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The Tenth Girl
Simmering in Patagonian myth, The Tenth Girl is a gothic psychological thriller with a haunting twist.
At the very southern tip of South America looms an isolated finishing school. Legend has it that the land will curse those who settle there. But for Mavi—a bold Buenos Aires native fleeing the military regime that took her mother—it offers an escape to a new life as a young teacher to Argentina’s elite girls.
Mavi tries to embrace the strangeness of the imposing house—despite warnings not to roam at night, threats from an enigmatic young man, and rumors of mysterious Others. But one of Mavi’s ten students is missing, and when students and teachers alike begin to behave as if possessed, the forces haunting this unholy cliff will no longer be ignored.
One of these spirits holds a secret that could unravel Mavi's existence. In order to survive she must solve a cosmic mystery—and then fight for her life.
An Imprint Book
At the very southern tip of South America looms an isolated finishing school. Legend has it that the land will curse those who settle there. But for Mavi—a bold Buenos Aires native fleeing the military regime that took her mother—it offers an escape to a new life as a young teacher to Argentina’s elite girls.
Mavi tries to embrace the strangeness of the imposing house—despite warnings not to roam at night, threats from an enigmatic young man, and rumors of mysterious Others. But one of Mavi’s ten students is missing, and when students and teachers alike begin to behave as if possessed, the forces haunting this unholy cliff will no longer be ignored.
One of these spirits holds a secret that could unravel Mavi's existence. In order to survive she must solve a cosmic mystery—and then fight for her life.
An Imprint Book
460 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 24, 2019
324 people are currently reading
18692 people want to read
About the author
Sara Faring
5 books385 followersBorn in Los Angeles, Sara Faring is a multi-lingual Argentine-American fascinated by literary puzzles.
After working in investment banking at J.P. Morgan, she worked at Penguin Random House. She holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in International Studies and from the Wharton School in Business.
She currently resides in New York City.
After working in investment banking at J.P. Morgan, she worked at Penguin Random House. She holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in International Studies and from the Wharton School in Business.
She currently resides in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 783 reviews
May 1, 2020
Ok, first of all THERE'S NO ZAPUCHE TRIBE!!! Second of all THERE'S NO "TRIBE" BECAUSE THE NATIVE PEOPLES OF SOUTH AMERICA DON'T USE THIS DENOMINATION, THAT'S A NORTH AMERICAN NATIVE TERM!!!!!
I was probably screaming in my mind the whole way through this book. I won't even talk about the plot, because there's enough reviews about that, and not enough peopleusing google for a simple research talking about the colonial/racist/offensive aspects of the book.
I think the writer tried to avoid being offensive by creating a new native people where she could put the blame on the terrible curse that the whole book navigates on. But WOW, changing ONE LETTER is not really much. The MAPUCHE people is the biggest indigenous group in Argentina (and Chile), and suffered much of the same violence and erasure as the natives peoples here in Brazil. This “Zapuche” of the book, faded and apparently almost everyone died, just leaving some descendants with “zapuche blood”. And this is one of the many problems in this story. This perpetual idea that indigenous peoples are no longer. WE ARE HERE!! Colonialism tried to erase us, and this tale that we are something of the past is told over and over. The are over 4.000.000 Mapuches only in Argentina (and this numbers always go on the less side because of the erasure made by the government).
When this “Zapuche” (OMG THAT NAME IS RIDICULOUS, I THOUGHT THAT WAS A TYPO THE FIRST TIME I READ IT) “tribe” had their territory invaded by the colonisers, they made a ritual that went wrong, so the spirits of the “other side” started to run free and killed everyone. (Yep, they were punished for trying to defend their land!!)
And THE ONLY AND THE BEST WAY POSSIBLE for this people, to keep the spirits at bay was to, of course, SACRIFICE A GIRL…………………………………………………………………………………………
Yep. This trope. Indigenous peoples sacrificing girls.
“A sacrifice of a young girl— once per generation— was the only identified method of protecting the tribe (and every other inhabitant) from the unholy Otros, or Others. Each sacrificed girl would safeguard that generation until the next. This sacrificial ritual was continued until so few Zapuche remained in the area that those still here . . . stopped"
“ In every generation, she would say, a young girl was sacrificed to the Zapuche gods, in a great ceremony on a cliff beside the ice, to ensure the safety and peace of the tribe. She knew being sacrificed was a weighty honor, one she could only hope to live.”
“After many of the residents of the house perished— and failed at various attempts to flee— it is said that a couple of remaining Zapuche staff were persuaded to sacrifice their own daughters for the “greater good.” (yikesss let’s sacrifice our daughters to save our white employers …..)
Oh, but the sacrificed girl got superpowers and became SPECIAL!! Okay...
AAAND is not just a curse, is a SAVAGE curse.
