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? (From Goodreads)
(Can't help it, this review is going to be a little bit spoilery. I won't give away the end or anything major, but if you're intent on knowing information only when it comes to light in the book then you may want to avoid my review. I apologize, but there's just some things I want to say.)
I purposely left this book until a couple days before Halloween. Last year I read Possess on Halloween as my own nerdy version of celebrating the holiday. And Possess scared the pants off me. For the first time ever, I understood Joey's impulse to put The Shining in the freezer (Friends reference...). So I was really excited to celebrate Halloween again this year with Ten. While it didn't frighten me as much as Possess did, it's still has some pretty terrifying moments. Or at least images that are difficult to shake from your mind.
In the actual terrifying department, Ten fell a little short. I never felt the need to turn on all the lights or swear off ever visiting a remote island. Part of that, I think was that I never really felt attached to the characters. Meg, Minnie, and T.J. were the reasons I kept reading, but the urgency to keep them alive just wasn't there. There were a lot of characters dying pretty quickly so no one really stuck around long enough to really get to know. And okay, the video playing is terrifying (especially if you've watched the book trailer) and there's a scene in the next door neighbor's house that made me me swear a few times. So it has its moments.
The Meg, Minnie, T.J. triangle was definitely fun. Minnie is pretty legit crazy and her energy is misplaced when people are being murdered all around her. Meg and T.J. were a great couple to root for.
What I did love about this book though is it's a much more evil version of 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher. It really shows you the way you affect people even in the smallest ways. Someone was really hurt and the characters in the house were a part of making her unhappy. Then they all die in ways fitting to their crimes. It's crazy. But I did love that aspect to it.
If you're a Gretchen McNeil fan, if you like stories about revenge and justice, or if you like mysteries that are a bit reminiscent of the Fear Street series, then definitely give this book a shot. It feels like a 90's horror movie, actually. And I kind of like that.
