mcneil wrote a pretty good mystery. literally through the entire book i tried to keep in mind of certain things characters said and descriptions to try and beat the book. i usually can figure out the killer. but nope not this one!! you will not guess who the killer is. identity took me by surprise. the reason for the murders is a cliche (which was a bit of a downer) but for a YA mystery murder it was good. from chapters 5 to 16 i could not wait to see what happened next. i normally don't stay up past a bed time, but this book made me go way over my bed time. it's an easy read with just enough descriptions. no substance here a great beach or weekend read. quick and fun.

Gretchen McNeil's Ten is a brilliant horror story! I began reading Ten around midnight, and as more characters met their untimely deaths, I considered for a moment if I should stop in case I couldn't sleep, but I was far past the point of return. I was already halfway through the book and just had to know if Meg would make it out in one piece. McNeil makes Ten all the more frightening by leaving the impression that everyone is a suspect and cannot be trusted. When Meg is invited to an exclusive party at White Rock House on Henry Island, she knows she can't refuse to go when their host is the most popular girl at school. Meg would much rather stay at home and write, but her best friend Minnie couldn't be any more thrilled to attend. But what was supposed to be an innocent weekend of fun turns into their very worst nightmares for ten teenagers. One by one, and in very horrific ways, someone is trying to kill them, and to make it worse, a terrible storm completely isolates the teens on the island from the outside world. Meg must discover the killer before she's the next victim... I really liked Meg as a protagonist. She's an aspiring writer and loyal best friend, even though Minnie has a tendency of walking all over her. Minnie can be self-centered and takes Meg for granted, but she has her moments when you can recognize why the girls are such close friends. Months ago, Meg turned down the chance to be with her crush, T.J., because she knew Minnie has feelings for him too, and it's a decision that still breaks her heart. Romance and friendship drama aside, Meg is the first one to suspect that someone is trying to kill them off and instead of sitting around waiting for the inevitable, she tries to find a solution. Just when I thought I had everything figured out, there was a huge twist and the identity of the murderer took my completely by surprise! Gretchen McNeil has done a fantastic job placing all the clues in the narrative, yet still allows readers to scramble in the dark to uncover the mystery on their own. By the time I reached the conclusion, I could hear my heart pounding and I was afraid to venture out of my room into the dark. A terrifying thriller, Gretchen McNeil steadily builds up the suspense until a mere shadow is enough to make you jump in fright. You can also read this review at: http://midnightbloomreads.blogspot.ca/2013/03/ten-by-gretchen-mcneil.html

I looooove a good spooky story. Action-packed, semi-predictable-yet-still-surprising thrillers? TOTALLY my thing. I would positively LOVE to see more books just like this filling up the YA genre, and Ten was an excellent addition to that! This is one book I've recommended to a NUMBER of friends (there's actually a LINE UP of people waiting to borrow my copy). Pick this one up if you're looking for spine-tingling chills and a plot that will keep you guessing. Reasons to Read: 1. Solid writing for creepy scenes: Gretchen McNeil's writing totally sets up the creepy atmosphere for the whole book; it's solid and the feeling it gives off is just perfect for the reader. Like, all I want to do with this book is curl up with it and a blanket and tea on a dark and stormy night = PERFECTION. Scary books rely so much on strong writing, and I was so pleased that Gretchen absolutely nailed this part. 2. Predictable - yet still thrilling: Here's the thing: Ten is a retelling of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. So anyone familiar with that story won't be completely surprised by Ten's plot. And it isn't the most surprising, mysterious book I've ever read - but that doesn't take away from its enjoyment and it still isn't entirely predictable or formulaic either. It seemed like every time I felt I had finally figured it out, I was wrong about something. 3. Character dynamics: One of the best aspects of And Then There Were None is how it highlights the relationships between different characters, and Ten does a fantastic job including this in the story. It's a driving factor between the plot, trying to figure out how this group of (mostly) strangers are all connected to one another - and then watching how they interact with each other. It's a great look into the dynamics of relationships and how people interact with others. Yet there were a couple of relationships that felt a tad too weak for me - Meg and Minnie were interesting and their story wrapped up well for the most part, but I had a harder time buying into it at first. But mostly, I wasn't impressed with how emotionless Meg felt at times. Especially at the end, when she figures out exactly what has been going on this whole time, she feels somewhat cold and callous towards all the deaths which have taken place. I know that it isn't particularly crucial to a book like this one, but it still felt a little too distant for me, personally. Honestly, except for this one thing I think this book would have been 5 stars. It just rubbed me the wrong way when I finished reading it. Overall, Ten was en extraordinary new YA read - it was perfect for the mood I was in when I wanted a scary read, and this one definitely kept me on my toes and glancing over my shoulder! ARC won in Pitch Dark Books giveaway.