“the victims of what was likely another savage Zapuche curse”
And the worst thing is that these words are said by someone who is a descendent of the “Zapuche” people (even though she doesn’t know anything about the culture because her father left her when she was a baby). So is like NOT RACIST IF SHE IS THE ONE SAYING THAT, RIGHT? And the sad thing is that in any moment she is trying to reconnect with her ancestry. She is not trying to reclaim her place as a Zapuche woman and the territory that was INVADED AND STOLEN. She’s just trying to understand how this curse works and who is this spirit that is probably a sacrificed girl with superpowers.
Ah, there's also the PRIMITIVE way of thinking.
"I thought it was the primitive Zapuche way of describing the virus".
This ideias, btw are never questioned, never opposed.
So, what did we learn about this “Zapuche” in this book?
Well, they’re not very smart, after all they did a ritual that went wrong, killing not only the enemies but themselves. They sacrifice girls to remedy their bad rituals. They are not very good dads -- with all the abandonment and sacrificing daughters thing. ALSO PEDOPHILES!
But who the “Zapuche” were? What kinds of music, clothes, believes they had? How their culture and language influenced Argentinian people today?
You could say “well, but that is no very relevant for the story”. Except the author mentioned “Zapuche” 73 times in her book, and not one of them she tried to break these simplistic and stereotypical ideas of what native people are. This is hurtful. We don’t need this kind a representation. We don’t need this kind of coloniser look that makes us the other, the savage, with terrible rituals and incomprehensible beliefs.
And most of all, this narrative is damaging when is published in the US market because people take as truth what the author is saying, since her parents are from South America. People don’t do any research after they read it. Is really disheartening seeing so many reviews prazing “the folklore” or the “different culture” in the book.
I also think it’s weird that Angel talks about Mavi (the girl with indigenous ancestry) as the “nut-brown girl” like 3 times. She doesn’t describe the other girl as “paper white girl”. But overall that’s the lesser evil.
I think I’m done with the rant. I hate hate hate to be the person who is negative about books. But since nobody’s talking about it, I had to.
PS: err. and no, this ludicrous ending doesn’t make it any better. If I played a game that portrayed indigenous peoples like this I'd still be very mad about it. Even with the "it was all a game" they say the "Zapuche" legend is real, so...
I was probably screaming in my mind the whole way through this book. I won't even talk about the plot, because there's enough reviews about that, and not enough people
I think the writer tried to avoid being offensive by creating a new native people where she could put the blame on the terrible curse that the whole book navigates on. But WOW, changing ONE LETTER is not really much. The MAPUCHE people is the biggest indigenous group in Argentina (and Chile), and suffered much of the same violence and erasure as the natives peoples here in Brazil. This “Zapuche” of the book, faded and apparently almost everyone died, just leaving some descendants with “zapuche blood”. And this is one of the many problems in this story. This perpetual idea that indigenous peoples are no longer. WE ARE HERE!! Colonialism tried to erase us, and this tale that we are something of the past is told over and over. The are over 4.000.000 Mapuches only in Argentina (and this numbers always go on the less side because of the erasure made by the government).
When this “Zapuche” (OMG THAT NAME IS RIDICULOUS, I THOUGHT THAT WAS A TYPO THE FIRST TIME I READ IT) “tribe” had their territory invaded by the colonisers, they made a ritual that went wrong, so the spirits of the “other side” started to run free and killed everyone. (Yep, they were punished for trying to defend their land!!)
And THE ONLY AND THE BEST WAY POSSIBLE for this people, to keep the spirits at bay was to, of course, SACRIFICE A GIRL…………………………………………………………………………………………
Yep. This trope. Indigenous peoples sacrificing girls.
“A sacrifice of a young girl— once per generation— was the only identified method of protecting the tribe (and every other inhabitant) from the unholy Otros, or Others. Each sacrificed girl would safeguard that generation until the next. This sacrificial ritual was continued until so few Zapuche remained in the area that those still here . . . stopped"
“ In every generation, she would say, a young girl was sacrificed to the Zapuche gods, in a great ceremony on a cliff beside the ice, to ensure the safety and peace of the tribe. She knew being sacrificed was a weighty honor, one she could only hope to live.”
“After many of the residents of the house perished— and failed at various attempts to flee— it is said that a couple of remaining Zapuche staff were persuaded to sacrifice their own daughters for the “greater good.” (yikesss let’s sacrifice our daughters to save our white employers …..)
Oh, but the sacrificed girl got superpowers and became SPECIAL!! Okay...
AAAND is not just a curse, is a SAVAGE curse.
“the victims of what was likely another savage Zapuche curse”
And the worst thing is that these words are said by someone who is a descendent of the “Zapuche” people (even though she doesn’t know anything about the culture because her father left her when she was a baby). So is like NOT RACIST IF SHE IS THE ONE SAYING THAT, RIGHT? And the sad thing is that in any moment she is trying to reconnect with her ancestry. She is not trying to reclaim her place as a Zapuche woman and the territory that was INVADED AND STOLEN. She’s just trying to understand how this curse works and who is this spirit that is probably a sacrificed girl with superpowers.
