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    Ten
    Ten
    Ten
    Audiobook7 hours

    Ten

    Written by Gretchen McNeil

    Narrated by Tavia Gilbert

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Ten teens. Three days. One killer.



    It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie are looking forward to two days of boys, booze, and fun-filled luxury. But what starts out as fun turns twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine. And things only get worse from there.



    With a storm raging outside, the teens are cut off from the outside world . . . so when a mysterious killer begins picking them off one by one, there's no escape. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on one another, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJun 26, 2018
    ISBN9781977371720
    Ten
    Author

    Gretchen McNeil

    Gretchen McNeil is a trained opera singer, former circus performer and voice-over artist, and current writer. She is the author of several YA suspense novels, including Get Even, Get Dirty, 3:59, Possess, and the award-winning Ten (now a Lifetime movie). She is also the author of the YA comedy I’m Not Your Manic Pixie Dream Girl and the horror/comedy novels #MurderTrending, #MurderFunding, and #NoEscape. You can visit her online at www.gretchenmcneil.com.

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    Reviews for Ten

    3.5/5

    261 ratings37 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title to have mixed reviews. Some readers enjoyed the audiobook version, despite the audio cutting off at the end of chapters. Others found the first half of the book to be a list of characters and deaths, but appreciated the narrative structure in the second half. There were complaints about the cringy dialogue and stereotypical teenage characters, but some readers still found the book to be good. Overall, it is a solid read with suspense and an unexpected ending, recommended for thriller fans.

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 1/5
      This book was soo cringy. The way the teenage characters talked was soo bad. It was so stereotypical. You could definitely tell someone older wrote the teenagers. I didn't know who the killer was, but once I knew, the ending was very obvious. I'm going to give this a 1.5 star just because I didn't figure out who the killer was, but this book was very hard to get threw. The cringe factor was very high.
    • 5/5
      booknook — Young Adult book reviewsI almost didn't read this book for one reason: I don't read horror. I like some horror/mystery movies, but I'm extremely picky. And until now, I had never read a book in that genre.At first, Ten was an intriguing book with an EXTREMELY annoying side character (Minnie). At the half-way point, I started freaking out. Things went from interesting to downright creepy. I had chills. ACTUAL CHILLS. Not metaphorical chills—real ones. I was suddenly completely on edge, paranoid, and felt like someone was watching me (despite being alone in my apartment).Ten is so thrilling and suspenseful. I love how we can literally see things spiralling out of control! It's definitely very Lord of the Flies. People turn on each other, question their friends, and question their sanity.I read this book in one sitting because I literally could not put it down. I had no idea that Ten would have such a strong effect on me! I had to shoot film scenes for uni today and I was whipping my book out in between takes because I just had to find out what happened next!The best thing about Ten is that I couldn't predict the ending, though I desperately wanted to. The whole time I was reading, I was also speculating and trying to figure out the killer. At all times, I was bouncing around about 5 possibilities, but I couldn't narrow it down. The book kept me constantly guessing!My one gripe with the book was Minnie. Minnie is supposed to be an annoying character, and it all gets explained at the end, but before that was clear to me, she was pissing me off. She was a horrible, disrespectful, unthoughtful friend to Meg and what annoyed me most was how Meg totally put up with it. At one point even T.J. says to Meg, "You deserve better," and he's totally right. But things change as the book goes on: Meg has less patience with Minnie and Minnie's near-insanity gets a good explanation. But in the beginning, I was rolling my eyes every time her name came up!I am so glad I read Ten! I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. It's absolutely terrifying, disturbing, psychologically freaky, and totally gripping. Even if you don't normally read this genre (like me), I still highly recommend it. AWESOME BOOK!
    • 5/5
      This was so good!

      The only complaint I have is that on the last word of each chapter, it would cut off too soon and move on.
    • 4/5
      My only complaint about this book is that the audio cuts off at the very end of a majority of the chapters. So it’ll get to the end of a chapter and right before the last word it will cut off. Otherwise I liked the audiobooks.
    • 3/5
      This is a one time only read. The first half of the book was almost a laundry list of characters and deaths, not a story about characters I care about. The second half had more narrative structure, and the ending was interesting.