Meg and her best friend Minnie are making their way over to Henry Island for a party taking place over the long weekend. The only way to and from the island is by ferry which has been chartered specially to take them over. The guest list is very secretive so they aren’t even sure who will be there with them. Without telling their parents where they are going they set off in anticipation of a great weekend of fun. The exclusive house party was supposed to be the best weekend of their lives, but it quickly goes downhill. When they arrive on the island they find that there are 10 people staying at the house. They find a strange DVD and watch it to find a disturbing video with a prominent message ‘Vengeance is mine’. People don’t pay attention to the DVD until people start turning up dead. Now with a storm raging outside, and cut off from the outside world they have to survive the entire weekend until the ferries come back. This is probably going to be a ten minute gush fest of how much I loved this book. Prepare yourself. This book is based on Agatha Christie’s ‘And Then There Were None’ (Originally published as Ten Little Indians) which was first published in 1939. This is the first thing that I’ve read by Gretchen McNeil and I loved it!! 10 reasons that I loved ‘Ten’ The writing was amazing. The characters were believable. They felt like they were actual teenagers. They spoke like normal teenagers and acted like them as well. The murderer was a mystery. I was constantly second guessing my thoughts. I was positive that I knew who the killer was from the very beginning. Then I kept changing my minds and I was genuinely surprised by the reveal. It was creepy, scary and slightly gory. I found the fright level was perfect. It was just enough to creep me out, but I wasn’t too scared to read the book alone. It was a modern re-imagination of the original but not a copycat. I think that Gretchen McNeil took the good parts of Christie’s version and repurposed them, but it was done so well that I didn’t feel like she was just trying to be the same. The ending was logical and wrapped everything up nicely. It was nice to have the explanation of how everything happened and how and why the killer did it all. The book was so exciting that it kept me engaged the entire time. I literally didn’t want to put it down, and thus I finished it very quickly. Quick read. This book didn’t take very long as I mentioned above. This is the type of book that people could sit down and finish easily in a day. The story wasn’t heavy so a good read for vacation or weekend. Lots of people will enjoy this book. This book knows no gender bounds. I know that both guys and girls will enjoy this book even though the main character is a girl. I am going to recommend this book to my brother even though he isn’t a very big reader. I know that he will like it. I love the cover it’s very fitting to the story. It’s creepy and you see this island in the middle of the sea. I love the tag-line , and even the font is fitting! So as I said this is based on the Agatha Christie book which I’ve also read. I found that they were both amazing and I rated each of them 5/5 stars. I thought that both have surprising endings but I personally found that the end of Christie’s version really came out of nowhere. I want to tell everyone about this book because I loved it so much and I think that more people should read both ‘Ten’ and ‘And Then There Were None’. Check out my blog for more reviews: http://bibliophilesisters.wordpress.com/