Ah, there's also the PRIMITIVE way of thinking.
"I thought it was the primitive Zapuche way of describing the virus".
This ideias, btw are never questioned, never opposed.
So, what did we learn about this “Zapuche” in this book?
Well, they’re not very smart, after all they did a ritual that went wrong, killing not only the enemies but themselves. They sacrifice girls to remedy their bad rituals. They are not very good dads -- with all the abandonment and sacrificing daughters thing. ALSO PEDOPHILES!
But who the “Zapuche” were? What kinds of music, clothes, believes they had? How their culture and language influenced Argentinian people today?
You could say “well, but that is no very relevant for the story”. Except the author mentioned “Zapuche” 73 times in her book, and not one of them she tried to break these simplistic and stereotypical ideas of what native people are. This is hurtful. We don’t need this kind a representation. We don’t need this kind of coloniser look that makes us the other, the savage, with terrible rituals and incomprehensible beliefs.
And most of all, this narrative is damaging when is published in the US market because people take as truth what the author is saying, since her parents are from South America. People don’t do any research after they read it. Is really disheartening seeing so many reviews prazing “the folklore” or the “different culture” in the book.
I also think it’s weird that Angel talks about Mavi (the girl with indigenous ancestry) as the “nut-brown girl” like 3 times. She doesn’t describe the other girl as “paper white girl”. But overall that’s the lesser evil.
I think I’m done with the rant. I hate hate hate to be the person who is negative about books. But since nobody’s talking about it, I had to.
PS: err. and no, this ludicrous ending doesn’t make it any better. If I played a game that portrayed indigenous peoples like this I'd still be very mad about it. Even with the "it was all a game" they say the "Zapuche" legend is real, so...
October 3, 2024
It is DONE. Honestly, I've never been so relieved.
I haven't had this rough of a reading experience in a while, maybe ever.
STRUGGLES.
I did it. I made it. I completed The Tenth Girl.
My sanity is basically intact and I am so happy to be moving on!!!
I could possibly provide full thoughts on this at some point, but for now, I would like to just forget the last 20-days of my life ever happened.
Also, annoyed with the fact that the final plot twist is spoiled by the naked hardback. My advice would be if you actually own this book,throw it in the... do not take the jacket off prior to reading.
The End. ((Thank all that is holy))
I haven't had this rough of a reading experience in a while, maybe ever.
STRUGGLES.
I did it. I made it. I completed The Tenth Girl.
My sanity is basically intact and I am so happy to be moving on!!!
I could possibly provide full thoughts on this at some point, but for now, I would like to just forget the last 20-days of my life ever happened.
Also, annoyed with the fact that the final plot twist is spoiled by the naked hardback. My advice would be if you actually own this book,
The End. ((Thank all that is holy))
October 7, 2019
I went into this SO excited, but came out feeling extremely let down. This ended up being 450 pages of nonsense?????? Maybe I'm just dumb, but nothing about the plot (especially the EXTREMELY out of left field ending) made any sense to me. On top of that, I also feel like this book handled certain situations and scenarios in really harmful ways and it just did not work for me. It felt like the author was trying to go for shock factor and it just ended up coming off more insensitive than anything else.
TW: child abuse, rape, pedophilia, miscarriage, gore
Buddy read with Melanie and Jocelyn!
TW: child abuse, rape, pedophilia, miscarriage, gore
Buddy read with Melanie and Jocelyn!
September 23, 2019
"The Tenth Girl" deserves to become, with time, a horror classic.. And also __________ and __________. It deserves it.
Sara Faring's writing is literary and beautiful and clever. The world she has created is wholly original and the book is remarkable. Intrigue becomes suspense which turns to terror and back to intrigue and fear and it doesn't let up. And here and there there's a little gift or inside joke for horror fans. It's a book to read over and find more in it every time.
ABOUT THE BOOK (SORT OF):
This is a book about a haunted house. An enormous house built on very tall rocks on an ice field at the tip of Patagonia. Isolated. Insular. Faring has created a perfectly forbidding setting.
It's also a book about __________ and ___________ and ____________.
Which is why I say DON'T READ ABOUT IT. JUST READ IT!
It isn't just that there are spoilers everywhere, which there are. Now that I'm done with mine I've read a few reviews and THERE ARE "SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS" WITH SPOILERS. I ran into one without even reading a review.
I want to be like that person in the movie who warns everyone going into the house to STAY AWAY. I don't want to save you from the house. I want you in the house.
I want to save you from knowing anything going in. It's better that way.
Even when you know about the __________ or the __________ or the __________ it may not diminish the mesmerizing, petrifying, immersive experience that is "The Tenth Girl." But it would be a shame if you found out before you read it about the ___ with the ___________s or any of the others.
For horror fans, this book is a must.
And it's also a book that _______ _______ ___s and ________ ____s. may love And more. Maybe every ____ would love it.
It may not be on their radar. So when you're done, please make sure they hear about it. If you have to, talk them into it. Or buy it for them. It's that good.
