kiss, you would think about it for a few shocked seconds and then move on. At least, a normal person would. But Gretchen McNeil went out to give us some inner dialogue that Meg, our heroine, thought.

When the guy she likes T.J. gives her a tap kiss before doing something dangerous her immediate thoughts were, “He kissed me. What does this mean? I hope my best friend Minnie didn’t see. What if she saw, what will I do or say?” Mind you they’re in the forest, trying to find something and have barely escaped falling from their lives, and all she can think about is if Minnie saw the kiss from where she is. Which is inside of the house. She even looks to see if there’s a view of it. Again I repeat, she almost fell to her death and they’re in the middle of a storm outside. It completely ruined the mood and felt so forced and so crappy that I knew this book went away from five stars.

But aside from the forced romance scenes that were so spaced out it made no sense, the book was alright. It seemed a bit cliché at parts but the end truly surprised me. The writing was also good and flowed great and kept me reading non stop. Although, some parts just seemed a bit too convenient like certain deaths, I still managed to overlook that. My only problem is that I am now still on a quest to read a killer book about a killer. And I’ve learned my lesson to not check YA.