Ten by Gretchen McNeil Review

Ten by Gretchen McNeil
Release Date: September 18, 2012
Publisher: Balzar + Bray; 304 pages

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?

Ten was a fast paced, suspenseful book that kept you on the edge of your seat all the way through. You think you know who the killer is, then you think it's someone else and just when you're convinced it's someone you now start to suspect someone else. You sit there playing the guessing game of who the killer is but also, whose next to die and how.

I don't read many murder mystery type books but when I heard about Ten before attending BEA, I knew it was one I wanted to check out. Thankfully, I was lucky enough to be in line for this signing, since they did run out of books! A few of my friends had read the book and I heard nothing but good things so I couldn't wait to start it. It took me less than 24 hours to read this (that included me working & sleeping...); I even had a dream about people being murdered after having stayed up until 4:30 am. It was pretty awesome. Not sure what that says about me, as a person, but it wasn't a bad dream.

Meg and Minnie are best friends, they're also nicknamed M & M, which is kind of cute. Even from the beginning I wasn't sure about their friendship. I certainly didn't like the way that Minnie treated Meg, especially for being her 'best friend' and all. Throughout the book, this only got worse. You can't help but sympathize with Meg. She did anything to make Minnie happy, including turning down the chance to go to Homecoming with the football start, T.J. Fletcher, whom she's been in love with since forever. Problem is, Minnie is in love with him, too.

There's supposed to be this huge party at Jessica Lawrence's house, who is a popular girl and if you get an invite, you don't say no to it. Problem is, her 'other' house is located on Henry Island, which is a ferry ride away from the Seattle area and Jessica misses the ferry. There's not another one until the morning. In the meantime there are 10 teenagers in this huge house. Half the teens are from one school and the other half from Meg's school but what they don't know is they all have something in common & it's what will kill them.

Ah, I really can't even form words for how awesome this book was. I seriously couldn't put it down. I was actually reading while I was supposed to be working (ssssh, don't tell my boss) and like I said, stayed up super late reading it. I highly recommend checking this out as soon as you can, you won't regret it. It's a book to die for ;)