ABOUT THE YA CLASSIFICATION::
My early impressions were that this should not be YA. But I was wrong.
You're a horror fan. Like me you were probably reading the classics and bestsellers at a young age, some would say too young (but not), for me about eleven. My parents shared theirs with me. Some I sneaked in. I always loved to be scared.
In this way you probably weren't like me, maybe nobody else was: because the best ones, my favorites, the scariest, before I went to sleep I had to move them into another room. By day and night I savored them but I didn't trust them near me while I was sleeping. Ha. I laugh about it now. As if the book couldn't come and get me from the living room. Kids!
This is a book I would have put in another room at bedtime and then by day been sent to the principal's office for hiding it behind my textbook.
There is material in here that some parents will find objectionable -- because the parents object to it.
Like you and me,, a young, smart literate fan can handle it (see Potter, Harry) and will probably love it. Unfortunately this kid may need therapy sometime, but it won't be because of the book.
Kids are smarter than adults in many ways, they process things differently and they're growing up in a different world with a totally different culture.
So the right kids, the horror fans and the ____s and the _________s and even the ________ ones, deserve to read it.
I can't give an age since some younger ones can handle it, like eleven-year-old me, and some older ones can't and some adults can't either.
I'm also sure the right YAs will ______ __ ___ quickly, faster than so-called grownups. I did, sort of (sure, not as well as a ___ or a __________) and it didn't take away anything, it added. Sara Faring plays fair.
I've thought a lot about this book the whole time I've been reading it and having finished it last night, about how to review it. Never written a review like this one.
I have a wish:
I wish there was time travel and I was a ghost and I could spy on Lovecraft and Poe reading this on their Kindles. (Or maybe like me they would still read paper books)
You know what I mean?
I'm not saying she's in their league, she's not, they're in a league of their own. I want to see their reactions (and ______'s too.)
I want to believe they would love "The Tenth Girl," have fun with it, admire it, even say goawaydon'tbothermenow while they're reading it.
It's that good.
Sara Faring's writing is literary and beautiful and clever. The world she has created is wholly original and the book is remarkable. Intrigue becomes suspense which turns to terror and back to intrigue and fear and it doesn't let up. And here and there there's a little gift or inside joke for horror fans. It's a book to read over and find more in it every time.
ABOUT THE BOOK (SORT OF):
This is a book about a haunted house. An enormous house built on very tall rocks on an ice field at the tip of Patagonia. Isolated. Insular. Faring has created a perfectly forbidding setting.
It's also a book about __________ and ___________ and ____________.
Which is why I say DON'T READ ABOUT IT. JUST READ IT!
It isn't just that there are spoilers everywhere, which there are. Now that I'm done with mine I've read a few reviews and THERE ARE "SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS" WITH SPOILERS. I ran into one without even reading a review.
I want to be like that person in the movie who warns everyone going into the house to STAY AWAY. I don't want to save you from the house. I want you in the house.
I want to save you from knowing anything going in. It's better that way.
Even when you know about the __________ or the __________ or the __________ it may not diminish the mesmerizing, petrifying, immersive experience that is "The Tenth Girl." But it would be a shame if you found out before you read it about the ___ with the ___________s or any of the others.
For horror fans, this book is a must.
And it's also a book that _______ _______ ___s and ________ ____s. may love And more. Maybe every ____ would love it.
It may not be on their radar. So when you're done, please make sure they hear about it. If you have to, talk them into it. Or buy it for them. It's that good.
ABOUT THE YA CLASSIFICATION::
My early impressions were that this should not be YA. But I was wrong.
You're a horror fan. Like me you were probably reading the classics and bestsellers at a young age, some would say too young (but not), for me about eleven. My parents shared theirs with me. Some I sneaked in. I always loved to be scared.
In this way you probably weren't like me, maybe nobody else was: because the best ones, my favorites, the scariest, before I went to sleep I had to move them into another room. By day and night I savored them but I didn't trust them near me while I was sleeping. Ha. I laugh about it now. As if the book couldn't come and get me from the living room. Kids!
This is a book I would have put in another room at bedtime and then by day been sent to the principal's office for hiding it behind my textbook.
There is material in here that some parents will find objectionable -- because the parents object to it.
Like you and me,, a young, smart literate fan can handle it (see Potter, Harry) and will probably love it. Unfortunately this kid may need therapy sometime, but it won't be because of the book.
Kids are smarter than adults in many ways, they process things differently and they're growing up in a different world with a totally different culture.
So the right kids, the horror fans and the ____s and the _________s and even the ________ ones, deserve to read it.
I can't give an age since some younger ones can handle it, like eleven-year-old me, and some older ones can't and some adults can't either.
I'm also sure the right YAs will ______ __ ___ quickly, faster than so-called grownups. I did, sort of (sure, not as well as a ___ or a __________) and it didn't take away anything, it added. Sara Faring plays fair.
