Review: Ten by Gretchen McNeil

Review: Ten by Lauren Gretchen McNeil
Goodreads 
Release date: September 18th, 2012
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Series: No
Source: Purchased
Rating: It's about teenagers trapped in an old house on an island with a serial killer, so it probably wasn't the best idea to read this while in an old house on an island that presumably has serial killers somewhere. So obviously, Ten scared the pants off me AND had a very surprising killer.



SHHHH!
Don't spread the word!
Three-day weekend. Party at White Rock House on Henry Island.
You do NOT want to miss it.

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?


The cover: CAN YOU SAY OMINOUS? JUST LOOKING AT IT MAKES ME ANXIOUS.

The story: I was lucky enough to meet Gretchen McNeil at a signing in Glendale, and let me tell you, there is a hilarious dispartity between in-real-life McNeil and on-the-page McNeil. IRL Gretchen had a huge smile, gorgeous swoopy red hair, and was wearing a vintage-esque cherry-patterned white dress like she was on The Donna Reed Show. OtP Gretchen is a blood-spattered madwoman who wields her pen like a butcher knife. I LOVE IT. Seriously, I didn't expect to enjoy this scare-fest at all, but I did. Gretchen McNeil, you crazy scary.




I can't handle horror movies, but for some reason love horror books. McNeil effectively employs a lot of classically frightening motifs to enormous effect in Ten, which is inspired by an Agatha Christie novel and other classical horror influences. It doesn't reinvent the horror wheel, but oh, how it horrifies.The book isn't perfect, but the overall mystery and murder and mayhem was brilliantly done.

Meg and her best friend Minnie, who have a very unhealthy, codependent, enabling relationship that I found fascinating and troubling, are invited to a tiny little house party on a tiny little island in the middle of a not-so-tiny storm. If this sounds like a SUPER MEGA BAD IDEA TO YOU, that's because it is. Because then kids start dying. In really awful ways.

The main character, Meg, was sadly quite flat to me. Her one defining characteristic seemed to be that she was a writer, and this was only evident because every single darn character seemed to bring it up in ever darn conversation. Every now and then she'd have a snarky comeback, which made me connect with her a bit more. I always enjoy sisters in snark. Minnie is tremendously irrititating, but I loved that about her. She's not a healthy person, and her relationship with Meg is damaging. TJ, the love interest, I kind of adored. He's a POC (YAY!) and the cutest, most popular boy in school. He's not overflowing with personality, either, but he's pretty adorable. I thought the characterization in this book was probably the weakest point, but the scary stuff was by far the strongest. Which works for me in a campy, bloody, scary kind of quick read.

THE BODY COUNT IS HIGH. The murders are delightfully gruesome and terrible and frightening. When Meg and TJ venture into the other house on the island I nearly wet myself. The final climax is frightening, even if the killer does monologue a bit. And hey! The killer was a total surprise to me, which NEVER happens. So kudos to McNeil for fooling me.

So many of the deaths were so frighteningly original that I fear somewhat for the sanity of the author (DON'T TELL HER I SAID THIS OR SHE'LL FIND ME). I said earlier that McNeil is like a madwoman with a butcher knife, but the murders in Ten are less convential and more HORRENDOUSLY CREEPY. I'm not going to tell you about any of them, but oh GOD. Oh God. OH GOD. *turns on all he lights* *never goes anywhere again*



The writing didn't exactly light my world on fire, but still. DON'T read this when you're in an old drafty probably haunted house on an island with poor internet speed at one o'clock in the morning. I'm speaking from experience.