      This book is good to listen to while doing something else, like cleaning or cooking, since it doesn’t require or grab your full attention.
    • 3/5
      Enjoyed this YA version of 'And Then There Were None'. Picked the killer but not the circumstances.
    • 4/5
      Pretty solid read. Some of the dialogue didn’t seem super realistic but overall it was pretty interesting. Quite suspenseful and the ending wasn’t expected. If you like thrillers you’ll probably enjoy this one.
    • 5/5
      I’ve been following Gretchen McNeil since before she came out with her Debut novel, Possess. So when I hear this one was coming out. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. I love her books and her writing style! Cover: The cover looks really dark and creepy. But it fits in with the story beautifully. I absolutely love the cover for this book. They did an awesome job with it.Plot: I really liked the plot. I loved how Gretchen tied everything and every one of the characters to the story together. There was so much detail and thought put into this piece, and it shows. It shows very nicely. I loved how the journal entries and the deaths matched to what happened with them and the girl Claire Hicks. I really liked how it seems the deaths also go along with the order in which they interacted with Claire. As I was reaching the end of the book, I couldn’t believe the twist that she wrote. The person who is the killer I had no idea it was that person. I was like, “What? No way it was that person!” I was surprised to see who the killer was.
    • 5/5
      I thought this was so freaking good! Listened to the audio book of this with my son in one day and we both loved it. Didn't see the twist coming.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this book.
      I love horror. This fit the bill there. Was it super scary? Not really.
      It had mystery, a bit of violence and gore, but because it was such a whodunnit, it lacked in scare factor.
      Still it was a great mind bend!
      In the last few chapters especially. It took me where I was like, what the heck?! How?! Then the author brought it all together.
      Yup, I'm a fan!
      Mystery and thriller fans should enjoy this one like I did!
    • 3/5
      This is a YA novel "inspired by Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None" (according to the Amazon page).

      Ten teenagers are at a house party on an island full of summer homes in the middle of February. There is a huge storm which of course knocks out power and phone lines. As her friends start dying, Meg tries to figure out the clues left behind, all while protecting her best friend from falling apart, and hiding her secret crush.

      The characters are mostly underdeveloped (some of them die rather quickly after we meet them) and basically unlikeable. But the book is fast-paced and kept me guessing until the very end. I had my suspicions, but they were wrong, which is always fun.

      I borrowed the audio from Hoopla
    • 4/5


      Cheesy fun. Reminded me of the mid 90s Christopher Pike books I used to enjoy. Nothing groundbreaking, or even really surprising, but a solid little suspense book.
    • 3/5
      Fast read - same premise as Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians (or And Then There Were None) - but with teens and Northwest Wash island setting. Told from Meg's point of view -one of the teens lured to the island w/her best friend Minnie via an exclusive weekend party invitation from the most popular girl at Kamiak High School. It is a real-page turner; some chapters, the author uses Meg's musings to heighten suspense/foreshadowing, but sometimes it just makes the storyline sag.
      Definitely a teen read, mainly girls? because so much is about Meg's struggles to NOT "pine" for T.J., one of the boys also invited, & who Minnie claims as her own. But some of my guy readers read it too, for the plot twists and mystery genre. Comes in at 294 pages -by chap 8, the bored teens play a mysterious DVD that notifies them "Vengeance is mine" with a countdown from 10. By ch 10, the first killing (suicide?!) occurs, so it does build quickly.
    • 3/5
      10, 9, 8, 7, 6.... There was nothing really spectacular about this one. It was a very short, quick read and I didn't think it was particularly creepy or scary. It's about a group of "Ten" high school kids who go to a secluded island for a weekend house party and get knocked off one by one. Similar to Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None" but I enjoyed Christie's version a lot more.
    • 5/5
      Sigue hacia abajo para encontrar la reseña en español.

      Ten is a book that I liked a lot. It's a retelling of And Then There Were None and if you've read Agatha Christie's novel, you can guess who the murderer is when there are only few people left alive, because it uses the same idea, of which I'm not going to say anything else to avoid spoilers. Other than this, which is something difficult to guess if you have never read the other book, this book was great, because I doubted if the murderer was actually the murderer. I didn't know who this character fit in the whole story and the last plot twist never occurred to me.

      Something that I found a bit strange is that people who go the same high school and the same year (or close years) don't know each other, because they should have at least known each other by sight. I don't know how many students that high school has per year, but it looks difficult to me that there are people who go unnoticed. Also, I find it difficult to believe that a teenagers, who supposedly lives with his parents, is dead for several days and nobody misses him. I think that this part of the plot would have worked much better if they were college students who live alone or in a dorm instead of teenagers.