I've thought a lot about this book the whole time I've been reading it and having finished it last night, about how to review it. Never written a review like this one.
I have a wish:
I wish there was time travel and I was a ghost and I could spy on Lovecraft and Poe reading this on their Kindles. (Or maybe like me they would still read paper books)
You know what I mean?
I'm not saying she's in their league, she's not, they're in a league of their own. I want to see their reactions (and ______'s too.)
I want to believe they would love "The Tenth Girl," have fun with it, admire it, even say goawaydon'tbothermenow while they're reading it.
It's that good.
dnf-lost-interest
October 7, 2019Every time Dennis and I buddy read a book:
*Many thanks to the publisher for providing our review copies.
*Many thanks to the publisher for providing our review copies.
October 28, 2020
i hate to dnf books, but man oh man there has never been one that deserved it more.
if you don't believe me, go read literally any of the reviews of this dumpster fire, which has a 2.97 AVERAGE RATING.
oh, uh...and thanks to the publisher for the ARC.
-------------
don't mind me, just binge reading every halloween-esque book i can find before october ends
if you don't believe me, go read literally any of the reviews of this dumpster fire, which has a 2.97 AVERAGE RATING.
oh, uh...and thanks to the publisher for the ARC.
-------------
don't mind me, just binge reading every halloween-esque book i can find before october ends
June 24, 2019
I suspect that the The Tenth Girl is going to be a very polarizing book. There is a twist at the end I did not expect, and I think some readers will dislike that twist, while others will love it. Unfortunately, I can't really tell you what factors might make you likely to appreciate what this book is doing without spoiling things! If you really want to know, there will be a spoilery section below where I get into what the twist is, what it means, and why I think it is so smart and thematically brilliant.
For now, what I can say is that this debut novel is being billed as a gothic thriller set at a girls boarding school in 1970's Argentina. I really loved it, but I don't know that this is something that will necessarily work for typical readers of mysteries or thrillers. For some it will, but I think to really appreciate what this book is doing, you need a particular set of reference points. Ones which I had, but other reviewers I know did not. But again, spoilers!
In general, I can say that this book is atmospheric, creepy, engaging, and includes some horror elements. It follows a young teacher beginning at a girls boarding school in Patagonia, in a house built by colonizers on land that formerly belonged to the Zapuche, an indigenous people in Argentina. The book is own voices for the Latinx representation and includes actual mythology from the Zapuche, a real life group. It is also peppered with stories from the author's family members, recalled from living under oppressive rule in 1970's Argentina. That mythology is rich and unusual, which makes this book feel quite unique and gives voice to a group of people not previously known widely.
The teacher is trying to escape the Argentinian government, but it seems that she may have gotten herself into an even more dangerous, disturbing situation, where "The Others" present an ominous force. There are going to be a whole bunch of content warnings listed below as well, so recognize that this is quite a dark and violent book.
That said, I'm going to move on to talking about why I think this book is doing something important and why I love it more the more I reflect on it, but also why this may not be the book for everyone.
Okay! So half of this review and discussion includes spoilers, but I thought it was really important to talk about what this book is doing and why I find a lot of value in it. The one thing I can say more generally, is that part of what it does is tackle toxic masculinity and the ways that can present in aspects of Millennial culture. Sorry if that is vague but I think it is the best I can do without spoilers! I know this won't be the book for everyone, but I definitely think there is an audience for it and I think it is a fantastic debut.
Content warnings in this book include violence, death, depictions of blood, dark magic, possession, spirits/ghosts, torture, sexual assault, violence towards children, pedophilia. Maybe more, but those are some big ones!
For now, what I can say is that this debut novel is being billed as a gothic thriller set at a girls boarding school in 1970's Argentina. I really loved it, but I don't know that this is something that will necessarily work for typical readers of mysteries or thrillers. For some it will, but I think to really appreciate what this book is doing, you need a particular set of reference points. Ones which I had, but other reviewers I know did not. But again, spoilers!
In general, I can say that this book is atmospheric, creepy, engaging, and includes some horror elements. It follows a young teacher beginning at a girls boarding school in Patagonia, in a house built by colonizers on land that formerly belonged to the Zapuche, an indigenous people in Argentina. The book is own voices for the Latinx representation and includes actual mythology from the Zapuche, a real life group. It is also peppered with stories from the author's family members, recalled from living under oppressive rule in 1970's Argentina. That mythology is rich and unusual, which makes this book feel quite unique and gives voice to a group of people not previously known widely.
The teacher is trying to escape the Argentinian government, but it seems that she may have gotten herself into an even more dangerous, disturbing situation, where "The Others" present an ominous force. There are going to be a whole bunch of content warnings listed below as well, so recognize that this is quite a dark and violent book.
That said, I'm going to move on to talking about why I think this book is doing something important and why I love it more the more I reflect on it, but also why this may not be the book for everyone.
