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3.42 AVERAGE
3.42 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
This review was originally posted on What A Nerd Girl Says
I have to make one thing very, very clear: I don’t like horror or scary or thriller type of stories, for the most part. Its just not my cup of tea. I can’t even begin to count the amount of times I went to go see a scary movie with friends in high school, and being asked to leave because another moviegoer complained about me laughing so hard during the movie. I find scary movies/novels hilarious. My boyfriend and I watched the old school Evil Dead the other day, and I just couldn’t stop laughing.
So its not easy for me to jump into a horror novel. BUT I absolutely LOVE Gretchen McNeil; she is a fabulous person, and a seriously inspiring author and I loved her novel, 3:59. I bought Ten when I met her at 3:59 release in Redondo Beach, so I knew I had to dive into it.
And I was pleasantly surprised at how much I LOVED this novel. Maybe these kind of stories are meant to be told in written form, and not in a visual format, because not once did I laugh…at the story. I laughed at the intentional humor, but I was generally addicted to the story, scared of what was going to happen next or who was going to die next, and I know there is NO way I could have read this in the dark.
Gretchen made this book feel so REAL. It felt so much like a movie plot line BUT just so much more real. She had the story thought out so much that each and every step, every small detail added up to an incredibly story and an incredible reveal that I did NOT see coming in the slightest. I kind of pride myself in knowing the “whodunnit” before they reveal it but I didn’t see this at all. When it was revealed, I literally gasped out loud. I couldn’t believe it! A really good scary story will surprise you like that, and this is one of the first to do that!
I was also genuinely scared. The murders that happened in this book were all vicious and scary, and gruesome. I was shocked at all. I think because I don’t really read horror and there isn’t a lot of YA horror, I just wasn’t prepared for it. Every time a person died, I was gasping. I couldn’t believe it, and I was usually fairly grossed out too. Like, really, Gretchen, you killed him/her THAT way? Way to be as gruesome as possible. But it was perfect. Everything about it felt real and disgusting and scary. She had the right amount of thrill and anticipation throughout the entire novel that made it so hard not be scared.
It was also the perfect choice for Halloween week as well. It really put me in a creepy mood and it also made me more likely to dive into scary novels again. I think being able to experience the tension through words instead of visuals worked a lot better for me. I think, since I’m such a visual person, I can see those foreshadowed moments and the hidden clues better in a movie than in a book and so I was completely captivated by this book, from beginning to end.
I can’t wait to read more from Gretchen. Her books have completely impressed me thus far, and she truly is an amazing person. I will add also that I love that she includes diversity like its the easiest thing in the world, because it SHOULD be. Beautiful. Definitely pick up this book.
I have to make one thing very, very clear: I don’t like horror or scary or thriller type of stories, for the most part. Its just not my cup of tea. I can’t even begin to count the amount of times I went to go see a scary movie with friends in high school, and being asked to leave because another moviegoer complained about me laughing so hard during the movie. I find scary movies/novels hilarious. My boyfriend and I watched the old school Evil Dead the other day, and I just couldn’t stop laughing.
So its not easy for me to jump into a horror novel. BUT I absolutely LOVE Gretchen McNeil; she is a fabulous person, and a seriously inspiring author and I loved her novel, 3:59. I bought Ten when I met her at 3:59 release in Redondo Beach, so I knew I had to dive into it.
And I was pleasantly surprised at how much I LOVED this novel. Maybe these kind of stories are meant to be told in written form, and not in a visual format, because not once did I laugh…at the story. I laughed at the intentional humor, but I was generally addicted to the story, scared of what was going to happen next or who was going to die next, and I know there is NO way I could have read this in the dark.
Gretchen made this book feel so REAL. It felt so much like a movie plot line BUT just so much more real. She had the story thought out so much that each and every step, every small detail added up to an incredibly story and an incredible reveal that I did NOT see coming in the slightest. I kind of pride myself in knowing the “whodunnit” before they reveal it but I didn’t see this at all. When it was revealed, I literally gasped out loud. I couldn’t believe it! A really good scary story will surprise you like that, and this is one of the first to do that!
