Bookanista Review: Ten

Hello! Hello! Long time no blog. I've been on vacation! :-)

But it's back to work this week!! So it's Bookanista time!

This week I have the great pleasure of reviewing TEN by Gretchen McNeil, a fellow Bookanista. I was fortunate to get my hands on an ARC of this; it comes out in stores on September 18th. So, while you're waiting, here are a few reasons why you should preorder and/or put this book on your to-be-bought pile!

From Goodreads:

And their doom comes swiftly.

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?

Tracy, the big fat wuss

Okay, so first my confession. I have wanted to read this book since I first heard about it...I mean, how creepy and cool does it sound, right?? Well, I received my ARC a while back, and....let it sit. I desperately wanted to dive in, BUT I usually read at night before bed and, well, I was skeerd. ::hangs head in shame::

The truth is, this was an appropriate reaction.

Finally, knowing there were others waiting to get their hands on the ARC, I had to buck up and be brave. So what do I do? Intelligent me, I think, "Oh, I'll just read it on vacation!"...on a remote island...in the woods...right before bed. With - no joke - mice scurrying around in the walls.

Yeah, so I *started* it one night, scared myself silly and couldn't sleep, and then read the rest of it during the next day. In daylight. Away from the scary mice.

It's fun to be scared

All of this is to say that TEN seriously delivers on the thrills and chills. Gretchen does a fabulous job building an atmosphere of terror and dread, giving even the quiet (sometimes innocent) moments between the true incidents of horror a great sense of suspense and foreboding. I haven't read a horror novel in a good long while, and I loved this. It brought me back to my high school days, when I loved to read Christopher Pike and R. L. Stine. 

At first I had a little trouble navigating the many characters, but soon enough I had them sorted out in my mind...and then, of course, as the body count rises, there are fewer to keep track of. Dum dum DUM.

You know, I'm not sure I want to say much more than this. I don't want to give any of the twists and turns away, and I certainly don't want to spoil any of the scary moments for you.

I'll just finish with this: if you like the kind of books that make you look over your shoulder, jump at noises in your empty house, or sleep with the lights ON, you should definitely pick up a copy of TEN. It will leave you breathless with its rocketing pace and tense moments. I highly recommend!