Okay! So half of this review and discussion includes spoilers, but I thought it was really important to talk about what this book is doing and why I find a lot of value in it. The one thing I can say more generally, is that part of what it does is tackle toxic masculinity and the ways that can present in aspects of Millennial culture. Sorry if that is vague but I think it is the best I can do without spoilers! I know this won't be the book for everyone, but I definitely think there is an audience for it and I think it is a fantastic debut.
Content warnings in this book include violence, death, depictions of blood, dark magic, possession, spirits/ghosts, torture, sexual assault, violence towards children, pedophilia. Maybe more, but those are some big ones!
September 29, 2019
So here's my problem with THE TENTH GIRL. If this was a more straight-forward, yet twisty, gothic horror, I think it would've been amazing. Parts of this were really good. The atmosphere, the creepy factor, the isolated strangeness of the setting, the eerie encroaching darkness of it all.. it was great.
But instead this book is a lot more than meets the eye. Infact in hindsight you see a lot of the clues, or at least I do, but even had I noticed, even if they had got me wondering, nothing could have prepared me for that this book actually is. It's a very.. risky choice. Bold, even. Particularly for a debut.
The good thing is you get a sense early on that things aren't quite as the appear. But the problem is just how not as the appear things really are. It didn't work for me. My mind was trying to make it work but I had certain expectations about this book and the story as a whole didn't meet them. So maybe that's on me.
This is a spoiler free zone. This is the only kind of review you will, get the vaguest of vague, which will either intrigue or scare you off. Either choice is valid.
I might read this author again but unfortunately I can't say this book gave me what I wanted.
** I received an ARC from the publisher (thank you!) in exchange for an honest review. **
---
This review can also be found at A Take From Two Cities.
But instead this book is a lot more than meets the eye. Infact in hindsight you see a lot of the clues, or at least I do, but even had I noticed, even if they had got me wondering, nothing could have prepared me for that this book actually is. It's a very.. risky choice. Bold, even. Particularly for a debut.
The good thing is you get a sense early on that things aren't quite as the appear. But the problem is just how not as the appear things really are. It didn't work for me. My mind was trying to make it work but I had certain expectations about this book and the story as a whole didn't meet them. So maybe that's on me.
This is a spoiler free zone. This is the only kind of review you will, get the vaguest of vague, which will either intrigue or scare you off. Either choice is valid.
I might read this author again but unfortunately I can't say this book gave me what I wanted.
** I received an ARC from the publisher (thank you!) in exchange for an honest review. **
---
This review can also be found at A Take From Two Cities.
October 7, 2019
I should say up front that this as a debut has a lot of promise-- I think the author builds a sense of atmosphere, incorporates indigenous culture/mythology effectively, and definitely has a bold premise/plot pay off which, though I did not like how that ultimately ended up, was not boring. This is not basic YA mystery or horror or fantasy, and for that I salute it.
That said, I think the disparate elements of this book just do not come together and the twist that folks allude to in this is both unsatisfying and not executed well IMO. This book never came together in a cohesive way that paid off for me, and that's really too bad, because a lot of the individual elements were really interesting. I really wish this book had been more straightforwardly aligned to the back cover description-- I think a slightly less ambitious book would have ultimately been more successful.
I would check for more from this author, because there's a lot of promise here. The book itself though... kind of a mess IMO
That said, I think the disparate elements of this book just do not come together and the twist that folks allude to in this is both unsatisfying and not executed well IMO. This book never came together in a cohesive way that paid off for me, and that's really too bad, because a lot of the individual elements were really interesting. I really wish this book had been more straightforwardly aligned to the back cover description-- I think a slightly less ambitious book would have ultimately been more successful.
I would check for more from this author, because there's a lot of promise here. The book itself though... kind of a mess IMO
October 7, 2019
Before I get into my review, I do want to acknowledge that I think this is going to be a very polarizing book. While it didn't work for me, I know there will be plenty of readers that find more success.
So here's the thing with The Tenth Girl: that twist everyone keeps mentioning? It completely changes the first 75% of the story. That can sometimes work, but here it felt a little half-baked. The few clues that were left throughout I had initially read as errors in the writing. I didn't find them charming, they didn't make me wonder where the story would turn; I was annoyed and believed we were being intentionally left in the dark. And to be quite honest, I still am annoyed and believe we were being intentionally left in the dark. When I'm hit with a twist, I want to be excited, I want to gasp, I want to get pulled in even deeper. Here I was just frustrated. I'd been along for this ride for nearly 400 pages. I was invested in these characters - no matter how confused I might've been by the specifics - and then the rug was pulled out from under me. Instead of getting any answers at all, I'm left only with the question: Why.
I wanted to love this book. There were so many topics that were brought up in the text that I think could've made this a favorite of mine. However, the sheer amount of issues I had with the writing and story telling especially made this miss the mark. I am interested to see what Sara Faring will come out with in the future, but I'll be sure to temper my expectations.
Heavy trigger warnings all around here, friends. Abuse of all kinds, gore, talks of murder and suicide, statutory rape, miscarriage... I think that's most of it.