I was also genuinely scared. The murders that happened in this book were all vicious and scary, and gruesome. I was shocked at all. I think because I don’t really read horror and there isn’t a lot of YA horror, I just wasn’t prepared for it. Every time a person died, I was gasping. I couldn’t believe it, and I was usually fairly grossed out too. Like, really, Gretchen, you killed him/her THAT way? Way to be as gruesome as possible. But it was perfect. Everything about it felt real and disgusting and scary. She had the right amount of thrill and anticipation throughout the entire novel that made it so hard not be scared.
It was also the perfect choice for Halloween week as well. It really put me in a creepy mood and it also made me more likely to dive into scary novels again. I think being able to experience the tension through words instead of visuals worked a lot better for me. I think, since I’m such a visual person, I can see those foreshadowed moments and the hidden clues better in a movie than in a book and so I was completely captivated by this book, from beginning to end.
I can’t wait to read more from Gretchen. Her books have completely impressed me thus far, and she truly is an amazing person. I will add also that I love that she includes diversity like its the easiest thing in the world, because it SHOULD be. Beautiful. Definitely pick up this book.
One by one, teens at a house party on a deserted island mysteriously disappear. Kind of a modern take on Christie's classic And Then There Were None. Extremely cheesy in parts, reasonably creepy. Pretty good!
This is a modern-day YA reworking of Christie's "And Then There Were None." For what it is, I liked it. Was it as good as Christie? No, but it was decent as a YA thriller and a quick read. There were definitely times it read like cheesy YA, but for the most part, I enjoyed it. Definitely creepy!
I've never read Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, so I don't have anything to compare it to. From some of the other reviews I've read it seems like this book is a disappointment compared to Christie's book, which inspired this one. Well, since I don't have anything to compare it to, I will say I enjoyed this one.
I read this one in just a few hours, it's a quick and entertaining read. It definitely kept me guessing and took me by surprise with the twist, which I probably should have seen coming. If you're new to the murder mystery genre and want to ease your way into it, this one is probably a good one to start with. It's not too gory and will keep you turning the pages.
I read this one in just a few hours, it's a quick and entertaining read. It definitely kept me guessing and took me by surprise with the twist, which I probably should have seen coming. If you're new to the murder mystery genre and want to ease your way into it, this one is probably a good one to start with. It's not too gory and will keep you turning the pages.
It's like a really bad and predictable slasher movie...and not in the fun way.
Okay, so a one star rating for this seems rather dramatic, but I'd just like to point out that if I had read this when I was thirteen or fourteen I probably would have given it a better score. A lot of YA these days feels a lot more grown up than it's target audience, but I'd say that this one is the opposite. Everything about this story (except the actual murder plot line) feels very juvenile, including one of the most nauseating romances I have read in a long time.
The plot here kind of reminds me of a series from a few years ago called 'Harper's Island' which was GREAT. It was basically about a group of people who were all alone on an island and one of them was the killer. The set up for the novel has a good amount of potential, but where this book failed was with the characters.
Now I'm not someone who especially needs likeable characters in a book, but if they're unlikeable I DO ask that they're at least interesting, and not annoying. There are ten characters in this book, and every single one of them is annoying to the ninth degree. They are complete cardboard cut outs who don't really seem to have any emotion what so ever, people die, and they don't really seem to care all that much. It also takes THREE people being killed before they even begin to SUSPECT that one of them is a murderer. That requires a pretty high suspension of disbelief that I personally could not get over. If that was me, I'd be screaming for the ferry, or risking the flaming ocean to get away from that place straight away!
The romance here is nauseating and feels very middle grade. All our main character does is talk about how she is in love with this T.J guy, she even finds a dead body at one point, and then comments how it feels nice for T.J to be standing so close to her. Guuuurl, this is not the time for a horny moment!