      Other than this, I thought that this was a great YA mystery novel and I couldn't stop reading because I wanted to reach the end. The mystery of not knowing who is going to be next is very well done and also that everybody ends not trusting everybody else. This is where the fact that they're teenagers helps a lot, because the lack of maturity, and even common sense sometimes, is what makes the plot move forwards in the way that it does. Although I thought things such as "no, don't do that" sometimes, none of the characters' behaviour becomes too exaggerated.

      This is, so far, the best retelling of And Then There Were None that I've read.

      -----------------------------------------------------------------------

      Diez es una novela que me ha gustado mucho. Es un retelling de Diez Negritos y si has leído la novela de Agatha Christie, puedes sospechar quién es el asesino cuando van quedando pocos chicos vivos, porque sigue la misma idea, de la que no voy a comentar nada más, para evitar spoilers. Sin contar esto, que es algo difícil de sospechar si no has leído nunca el otro libro, estuvo muy bien, porque dudé mucho de si el asesino era de verdad el asesino. No sabía cómo podía encajar ese personaje en toda la historia y no se me ocurrió que pudiera tratarse del giro que hay al final.

      Algo que me pareció un poco raro es que chicos que van al mismo instituto y al mismo curso (o a cursos cercanos) no se conocieran, porque tendrían que conocerse al menos de vista. No se dice cuántos alumnos hay por curso en ese centro en concreto, pero veo difícil que haya gente que pase completamente desapercibida. Además, me cuesta creer que un adolescente, que es de suponer que vive con sus padres, lleve varios días muerto sin que nadie lo haya echado en falta. Creo que esta parte del argumento hubiera funcionado mucho mejor si fueran universitarios que viven solos o en una residencia en lugar de adolescentes.

      A parte de esto, me pareció una muy buena novela de misterio juvenil y me costó parar de leer porque quería llegar al final. El suspense de no saber quién va a ser el siguiente está muy bien logrado y el que todos acaben desconfiando de todos, también. Aquí es donde el que sean adolescentes ayuda mucho, porque la falta de madurez, e incluso de sentido común a veces, es lo que hace que avance la trama de la manera que lo hace. Aunque sí que estuve pensando cosas como "no, no hagas eso" en alguna ocasión, ninguna de las reacciones de los personajes llega a ser demasiado exagerada.

      Es, hasta la fecha, el mejor retelling de Diez Negritos que he leído.
    • 3/5
      This book started well but, about halfway through, slumped and became bogged down with detail. It did recover near the end, but not enough to recommend it.
    • 1/5
      This was not a mystery written for young adults, it was a mystery just written for dumb people in general. The plot slogged along, characters seemed half-finished, there was unconvincing dialogue (two radically different people referred to an isthmus by name, which was just weird), and then boom, a completely unsurprising ending. If you want a good mystery about people being picked off in an isolated location, try And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie.
    • 3/5
      Based on and then there were none. I figured out who it was and then convinced myself differently. Very creepy and enjoyable.
    • 5/5
      Dear Readers,

      This book has sat on my TBR list since 2012, and I’ve finally just read it. I honestly don’t know why it takes me so dang long to read popular books, but I regret waiting so long to pick up a copy of this one. The first impression I got from Ten was that it would be a fast-paced read that I would probably enjoy, but I doubted that it would have much to it, kind of like Lois Duncan’s I Know What You Did Last Summer. I was only half right – it is fast paced, but there is much more to it than meets the eye. It figures that a book with such a simplified name would be so complicated.

      Ten is a surprisingly complex horror that kept me up long after my bed time. By the time I finished it I found new favorite characters in TJ and Meg, and a new appreciation for four-legged cuddle buddies. This is another read I couldn’t – and wouldn’t – put down for all the tea in china. To say I was blown away by Ten would be an understatement. So much so I’m extremely slightly concerned about McNeil’s ability to create such a methodical psychopath. All of the characters were well-rounded, main characters and secondary characters alike. I was actually sad to see (read?) some of them meet a bloody end. Even the ones that annoyed me when they were living!

      Best friends Meg and Minnie have been inseparable since seventh grade. Meg, the introvert of the two, would rather spend the weekend holed up in her room writing than attend a party thrown by people she doesn’t like. Minnie, whom is Meg’s complete opposite in every way that matters, is happiest when she’s the center of attention and a boy hanging off her every word. I love how opposite the two friends are from one another. The only thing they seem to have in common is who they are crushing on: T.J. Every difference in the two was highlighted by how polar opposite they are in personality and morals. It gave the story added dimension and made things even more fascinating.