Buddy read with Chelsea and Melanie.
So here's the thing with The Tenth Girl: that twist everyone keeps mentioning? It completely changes the first 75% of the story. That can sometimes work, but here it felt a little half-baked. The few clues that were left throughout I had initially read as errors in the writing. I didn't find them charming, they didn't make me wonder where the story would turn; I was annoyed and believed we were being intentionally left in the dark. And to be quite honest, I still am annoyed and believe we were being intentionally left in the dark. When I'm hit with a twist, I want to be excited, I want to gasp, I want to get pulled in even deeper. Here I was just frustrated. I'd been along for this ride for nearly 400 pages. I was invested in these characters - no matter how confused I might've been by the specifics - and then the rug was pulled out from under me. Instead of getting any answers at all, I'm left only with the question: Why.
I wanted to love this book. There were so many topics that were brought up in the text that I think could've made this a favorite of mine. However, the sheer amount of issues I had with the writing and story telling especially made this miss the mark. I am interested to see what Sara Faring will come out with in the future, but I'll be sure to temper my expectations.
Heavy trigger warnings all around here, friends. Abuse of all kinds, gore, talks of murder and suicide, statutory rape, miscarriage... I think that's most of it.
Buddy read with Chelsea and Melanie.
January 29, 2025
Book Blog | Bookstagram
DNF @ 53%
I am sorry, but this was possibly the most boring book I've read in recent memory???
By the time the sweet ghostie-kid showed up like fucking Casper, I was done.
⭐½ | 1.5 stars rounded down
DNF @ 53%
I am sorry, but this was possibly the most boring book I've read in recent memory???
By the time the sweet ghostie-kid showed up like fucking Casper, I was done.
⭐½ | 1.5 stars rounded down
October 7, 2019
Bro what the FUCJ
July 11, 2019
3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
e-ARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review!
When I first read the synopsis for The Tenth Girl by Sara Faring, I thought to myself; "A gothic psychological thriller about an isolated finishing school that's cursed, AND has a twist that you'll supposedly never see coming? Sign me tf up", because that just about ticks off all of my boxes! This might've been my second most anticipated read of the year (second only to Darkdawn), and now it's my most disappointing! I promised I'd be honest, right?
This wasn't a bad book by no means! It was entertaining, the atmosphere was everything I hoped it would be, and the ending blindsided me- as promised! (In fact- the ending might've been the reason I'm giving this book a 3 star rating instead of a 2!) I just didn't get what I wanted to out of it in the end, and that's okay, because I'm sure what didn't work for me will work for others!
e-ARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review!
When I first read the synopsis for The Tenth Girl by Sara Faring, I thought to myself; "A gothic psychological thriller about an isolated finishing school that's cursed, AND has a twist that you'll supposedly never see coming? Sign me tf up", because that just about ticks off all of my boxes! This might've been my second most anticipated read of the year (second only to Darkdawn), and now it's my most disappointing! I promised I'd be honest, right?
This wasn't a bad book by no means! It was entertaining, the atmosphere was everything I hoped it would be, and the ending blindsided me- as promised! (In fact- the ending might've been the reason I'm giving this book a 3 star rating instead of a 2!) I just didn't get what I wanted to out of it in the end, and that's okay, because I'm sure what didn't work for me will work for others!
July 3, 2019
It’s so hard to write a review without spoiling.
I enjoyed this immensely. Many have said it’ll be a polarizing read and I do think that’s true....but omg I LOVED IT.
Trigger warnings: it’s a dark world there are lots of reviews that have the trigger warnings so heed them if reading a horror that involves children and heinous alluded to acts would at all bother you.
I enjoyed this immensely. Many have said it’ll be a polarizing read and I do think that’s true....but omg I LOVED IT.
Trigger warnings: it’s a dark world there are lots of reviews that have the trigger warnings so heed them if reading a horror that involves children and heinous alluded to acts would at all bother you.
January 20, 2021
This was very not good....
January pick for the #WickAndJaneBookClub on Instagram
I don't know if this book was read by any indigenous people before it's publication, but I really wish it had been. Or if it had, that publishing and/or the author had taken these claims to heart and edited a lot of this book. There were so many problems with this book and most of them are because of the massive amounts of anti-indigenous rhetoric that this book is full of.
Mavi is on the run from the Argentinian government because her mother is a leftist. Angel is an other haunting the De Vaccaro finishing school. Between these two POVs we are to unravel the mystery of the De Vaccaro school. Angel is never gendered by themselves in this book so I won't refer to them with any male or female pronouns.
So the premise is that the De Vaccaro family are colonizers from Italy that came to Argentina and decided to take land from an indigenous group, the Zapuche. (Pause: The Zapuche are fictional, but in real life there is a native group of Argentina-Chile called the Mapuche. I don't really know what to do with this info but it was weird that these fictional native people are so closely based to real life native people.) The De Vaccaro family steals the land and makes their gigantic school to help young rich girls finish their education. But after this happens, the native people retaliate. A sickness of some sort descends on the house. In order for the colonizers to be saved though, a Zapuche daughter must be sacrificed.
