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3.42 AVERAGE
3.42 AVERAGE
Meg and her best friend Minnie have been invited to a party on a secluded island—every teenager’s dream getaway, especially since there will be hot guys and free booze to look forward to. Even more interesting, Meg’s crush T.J. will be there, making it really hard to avoid him. Not to mention the fact that most of the other people on the island are not exactly the kind of crowd she wants to be stuck on an island with for three days. Then… things get weird. A series of freak deaths have Meg and the rest of the kids searching for answers, and discovering that these accidents might just be part of a larger, much more deadly plot of revenge.
In case you were unaware, Ten is a modernized, teenified retelling of And Then There Were None by suspense great Agatha Cristie (Ten Little Indians being the more controversial, original US-edition title. You don’t want to know the original UK title). Ten takes all the elements of Christie’s masterpiece and, while keeping the original themes of revenge, isolation, and suspense, manages to create a respectfully original story. However, there’s something decidedly less frightening about a modern setting, regardless of the isolation or the paranoia that the characters felt. I’m not quite sure if that’s the failing of the writer or merely a disconnect between modern day and the past—Ten never really rang true to me as a reader, though I enjoyed And Then There Were None greatly.
As for the characters, the reader never really gets a chance to get to know them past their stereotypes before they get whacked by the murderer. It’s a shame, because you are given glimpses of depth to each, which remains regrettably unexplored—although, admittedly, this is due in part to the fact that they started dropping like flies. Regardless, at the end of the book, I could barely remember who was named what, let alone what they were like. Having stock filler characters that you can’t really identify with as a reader meant their deaths had little impact, and therefore it made the situation not seem all that dire because you don’t get to invest yourself in the characters.
In the case of the protagonist/heroine of the story, Meg, I felt like she was the blandest of characters. I got a feeling that the author tried to make her interesting by having her be quirky and creative—she wants to be a writer—as well as giving her a bit of mystery when it comes to her relationship/connection with T.J. However, as with a majority of characters in books like these, Meg proved to be incredibly dumb when it counted—in figuring out who the killer was. While the book did a good job keeping me guessing who the killer was, I certainly knew who it was not, but unfortunately Meg didn’t share my sentiments, because she accused the wrong person, which almost ensured her untimely demise. Of course, if characters in books like this were too clever, they wouldn’t be stuck in that whole mess in the first place. But then I wouldn’t have much of a story to read, would I?
Overall, the book gets points for attempting to breathe new life into a genre mastered by Agatha Christie, and presenting it to a new generation. However, I think that, aside from the moderately twisty murderer reveal, the book fell rather flat. The characters were cardboard cutouts of their stereotypes, and there wasn’t enough originality to the story to make it feel like anything other than a “remake” of And Then There Were None. However, the mystery of the murderer was a driving force of the novel, and possibly the highlight, aside from the character development of Meg and T.J. Overall, a quick, somewhat entertaining mystery read—but if you want the real deal, you gotta go Christie.
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For more book reviews, visit my blog The Bookshelf!
In case you were unaware, Ten is a modernized, teenified retelling of And Then There Were None by suspense great Agatha Cristie (Ten Little Indians being the more controversial, original US-edition title. You don’t want to know the original UK title). Ten takes all the elements of Christie’s masterpiece and, while keeping the original themes of revenge, isolation, and suspense, manages to create a respectfully original story. However, there’s something decidedly less frightening about a modern setting, regardless of the isolation or the paranoia that the characters felt. I’m not quite sure if that’s the failing of the writer or merely a disconnect between modern day and the past—Ten never really rang true to me as a reader, though I enjoyed And Then There Were None greatly.
As for the characters, the reader never really gets a chance to get to know them past their stereotypes before they get whacked by the murderer. It’s a shame, because you are given glimpses of depth to each, which remains regrettably unexplored—although, admittedly, this is due in part to the fact that they started dropping like flies. Regardless, at the end of the book, I could barely remember who was named what, let alone what they were like. Having stock filler characters that you can’t really identify with as a reader meant their deaths had little impact, and therefore it made the situation not seem all that dire because you don’t get to invest yourself in the characters.
In the case of the protagonist/heroine of the story, Meg, I felt like she was the blandest of characters. I got a feeling that the author tried to make her interesting by having her be quirky and creative—she wants to be a writer—as well as giving her a bit of mystery when it comes to her relationship/connection with T.J. However, as with a majority of characters in books like these, Meg proved to be incredibly dumb when it counted—in figuring out who the killer was. While the book did a good job keeping me guessing who the killer was, I certainly knew who it was not, but unfortunately Meg didn’t share my sentiments, because she accused the wrong person, which almost ensured her untimely demise. Of course, if characters in books like this were too clever, they wouldn’t be stuck in that whole mess in the first place. But then I wouldn’t have much of a story to read, would I?
