Review: Ten

Author: Gretchen McNeil
Date of Publication: September 18 2012
Pages: 296
Source: Library

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?

Review:

This is going to be a weird review because my feelings on this book depend on the author's goal. First, let's have some background.

It's supposed to be a fabulous party at Jessica Lawrence's house. And then, people start dying. 10 teens. 1 killer. Everything about this story screams horror movie from the plot and set-up, to the utterly unremarkable characters. The plot is completely predictable and the events are nothing new. In fact, nothing about Ten felt new. Not once did I enjoy any single character. They were all enormous clichés. The bitch, the slut, the douchebag, the writer, etc. Nothing about any of the characters differentiated them.

Even the setting was ridiculously cheesy. The teens are on a remote island during a massive storm. Everything is weird and unnatural right from the beginning. That being said, I don't know why but when people started to die, I was creeped out. I was trying to figure out who it was and ultimately failed. The ways the characters died were also very imaginative and I liked that part.

Ten was totally formulaic. It's the classic horror film. There is no depth, it is cheesy, and it is predictable. Every single horror movie cliché, from saying 'Hello?' when walking into somewhere that you really shouldn't be making noise in to making out with your crush at the worst times... It was all there.

So, I'm conflicted. Content wise, this book was awful. It's a ripoff of every horror movie in existence. There's absolutely nothing new to the story. One part of me thinks that this was the point.

I'm wondering if Ten is satirical. Maybe it started out as a project to incorporate as many cliches into one story as possible. Maybe it was an experiment to see if horror could work in YA. Maybe it was written to see if a book can scare someone as much as a film can. Either way, I have too much faith in the author to believe that she legitimately believed the story was groundbreaking because it was pretty routine.

So, if you're looking for a cheesy horror movie made into a book, check out Ten. If you're looking for something more substantial, and you don't feel like laughing at how stupid people are, look for another read.

My thoughts are still muddled. If you asked me how to improve this story, I would say scratch all of it and put in a genuine effort to make the next story realistic. If you asked me how a typical horror movie storyline would translate into YA, this book is it. I don't know the author so I can't know her goals, so by rating this book just based on how I enjoyed it, it gets a 2.

The characters were almost unbearable at times and the beginning was almost too slow. I also would have liked slightly more variety. That doesn't mean it wasn't serviceable.

-P.E.