Agatha Christie is arguably the greatest mystery/crime writer of modern times –I’ll defend that position with my last breath. What made her stories so wonderful was the ability to create tension and suspense even amongst characters you may only have just met, and to sustain that tension throughout the entire story until the final page. Ten by Gretchen McNeil echoes the structure of one of Christie’s most beloved novels, ...And Then There Were None, and it’s a testament to the writer’s skill that she has updated this tale so successfully for the YA audience. Even though I’m more than familiar with the story, I was on the edge of my seat throughout, and almost regretted reading it while up north and alone (read: undefended and terrified). Ten is the story of Meg and Minnie, (so-called) best friends who are invited to spend the weekend at an exclusive house party on Henry Island. However, when they arrive with the others, all is not what it should be. Their supposed hosts are nowhere to be found, and the house has not been prepared for their arrival in the way that they would expect. Things take a twisted turn when the group watches a DVD filled with disturbing images, and the final words, “Vengeance is mine”. One by one, the guests begin to die, and Meg (who is our main eyes and ears for the story) must have all her wits about her if she is to survive. Without giving too much away, McNeil is able to use the seemingly innocent actions of teens in how they behave towards one another as building blocks for a greater story. Each piece is significant, and it’s important to pay attention to the details in order to try to figure out the mystery. At the same time, the language and actions of the teens in the story are vibrant and true-to-life. While the female characters may have seemed a little more hysterical than their male counterparts at times, I didn’t find that to be as distracting as others might. Let’s be honest: teens in real life are snarky, sarcastic, sensitive, funny, rude, hurtful, annoying, intelligent, and witty – in short, human. McNeil allows her characters to react to an extreme situation in a realistic fashion, and this goes a long way to drawing in the reader. The pacing of the story is also done extremely well; the three-day time period flows by for the reader with ease. What makes this an even greater read for teens is that the idea of {MILD SPOILER} bullying as a motive for the killings is very quickly noted by several of the characters, yet the suspense level does not dip once. The drama ramps up with each death, and the pace and energy of the book keeps the reader engaged and (in my case) on the edge of the bed. Ms McNeil, we will have words about my electricity bill – I had every light in the house on as I was reading, especially since I was in the wilderness and alone. If I was that uneasy (and I was familiar with the original story), then I can only imagine what might transpire in the mind of YA reader in similar situations! The original titles are based on an old English children’s rhyme that is used as a plot point within the Christie version: it foreshadows what will happen to everyone in the story. In the book, the play and the movie, each of the deaths follows the pattern of the rhyme, with ghoulish results. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how well Ms McNeil manages her own spin on the rhyme, giving a sly Easter egg to those who are familiar with the original without compromising her own storytelling. Over all, Ten hits all the right notes as a teen horror novel. She is able to build suspense through her use of the implied, rather than the explicit, and it garners shivers as a result. This is an engrossing read, perfect for Halloween for that teen who enjoys frisson of fear down his or her spine. I also enjoyed her debut novel, Possess, so I’ll be sure to keep my eye out for future work by this very talented author.

In a reimagining of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, McNeil puts a modern teenaged twist on a murder mystery classic. Told from the point of view of Meg, an aspiring writer about to graduate high school - she and her best friend Minnie do what any rational teenagers would do when they get invited to an exclusive party hosted by the most popular girl in school - they ditch their parents and brave a storm to party it up! When they get there they discover just how exclusive the party has become and things get ominous as these 10 teenagers are trapped and targeted in an end all revenge scheme. I love how simple but eerie the cover is. The lone island in an overcast sky nearing dark is the perfect setting for this book. Even the red font of the title "Ten" has a role to play in this story. The characters of Meg and Minnie are all at once closely entwined and yet so far apart from each other. They've been best friends since they were kids. Meg was never the popular party kind of person, but she's always been the best friend that she could be to Minnie - sacrificing everything to make sure her friend is happy. Meg is also a great problem solver, and observer - which comes in handy when you're trapped on an island, but it takes her awhile to put two and two together and even then she's not the best at deducing the very obvious clues in front of her. Minnie on the other hand is a blazing loose cannon who will defend you like a mother bear defending her cub, or she'll tear you apart herself if you've wronged her - she varies between the two in an instant. I really didn't like her. She was irritating, clingy and pretty much unable to function without someone as her crutch. Then there's the best friend drama with the boy toy that they both want and gosh was there a history behind T.J. and these two girls. But he seemed like an all around good guy, and kind of becomes the de-facto leader. There wasn't much depth to his character, or his problem solving abilities so I was more or less indifferent to his survival or his success in hooking up with a girl. The other characters were equally frustrating. They were so shallow and frivolous that I actually cheered the death of some of them. I felt like I didn't really get to know some of the more vague male characters, I actually had a hard time telling them apart because they were all so similar in their cavalier attitudes. Although I think McNeil might have intentionally created such irksome characters just so you'd feel relieved when they met their gruesome death. I have a problem with murder mystery type stories. I both hate them and love them. I hate them because I have seen/read far too many police/forensic/law procedural type shows, and the twists start becoming repetitive and within the first few pages I know who the murderer is, and when the main point is revealed immediately I know the motive - I'm a terrible person to watch tv with because I vocalize all of this and end up ruining the show. But I love these types of stories when someone comes up with a truly unique situation that I can squirrel away in my box of random knowledge. Unfortunately, McNeil plays Ten out in quite a predictable manner, I had this whole thing down pat. The who and why follow a pretty common formula of revenge (especially for teenagers you can guess what that is). The horror aspect of it has something very akin to The Ring (it even makes references to this too), especially with the movie warning they first watch. But I will admit McNeil does an awesome job building the suspense in the deaths and crafts extremely poetic and creative ways to kill - in a really morbid way this was my favorite part of the book! The back story itself was pretty creepy. It had lots of subtle nuances that were presented in the beginning of the story and seemed completely irrelevant but then it all links and weaves the characters together at the end into one big reveal. Overall: I didn't really care for the characters, and I was quite glad when they died. McNeil does do an incredible job weaving the imagery for the deaths. Overall I did enjoy it, and it's a very quick read at only 294 pages. For someone who loves to deduce and guess like crazy, the plot might seem a bit predictable. But for people who just want to sit back and watch a suspense filled murder spree you'll definitely love it!