      Another reason I was so stunned by Ten was how seamlessly every piece of the puzzle connected in the end. No minute detail was unimportant to the plot – and somehow tied together brilliantly. Every chapter read gave me more questions, and by the last paragraph of the book none of my questions were left unanswered. There is something to be said for an author who doesn’t have to write two or three or ten books to satisfy a reader and leave no stone unturned. It’s nice to fall in love with a new set of characters without investing years to them. If I could give book “ten” stars, I wouldn’t hesitate to do so!

      Terrified silly and loving it,
      ❁One Curvy Blogger
      read more reviews and bookish posts @ onecurvyblogger.com
    • 1/5
      Reading this book is like watching a really bad teen slasher film full of cliches with a terrible script, bad acting and laughable dialogue with over the top gore and sex. Only it's a book not a movie, and this didn't even have the laughably OTT gore and no actual sex.

      It' was just...bad. Annoying characters, and obvious plot. Though to be fair even though you knew exactly what was going to happen i didn't see the reveal for who the killer was until the twist at the end. But by then I didn't even really care anyway. I was glad most of the characters were dead because they annoyed the hell out of me.

      Ten teens stranded in an island when they think they're going to have a weekend of partying and oh surprise surprise they start dropping like flies. I would probably have been better off reading the original Agatha Christie novel this plot is based on.

      At least it was a quick read.
    • 3/5
      This was a quick read, but so predictable. I also wasn't connecting with any of the characters, so as they all started dying left and right I couldn't care less. Actually it wasn't just that I wasn't connecting with the characters, it was more like they all sucked and I was hoping they'd get killed off quickly so I wouldn't have to hear about them anymore. Very very stereotypical characters and cheesy dialogue. I guess overall I pretty well disliked this book!
    • 4/5
      I'm always looking for a good horror book. Anything promising to be scary, I automatically want to read. Ten was the same case. When I was in high school, for the school play one year they did Ten Little Indians, which pretty much has the same premise as Ten. I loved the play, so I was excited to read about teenagers getting picked off by a mysterious killer.

      About 50 pages in I thought I knew who the killer was. I was convinced I had it right. There were so many clues that made me think it was a certain person. I should have known from the amount of clues that I was wrong. And I'm so happy I was wrong, because I think I would have been a little upset if it was that predictable.

      Ten is a very typical horror novel. I went into Ten expecting a retelling of a common horror story, and I got just that. I was sucked into reading this book, and couldn't put it down until I finished and learned who the killer was.

      There were a few things that bothered me, which was Minnie, Meg's best friend, who's very needy and only thinks about herself. She bugged me in the beginning but once people started dying off, I was able to deal with her. Another thing was that it took a while for things to get going, as in, for people to start dying. I remember getting to page 60 and thinking "okay, when do people start dying?". I also didn't find Ten to be that scary. I mean, people are dying, but I went into the book expecting that, so there weren't that many scary scenes.

      I really enjoyed the story line of how all these teenagers, who came from 3 different schools, were connected in a way for one person to want to kill them all. Other than the mystery of who the killer was, I really enjoyed this little mystery along side it. It was actually kind of sad in a way.

      So, overall I enjoyed this book and it was exactly what I needed at the moment. I was in the middle of 3 other books when I decided to pick up Ten, and I finished it in 3 days, when I've been trying to finish the other books for about a month now.
    • 4/5
      Clever story clearly inspired by Agatha Christie's And then there were none. Ten teenagers lured to an island with the promise of a party when slowly the bodies start to accumulate and it's a race against time to solve who is the murderer before they are killed.

      I found it an interesting read, there were times when I thought that things could be a bit clearer as regards time passing and some characters are killed before you really get to know them. I did find it kept my interest.
    • 3/5
      I wen through a huge Agatha Christie phase (at one time I was part of a book club, I got a ton of her books in fancy leather covers...). I was hesitant to read this, based on some of the reviews I had seen, but when the e-book was on sale I decided to give it a try.

      It was...OK. It was a very quick read, in part because I started to skim some of the really overblown angsty teenage stuff.

      I thought the update to the original story was interesting, but at the same time, a teenager did all of that elaborate planning? Really?