I'll admit that I did not see the 'twist' coming at the end, but it felt less because it was clever, and more that it was so far out of left field that the book hadn't really given you enough clues to put it together yourself. It's like in Scream 2, when the old killers mother suddenly shows up as one of the killers, despite only having had like one other scene in the movie.
Overall, if you feel you can get through the more juvenile writing and simplicity of the overall story, then give it a go. I will say however, that you could probably get the same amount of enjoyment (if not more) by just watching a trashy horror movie on Netflix. On second thought, go check out 'Harpers Island' to see this story done better.
Okay, so a one star rating for this seems rather dramatic, but I'd just like to point out that if I had read this when I was thirteen or fourteen I probably would have given it a better score. A lot of YA these days feels a lot more grown up than it's target audience, but I'd say that this one is the opposite. Everything about this story (except the actual murder plot line) feels very juvenile, including one of the most nauseating romances I have read in a long time.
The plot here kind of reminds me of a series from a few years ago called 'Harper's Island' which was GREAT. It was basically about a group of people who were all alone on an island and one of them was the killer. The set up for the novel has a good amount of potential, but where this book failed was with the characters.
Now I'm not someone who especially needs likeable characters in a book, but if they're unlikeable I DO ask that they're at least interesting, and not annoying. There are ten characters in this book, and every single one of them is annoying to the ninth degree. They are complete cardboard cut outs who don't really seem to have any emotion what so ever, people die, and they don't really seem to care all that much. It also takes THREE people being killed before they even begin to SUSPECT that one of them is a murderer. That requires a pretty high suspension of disbelief that I personally could not get over. If that was me, I'd be screaming for the ferry, or risking the flaming ocean to get away from that place straight away!
The romance here is nauseating and feels very middle grade. All our main character does is talk about how she is in love with this T.J guy, she even finds a dead body at one point, and then comments how it feels nice for T.J to be standing so close to her. Guuuurl, this is not the time for a horny moment!
I'll admit that I did not see the 'twist' coming at the end, but it felt less because it was clever, and more that it was so far out of left field that the book hadn't really given you enough clues to put it together yourself. It's like in Scream 2, when the old killers mother suddenly shows up as one of the killers, despite only having had like one other scene in the movie.
Overall, if you feel you can get through the more juvenile writing and simplicity of the overall story, then give it a go. I will say however, that you could probably get the same amount of enjoyment (if not more) by just watching a trashy horror movie on Netflix. On second thought, go check out 'Harpers Island' to see this story done better.
The reviews about this book are really mixed.....but I decided that I wanted to give it a try and I'm glad I did because I really liked it....it has its cheesy moments....I would recommend this book to someone who likes murder mysteries
I can see how this keeps getting compared to “And then There were None”. It’s not as well written, most characters are unlikable, and I kind of saw the ending coming but it was still a decent read
I loved this book! This is honestly my first horror/thriller book. (I'm 14 okay, give me a break!) There aren't many, if any, serious horror stories in the YA world but this is definitely one of them!
Throughout the entire book, I had chills and held my breath during this whole book, trying to solve the puzzle. I admit to have failed that- with the twists and turns in this book, I'm sure many won't be able to predict the culprit or at least, until the very end.
I loved the mystery, as well as the little side story of learning what exactly happened on Homecoming night. The romance was very interesting and overall, I just loved this book. <3 Gretchen McNeil, you've done it again!
Throughout the entire book, I had chills and held my breath during this whole book, trying to solve the puzzle. I admit to have failed that- with the twists and turns in this book, I'm sure many won't be able to predict the culprit or at least, until the very end.
I loved the mystery, as well as the little side story of learning what exactly happened on Homecoming night. The romance was very interesting and overall, I just loved this book. <3 Gretchen McNeil, you've done it again!