Overall, the book gets points for attempting to breathe new life into a genre mastered by Agatha Christie, and presenting it to a new generation. However, I think that, aside from the moderately twisty murderer reveal, the book fell rather flat. The characters were cardboard cutouts of their stereotypes, and there wasn’t enough originality to the story to make it feel like anything other than a “remake” of And Then There Were None. However, the mystery of the murderer was a driving force of the novel, and possibly the highlight, aside from the character development of Meg and T.J. Overall, a quick, somewhat entertaining mystery read—but if you want the real deal, you gotta go Christie.
____
For more book reviews, visit my blog The Bookshelf!
this book was alright, very choppy writing but I wanted something easy and quick to read. It was a very predictable murder mystery which I was okay with but hated the high school BS.
If you have read And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, this book might not hold as many surprises for you. And I only say that because the logistics of having ten people in an isolated spot and a hidden killer in their midst, presents certain complications that Agatha Christie had worked out, and Gretchen McNeil deals with it in a similar way. Only in these mechanics are the stories similar, but in the characters and the heart of the narrative there are many differences, which made Ten an absolutely compelling and page-turning mystery.
The variety of characters, and the amount of teen angst and drama make up that heart of the narrative that I found so interesting. There is a reason why someone is killing off the unfortunate party attendees, and unravelling the circumstances that led up to the events on the island was an intricately fitted puzzle. The clues were all in place to figure out the culprit, and I must admit, because I read And Then There Were None, I was able to guess the murderer pretty early and I enjoyed spotting all the evidence that supported my theory as I read the story. Even with certain suspicions, I was surprised by a few things and I could not put this book down until I had finished the last page. The resolution of the story was not at all as straightforward for me as guessing the murderer was, and I was breathless anticipating how it would all end. There is also a nicely built, tension-filled romance and Meg is a great snarky protagonist who drove the narrative perfectly. Absolutely an amazingly immersive mystery, I would recommend this book to everyone who enjoys their mysteries fast-paced, insidious and compelling.
The variety of characters, and the amount of teen angst and drama make up that heart of the narrative that I found so interesting. There is a reason why someone is killing off the unfortunate party attendees, and unravelling the circumstances that led up to the events on the island was an intricately fitted puzzle. The clues were all in place to figure out the culprit, and I must admit, because I read And Then There Were None, I was able to guess the murderer pretty early and I enjoyed spotting all the evidence that supported my theory as I read the story. Even with certain suspicions, I was surprised by a few things and I could not put this book down until I had finished the last page. The resolution of the story was not at all as straightforward for me as guessing the murderer was, and I was breathless anticipating how it would all end. There is also a nicely built, tension-filled romance and Meg is a great snarky protagonist who drove the narrative perfectly. Absolutely an amazingly immersive mystery, I would recommend this book to everyone who enjoys their mysteries fast-paced, insidious and compelling.
Your enjoyment of some books sometimes comes down to expectations. When I first heard about Ten by Gretchen McNeil, it reminded me of the Point Horror books I read as a kid. It's a bit more modern, but that's basically what this is. There’s a party on an island, ten teens, and one by one they start to die. There's no great literary aspirations or great meaning, but sometimes that's what you want as a reader.
I wasn't aware it was based on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. I guess if you know the story a lot of what happens might not be a surprise but it is only very loosely based from the sound of it. There's no racist nursery rhyme and everything's more within the boundaries of modern teenagers.
I wasn't aware it was based on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. I guess if you know the story a lot of what happens might not be a surprise but it is only very loosely based from the sound of it. There's no racist nursery rhyme and everything's more within the boundaries of modern teenagers.
(More of a 2.5)
Overall I found this book to be pretty entertaining, but it definitely had it's faults.
Overall I found this book to be pretty entertaining, but it definitely had it's faults.
This book was AMAZING. But sadly, I couldn’t give it 5 stars because… IT’S PLAGIARIZED. Did anyone have to read And Then There Were none a.k.a Ten Little “Indians” in high school? Well yeah my class and I had to read that last year, and this book IS EXACTLY THE SAME. I was so angry because I knew who the killer would be the whole time. Here’s the similarities: 1. the killer turns out to be someone who was already “killed” (Ben/Tom), 2. The people are tricked on to a remote island, 3. They were selected because they did something bad in their pasts and the killer thought it was best to get revenge, 4. There were ten of them, 5. each time someone died, something appeared/disapeared (the slashmarks/the indian sculptures on the table)There might be more but that’s all I can think of right now. The only thing I liked was the ending, how Meg and T.J ended up saved and together. I hated Minnie and she took way too long to be killed. But the ending to And Then There Were None is better: the woman kills that guy (I think it was a guy) then kills herself, just like the video said. Then, the killer wrote a letter saying why he did what he did and how he did it, and then killed himself so it looked like he actually was killed off. Loved it. but it was good, so I’ll give it three stars.