      It wasn't terrible, it just wasn't great.
    • 3/5
      The story was creepy... and cheesy. It was entertaining and it was a good one-time read. Fast-paced and action-packed with a little romantic parts that will appeal to teens. I imagine it will scare people if this was turned into a movie.
    • 5/5
      LOVE LOVE LOVE this book!
      Ten is And Then There Were None for teens, and that is coming from a huge Agatha fan! Ten is a wonderful mix of And Then There Were None and Scream.
      The plot was twists and turns from the beginning. I was guessing right until the end.
      There are characters I didn't mind seeing die off and others, I would really miss if there were to be a sequel. I enjoyed the characters, though I do wish we'd gotten more depth from T.J. The other side characters were likeable, and distinct, without being truly stereotypical.
    • 3/5
      Ten teens are invited to a house party by The Most Popular Girl in School. Said party being located on an island and accesible only by boat. The party was a set-up to lure them into a trap. Tom, the brother of a girl who committed suicide, plans to avenge his sister's death by killing, one by one, the people he believes have wronged his sister. He has spent a year working out the details to achieve his goal of murdering them in a fashion that mirrors the way his sister was humiliated by each one: Hanging, impalement, electrocution...the list goes on.
      The book contains graphic descriptions of the dead bodies so I wouldn't recommend it to the faint of heart.
    • 2/5
      Great premise - wanted to like it but bleh...I found myself skimming a lot and I almost put it down. Not worth your time.
    • 3/5
      Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales.

      Quick & Dirty: Murder mystery meets young adult in this tale, good for a quick, scary read.

      Opening Sentence: Minnie’s face was deathly pale.

      The Review:

      I don’t normally read stories that are themed with horror and murder. I tend to dwell on the images and it causes nightmares. But I couldn’t resist reading Gretchen McNeill’s Ten. The cover is gorgeous despite the dark and terrifying theme. The simplicity of the font, the somewhat haze of the island. It brilliantly sets the tone for the book.

      Ten high school teens travel to Henry Island, off the coast into a vacation island. Meg, along with others have been invited to spend the weekend of partying and other fun shenanigans at White Rock House. What they don’t expect is the horrible weather, the isolation from the rest of society, and murder. In a young adult version of a murder mystery, teens are dying, one by one. The storm worsens conditions and there is no way to seek help. And the only clue they have is a video left by someone unknown, and it’s message: Vengeance is mine.

      Meg is the frontrunner in Ten, if you will. Formerly one of the popular girls, she fell out when she befriended Minnie. I liked Meg. She had this appeal to her that I can’t fully describe. Meg was easy to relate to. Meg was courageous and brave; obviously the only one with enough gumption to see it through the end. She wasn’t a character that exactly stood out. She was the level-headed one of the group, obviously, but there wasn’t anything quirky or excitable, at least for me.

      I felt that I didn’t know the characters enough. Except for those who were alive near the end, I didn’t fully connect with the characters killed in the beginning. But for a stand-alone book, it must be hard to make that connection. There was a good array of personalities though. From the spoiled to the brainiac, it was easy to belong. Even if I didn’t completely immerse myself in the group, McNeil allowed me to be a part of what was going on.

      My senses were alert, my brain processing images both haunting and creepy. Ten played like a horror movie, for the younger crowd. But despite the targeted age group, there were a lot of things that made my skin crawl. I applaud you McNeil. The focus of Ten was more towards the murders than actual set up or world building. I was really intrigued about the island, but didn’t really see much aside from the ferry ride. It made for a great start, but I wanted more.

      Ten reminds me of Harper’s Island, a show on TV that I adored. Similar premise and very similar outcome. From the first death, I felt that the rest of the deaths were already laid out for the reader. But what I didn’t expect was the pacing. With each murder, a truth was revealed. Puzzle pieces slowly put together that went together with a song.

      Ten was twisted, feeding to those who love a murder mystery. Murders filled the pages, and one by one I saw McNeil’s creepy imagination. Good, quick read. But please, make sure you have a night light on.

      Notable Scene:

      A shadow on the white wall of the tower caught Meg’s eye. There was something odd about it, something familiar, and yet there shouldn’t be a shadow on that wall. The windows in the tower didn’t have any curtains on them, nothing to cast a shadow. Meg stared at it for a second and noticed the shadow was moving, swaying slowly from left to right.

      Creeeeeak.

      Meg froze, her eyes locked on the shadow. The heavy form, oblong and amorphous except for the dangling appendages . . .

      Legs. They were legs.

      Meg opened her mouth and screamed.

      FTC Advisory: Balzer + Bray/Harper Collins provided me with a copy of Ten. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
    • 3/5
      An entertaining read that wouldn't stand up to inspection. Many many problems throughout. Enough entertainment to hold your interest, but easy to pick apart.