Gretchen McNeil

If you have read "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie, then you can pretty easily tell what will happen in this novel! The setting and main idea is the same: a group of people are invited to an island, and one by one, they start getting killed. In this case 10 teens come expecting a party but things turn sour pretty quickly.
Despite the fact that I was able to predict the main occurrences (a large part of this is surely because I have read the similar Agatha Christie novel) this was an entertaining, suspenseful, and crafty little read. Meg, the main character, is very likable: she defends her friend even when it's not easy, is pretty quick to piece things together, and makes really none of your "predictable horror film female" choices (like going off to make-out in the woods or something similarly stupid).
The writing style is good, although there are a few cliches scattered among the more well-crafted pieces. McNeil is good with really drawing the reader into the story and presenting clues, characters, and happenings in an effective way.
While "Ten" is nothing super-duper-spectacular (and could use a better title), I found it a great read for a story day and will certainly be reading another Gretchen McNeil book in the future.… (meer)

* I got this review from the publisher*

I really loved this book. I felt like this book remidned me of all the elements i loved from PLL and it was fast pace read. It was a book that deviated from normal thriller elements and had a main character that i did not adore but also did not hate and she was character the grew on me throuhgout the read. This book was really hard to put down and i was unable to predict the twist. It was a super quick read and loved the pacing of this read. If you enjoyed PLL or i Killed zoe spanos this might be a fun read!!… (meer)

* I got this review from the publisher*

I really loved this book. I felt like this book remidned me of all the elements i loved from PLL and it was fast pace read. It was a book that deviated from normal thriller elements and had a main character that i did not adore but also did not hate and she was character the grew on me throuhgout the read. This book was really hard to put down and i was unable to predict the twist. It was a super quick read and loved the pacing of this read. If you enjoyed PLL or i Killed zoe spanos this might be a fun read!!… (meer)

I'm a little late to this party, but I finally got around to reading Possess! Which I'm not sure what I thought this book was about, but I had no idea it involved fallen angels, demon kings and priests.

Once I started Possess I couldn't stop. The book was creepy; not scary-creepy, but oh man please don't tell me what's happening is really happening creepy. Like with Bridget's friend Peter. How his story eventually turns out I won't spoil, but you can see it building almost from the first time he appears. And given everything that was happening to Bridget I can understand why she kept brushing it off as 'weird', but it felt under developed. We didn't get to know Peter as a person before everything hit the fan, so when it played out I sort of shrugged and wondered why Bridget didn't notice more.

I liked that we saw Matt and Bridget's friendship sort of rekindle simply because he persisted in trying to protect her. He's not quite stalking her, though Bridget certainly makes it sound like he is (his dad is a police officer and old friend of Bridget's father). Bridget insisted to him she was okay, but her body language (and tone of voice) sent a different message.

Hector and Brad were good secondary foils, while Bridget's mother seemed to suffer from the same problem Buffy's did (in that she noticed Bridget's "bad behavior" but didn't try to understand it) and I think, but I can't be sure, Sammy was meant to be autistic in some manner. Its never directly said, just mainly how Bridget dealt with him, his reactions and the over protectiveness of their mother.

Honestly this felt more like the beginning to a series than a stand alone novel. There's quite a bit left sort of ambiguous--the Darlingtons for instance, and while there was a closure to the mystery I didn't feel satisfied at the end like I should have.

This is really more of a 3.5 for me, but the creep factor (especially in the doll store) was enough to earn this four stars.… (meer)