Ten- Gretchen McNeil

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?(less)

Okay so I just finished Ten, which apparently is based on a Agatha Christie novel called And Then There Were None.Which I will now have to read.

I was less than impressed with this novel; I guess I expected a little scarier and a little less like reading the screenplay for Scream 29. *eye roll*

First off this plays on every stereotype in a slasher film and most of the little “rules” like the virgin lives so don’t have sex, don’t drink cause the person who lives is usually drug free, smart and pure.

The characters were as follows:

The Brain

The Virigin

The Slut

The Bitch

The Jock

The Funny Guy

The Nice Guy

The author did pick a varying degree of ethnicities, Asian, black, Samoan, which was nice to see. The twist wasn’t horrible, I didn’t have it quite figured out at the end (mainly cause I didn’t care) but since this wasn’t a ghost story I figured it had to be a Jason and his mom type plot.

I felt the characters were flat and the love plot between Meg and TJ was ridiculous, especially at the end where they are all mushy gooshy never-leave-me-love-me-forever, neither act traumatized that all their friends are fucking DEAD!

Now my biggest pet peeve with this novel. Meg and Minnie. Meg is the “heroine” and I use that term loosely. Having several BFF’s of my own their friendship pissed me right the fuck off. We start out the story with Meg mentioning how difficult a time Minnie has had since being diagnosed with a severe depression and anxiety disorder and is still getting used to her med. As someone who deals with this I can tell you it’s very frustrating and the irrational thoughts that go through your mind are so hard to manage.

Minnie and Meg have been BFF for five years; Minnie has come to her defense and chose to be Meg’s friend at the loss of her own budding popularity. However all Meg does in this book is think about how relieved she will be to go to college out of town and away from Minnie. Minnie, afraid her friend is abandoning her (and she is and just won’t admit it) is extra clingy.

From Meg’s POV you find she considers herself Meg’s care taker and such a GOOD FRIEND, but her inner monologue is anything but, we never see their friendship from Minnie’s POV. And to make matters worse Minnie and Meg are in luuuurrrv with the same boy who only has the hots for Meg, who lies to Minnie about being asked to the Home Coming Dance with the hottie McHotness. One) You NEVER go after your BF’s crush…big bad rule and two) if you do you don’t lie about it. Minnie might be the “slut” of this horror movie but she’s not dumb and I feel bad for her character (I mean someone steals her meds!) In the end she was the true victim on this novel.

The author also took a weird slant and poked fun at two girls who obviously had mental disorders, Minnie who was very depressed and Claire who committed suicide and just wanted to fit in. (Which was a little too Carrie for my taste.)

So if you want an easy silly read go for it, you know at the beach or while your sig other is watching something you hate. If you want something a with decent humor, and horror movie fun skip this and go watch a good horror film like Cabin in the Woods.