Meg & Minnie, best friends who were invited to an exclusive secret party on an island for the weekend. They are excited that their (shared) crush is going to be at the party as well, and all seems fine and normal until a storm rages in and strange occurrences start happening. When they pop in a DVD to watch, they’re faced with a bizarre set of images that seem to set off a string of events that escalate in horrifying nature. When the party goers start dying off, the list of suspects narrows. The question hangs in the air of whether it is one of the remaining teens or someone else altogether who has been watching them. What a nail-biter of a read! Akin to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, this YA reworking of the creepy mystery follows that same premise. I devoured this in one sitting (while at the cottage, no less) and McNeil is very adept at creating a creepy & chilling setting. While I felt most of the female characters in this book were beyond irritating, the guys had a lot more personality to them. There was more diversity in character among the males, where the majority of the girls just often acted really catty and bitchy – and that got irritating quick. The build-up of tension was well-paced and kept me riveted to the pages. I found myself constantly trying to figure it out before it was revealed – which, I hate doing but I can’t help myself sometimes! I wish I could get further into it, but being the nature of the story, I really can’t without discussing plot points and giving stuff away. I’ll just say that despite the very last moments where it felt a bit cheesy, I was actually quite surprised by the ending and who the killer ended up being. Well played, Gretchen. Well played. This, and other reviews can be found on JustALilLost.com

As a big fan of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, I was a little sceptical when I finally picked up this book. The original was brilliant and creepy and just wonderful. How could this book compete? Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised when I found myself not only enjoying Ten, but curled up on the couch, shouting at people to leave me alone so I could finish reading it the same night I started it. I sat down to read this book, and found that I could not go on with my life until I knew exactly what happened. Ten is without a doubt a thrilling read. It had me on the edge of my seat and a couple times I was so startled by a turn of events I actually jumped in surprise/fear. Gretchen McNeil has amazing pacing. The mystery slowly unravels before you, page by page, but it's also filled to the brim with tension so that is never gets boring. You won't be able to help yourself, you will have to need to keep turning those pages. There was also an interesting variety of characters. As you may have determined from the title there are ten characters that feature prominently in the novel. They were a little hard to keep track of in the beginning, but eventually you do get to know them all individually. The trouble with such a large cast is that some of them just aren't as developed as others. This isn't really a problem, since some of them are definitely going to die, but it does mean you won't being particularly heart broken when they do - just freaked out. Speaking of the deaths... Ten was a lot more gruesome then I expected. I knew people were going to die. It says so right on the back cover, but I didn't expect so many varieties of deaths and so much detail. Major points for Gretchen McNeil here, because she didn't shy away from the more unpleasant parts of this story just because she was writing a YA novel. Teens don't live under a rock, and they are not oblivious to violence so I'm glad she didn't try to sugar coat the details for a younger audience. And to top it all off Ten has an ending I hadn't predicted. I - like many people - am always trying to figure out what the big twist will be. I started guessing right from the first few pages. And even though I had a number of different predictions throughout my reading of the novel, not once did I guess correctly. I truly love being surprised, especially when I thought back and realized all the little clues she had dropped along the way! Final recommendation: Highly recommended for mystery lovers and those looking for a good book around Halloween time. This and other reviews at Hooked on Books (http://christashookedonbooks.blogspot.com)