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2.73 AVERAGE
2.73 AVERAGE
DNF @12%. The audiobook was much better than the physical book, but it was still not worth it. I had been spoiled for the twist at the ending (does not ever impact my enjoyment) but I knew the payoff at the end would not be worth finishing the remaining 14 hours of the audiobook
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Wow, this book has one hell of a twist for sure. I thought I knew what I was getting myself into with this spooky book, haunting, ghosts, prep school in the middle of no where, etc. But the whole twist with this being a game the whole time and the fact that Mavi isn’t a real person threw me for a loop. I felt like I suddenly didn’t know anything about the book I spent all this time reading, but in the best way possible. I am still just pondering this book after finishing it, and I think it will be a book I will think about for a long time.
3.75 stars
I wanted to like this book way more than I did. I feel this is the kind of book that people will either love or hate. I think that all in all, Faring did an okay job with characterization, a better job with ambiance and she did play fair. I loved the plot and the idea was so interesting and I was invested in it, until I wasn’t. this is one of the cases that, in my opinion, the execution ruins a book. I did not like at all where Faring went with the story. I was hoping for the opposite, to be fair. This book has many good things, it just wasn’t for me.
I wanted to like this book way more than I did. I feel this is the kind of book that people will either love or hate. I think that all in all, Faring did an okay job with characterization, a better job with ambiance and she did play fair. I loved the plot and the idea was so interesting and I was invested in it, until I wasn’t. this is one of the cases that, in my opinion, the execution ruins a book. I did not like at all where Faring went with the story. I was hoping for the opposite, to be fair. This book has many good things, it just wasn’t for me.
Why was this book so dumb? *sigh*
The Tenth Girl is set in Argentina during the 1970s military regime. Mavi's mother was a freedom fighter who was taken away by police, never to be heard from again. To escape being captured herself, 18-year-old Mavi fakes a college degree and applies to be a new teacher at an isolated girls' boarding school in Patagonia. As soon as Mavi arrives, she senses that something is not right at this school...
If The Tenth Girl were more of a traditional horror story, it would have worked a lot better. Sure, the plot is a bit cliche (the school is haunted because its colonial founders are cursed by the wronged Zapuche tribe), but most YA horror is. But no, there has to be a time-traveling "ghost" and a "twist" at the end that completely invalidates the entire first 2/3 of the book. What a waste of my time.
The Tenth Girl is set in Argentina during the 1970s military regime. Mavi's mother was a freedom fighter who was taken away by police, never to be heard from again. To escape being captured herself, 18-year-old Mavi fakes a college degree and applies to be a new teacher at an isolated girls' boarding school in Patagonia. As soon as Mavi arrives, she senses that something is not right at this school...
If The Tenth Girl were more of a traditional horror story, it would have worked a lot better. Sure, the plot is a bit cliche (the school is haunted because its colonial founders are cursed by the wronged Zapuche tribe), but most YA horror is. But no, there has to be a time-traveling "ghost" and a "twist" at the end that completely invalidates the entire first 2/3 of the book. What a waste of my time.
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I don’t know what it is with YA and horror, but most the time they are an absolute mess. At least – that’s how I feel about it. The Tenth Girl is no exception to that rule, but I had problems with so much more than the faltering genre fit.
For starters, The Tenth Girl feels like a between-novel as far as target audience goes. It’s a little too ridiculous to appeal to most adult readers, but the language and sexual themes (especially early in the book) are a bit too mature for the average YA reader. I feel like The Tenth Girl was plummeted into the YA zone because the publisher felt it would make the most money there when it would really be better suited for something-in-between – after all, the New Adult genre does exist, but the industry still feels determined to make that exclusively about steamy romances.
The characters are another problem. At best they are flat, at worst they are inconsistent and uninteresting. I was never able to really root for any of the characters in this book, because they were utterly forgettable. And it’s really not about relating or not relating to either Mavi or Angel. It’s utter indifference because they aren’t rounded enough to get invested.
But wait! There’s more!
Faring was all over the place with plot. The Tenth Girl is advertised as a YA ghost story and it … is not. It may start out that way, with ghosts and the such, but it quickly starts to jump all over the place and really ends more in science fiction than paranormal fantasy. It was supposed to be a major twist, but it was so out-of-the-blue that it didn’t make sense. It was less a “surprise” and more… simply confusing. Sometimes a really good plot can make up for flaws in character and writing because it keeps you curious as to what is going to happen next… but this one absolutely did not.
Finally, I want to talk about Faring’s writing a bit. When I was researching this author, I found a scattering of reviews talking about racist themes and language in The Tenth Girl. Holy smokes this should be discussed more. Faring comes from Argentinian heritage and as such had an opportunity to share her culture, but instead she’s created a “fantasy” indigenous group that is one letter away from being the real thing. The entire first half of the book and the ghost story portion revolves around a bloody sacrificial ritual which is such a horrifying representation of an indigenous people! It’s mentioned in detail for the first time a few chapters in – so early in the story – and is cringy then… but then Faring repeats the story multiple times as we keep going through The Tenth Girl. This book could have strongly used a sensitivity reader because the premise of the entire first half of the book is based around some very problematic material.
Even beyond problematic themes, her writing isn’t good. It’s so metaphor heavy and a lot of the behaviors and threads don’t make sense. Faring works for Penguin Random House and while I truly hope she didn’t get this published exclusively through having all those connections… I’m struggling to see how such a mediocre book in every sense not only was picked up, but advertised so well. I’m trying to be directly mean to Faring (I actually had the opportunity to meet her at BookCon 2019 and she was absolutely lovely) but this book… it’s not good.
If this book is on your TBR… honestly… you can skip it. There’s nothing particularly redeeming about The Tenth Girl. Those who have been with me for a while know that I try to twist books I don’t like as good for another audience, but The Tenth Girl is utterly mediocre in every way and insulting in others and… I’m struggling to think of an audience for it. If you loved this book, I am so happy for you! But for me… yikes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Death, Racism
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Murder
Hard to say what I thought of this book without spoiling major plot points but I have so many conflicting emotions???
First Reaction: I liked the plot twist but think I would have enjoyed it more if it had happened 100 pages sooner. It happened pretty late in the book and I felt that as a reader I wasn't given enough time to breathe in the new information that was given to us. Major events started happening super quickly, which I feel could've been okay if the change within the world of the book wasn't so drastic. Some of my favorite sections in the book happened post plot-twist and I would have loved to read the development the philosophical questions it kinda skims.
SPOILER THOUGHTS:
Lol while reading the book pre plot twist I thought: a) everyone was stuck on a time loop b) that Angel was actually alive in our present and for whatever reason at the school and everyone else was dead/ghosts and c)everyone was in purgatory!
Also this book is lowkey a mashup of Black Mirror episodes Playtest x USS Callister x San Junipero
First Reaction: I liked the plot twist but think I would have enjoyed it more if it had happened 100 pages sooner. It happened pretty late in the book and I felt that as a reader I wasn't given enough time to breathe in the new information that was given to us. Major events started happening super quickly, which I feel could've been okay if the change within the world of the book wasn't so drastic. Some of my favorite sections in the book happened post plot-twist and I would have loved to read the development the philosophical questions it kinda skims.
SPOILER THOUGHTS:
Lol while reading the book pre plot twist I thought: a) everyone was stuck on a time loop b) that Angel was actually alive in our present and for whatever reason at the school and everyone else was dead/ghosts and c)everyone was in purgatory!
Also this book is lowkey a mashup of Black Mirror episodes Playtest x USS Callister x San Junipero