a beautifully crafted thriller i couldn't put it down it had me at the edge of my seat from start to finish this is exactly the type of story ive been craving so badly all year
OMG THIS BOOK WAS SO FREAKING GOOD AND THAT ENDING!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyone who likes mysteries needs to read this book ASAP because it is like Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None but also a little like One Of Us is Lying. At first I wasn’t super into it but as it went on I literally couldn’t put it down and spent every moment of free time I had today reading this book and now it it 9:46 on a Tuesday and I haven’t started my homework yet
*******************MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD DO NOT READ ON IF YOU HAVENT READ THE BOOK *********************************
IM NOT KIDDING
DONT DO IT
Ok so now I’m going to talk about how freaking insane that plot twist was. I’m not gonna lie the entire time I thought it was TJ because everything pointed to him but yet I thought that the author would think that the reader wouldn’t believe that because they loved him. So I was super pumped because I thought that I was going to get the mystery right for once. However, I also considered other possibilities like how in And Then There Were None the murderer was actually someone who faked their death (someone freaking spoiled that for me). So part of me didn’t put that past anyone. For example when someone attempted to murder Ben at the beginning I didn’t take him out of the running because he could’ve easily done that to scare people off. However, the second Meg found the diary and was reading it I knew it was the girl that Nathan had used except we never learned her name which was upsetting. And then everyone was dropping like flies and I was utterly terrified. I kid you not the last 100 pages I was terrified for the characters because I had no idea what would happen. And then all signs pointed to TJ AND MEG FREAKING SHOT HIM!!!!!!! And at that point I was just hoping that it was TJ so that Meg wouldn’t have killed him for nothing. And then on the boat with Minnie she seemed like a wreck so I was so scared that she was going to kill Meg AND THEN SHE FREAKING DIED!!!!! AND THEN IT WAS BEN BUT ACTUALLY NOT BEN BECAUSE IT WAS CLARES BROTHER DISGUISED AS BEN!!!!!!!!!!! I never saw that coming. That was freaking insane. AND THEN TJ FREAKING SURVIVED (thank goodness) and then they got off the island. That book was intense and I read that so fast haha. I will precede to recommend that to everyone now.
*******************MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD DO NOT READ ON IF YOU HAVENT READ THE BOOK *********************************
IM NOT KIDDING
DONT DO IT
Ok so now I’m going to talk about how freaking insane that plot twist was. I’m not gonna lie the entire time I thought it was TJ because everything pointed to him but yet I thought that the author would think that the reader wouldn’t believe that because they loved him. So I was super pumped because I thought that I was going to get the mystery right for once. However, I also considered other possibilities like how in And Then There Were None the murderer was actually someone who faked their death (someone freaking spoiled that for me). So part of me didn’t put that past anyone. For example when someone attempted to murder Ben at the beginning I didn’t take him out of the running because he could’ve easily done that to scare people off. However, the second Meg found the diary and was reading it I knew it was the girl that Nathan had used except we never learned her name which was upsetting. And then everyone was dropping like flies and I was utterly terrified. I kid you not the last 100 pages I was terrified for the characters because I had no idea what would happen. And then all signs pointed to TJ AND MEG FREAKING SHOT HIM!!!!!!! And at that point I was just hoping that it was TJ so that Meg wouldn’t have killed him for nothing. And then on the boat with Minnie she seemed like a wreck so I was so scared that she was going to kill Meg AND THEN SHE FREAKING DIED!!!!! AND THEN IT WAS BEN BUT ACTUALLY NOT BEN BECAUSE IT WAS CLARES BROTHER DISGUISED AS BEN!!!!!!!!!!! I never saw that coming. That was freaking insane. AND THEN TJ FREAKING SURVIVED (thank goodness) and then they got off the island. That book was intense and I read that so fast haha. I will precede to recommend that to everyone now.
So I read this for a YA seminar class about mystery and horror and was really looking forward to it since It is a YA modern retelling of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None." While it is suspenseful, it does have a twist I wasn't expecting, it ultimately falls flat for me. I think the flat characters were a big problem, and in order to tell the mystery any characterization was left out. I was left with two characters at the end, that despite going through an almost 300 page journey with- I still feel like I didn't know. Plus they weren't half as traumatized as I thought they should be. I really wanted to like this book more than I did, but I just couldn't-I usually love YA but this one, eh I couldn't get into.