Using the misaligned trope that indigenous people sacrifice their own daughters is wrong. There was some other stuff about the whole ritual and what happened between the De Vaccaro's and the Zapuche, but basically it was all bad and used many stereotypes of indigenous people to make them purposefully look bad. All these people wanted was for the people who LITERALLY STOLE their land to leave. Also there were several instances of the word "savage" being used in reference to the Zapuche people, and that's also just a no. If you don't understand someone's culture, that's not an excuse to label them as lesser or primitive or savage.
On top of all the anti-indigenous rhetoric this book is FULL of, there was also a very lovely anti-Semitic remark thrown in, because apparently we need all the discrimination.
"...in case you are thinking that we were Nazis. But we aren't Jews, either, God forbid."
Yay for casual anti-Semitic remarks. This was made by one of the young girls at the school.
Besides this the whole plot was just boring?? And the twist at the end was weird as fuck and made the whole indigenous storyline unnecessary. Like it could've been replaced with anything else and the plot would've been the same. In other words, there was no reason for how anti-indigenous this book was.
I cannot wait to unhaul this book.
January pick for the #WickAndJaneBookClub on Instagram
I don't know if this book was read by any indigenous people before it's publication, but I really wish it had been. Or if it had, that publishing and/or the author had taken these claims to heart and edited a lot of this book. There were so many problems with this book and most of them are because of the massive amounts of anti-indigenous rhetoric that this book is full of.
Mavi is on the run from the Argentinian government because her mother is a leftist. Angel is an other haunting the De Vaccaro finishing school. Between these two POVs we are to unravel the mystery of the De Vaccaro school. Angel is never gendered by themselves in this book so I won't refer to them with any male or female pronouns.
So the premise is that the De Vaccaro family are colonizers from Italy that came to Argentina and decided to take land from an indigenous group, the Zapuche. (Pause: The Zapuche are fictional, but in real life there is a native group of Argentina-Chile called the Mapuche. I don't really know what to do with this info but it was weird that these fictional native people are so closely based to real life native people.) The De Vaccaro family steals the land and makes their gigantic school to help young rich girls finish their education. But after this happens, the native people retaliate. A sickness of some sort descends on the house. In order for the colonizers to be saved though, a Zapuche daughter must be sacrificed.
Using the misaligned trope that indigenous people sacrifice their own daughters is wrong. There was some other stuff about the whole ritual and what happened between the De Vaccaro's and the Zapuche, but basically it was all bad and used many stereotypes of indigenous people to make them purposefully look bad. All these people wanted was for the people who LITERALLY STOLE their land to leave. Also there were several instances of the word "savage" being used in reference to the Zapuche people, and that's also just a no. If you don't understand someone's culture, that's not an excuse to label them as lesser or primitive or savage.
On top of all the anti-indigenous rhetoric this book is FULL of, there was also a very lovely anti-Semitic remark thrown in, because apparently we need all the discrimination.
"...in case you are thinking that we were Nazis. But we aren't Jews, either, God forbid."
Yay for casual anti-Semitic remarks. This was made by one of the young girls at the school.
Besides this the whole plot was just boring?? And the twist at the end was weird as fuck and made the whole indigenous storyline unnecessary. Like it could've been replaced with anything else and the plot would've been the same. In other words, there was no reason for how anti-indigenous this book was.
I cannot wait to unhaul this book.
August 24, 2019
The full review + more can be found at The Book Bratz
*Thank you so much to Sara and Imprint for the opportunity to read THE TENTH GIRL!*
***I tried to keep this review as spoiler free as possible! But please read at your own risk!***
Hi. Hello. It's been three days and I am still trying to wrap my head around the last 150 pages of The Tenth Girl. I been working with Sara on an interview for The Tenth Girl and I was thrilled when she sent me a copy to read so I could ask more specific book related questions! Jessica and Emily had the opportunity to attend a Fierce Reads event at BookExpo where Sara was a keynote speaker and met her when she was signing ARCs of The Tenth Girl! (I was on another signing line, so Jessica got a copy signed for me and then told Sara how much I loved The Tenth Girl!) I was hoping to meet her another day of BookExpo but I had sadly cut my trip short do to an injury.
The Tenth Girl is a dark and twisty horror novel set in Argentinian Finishing School in the 1970s, where Mavi becomes a teacher to ten young girls. Only, there is no tenth girl and no one seems to know about her or her whereabouts. Besides the darkness The Tenth Girl is rich in history and myth from Argentina and is written by an Argentine-American author. As Mavi's students and fellow teachers begin to show symptoms of possessions and the headmistress' son suddenly befriends her, Mavi knows she must get to the bottom of what ever is haunting the Vaccaro school.
I really enjoyed Sara's writing style. It is different then what I am use too and was quite refreshing. It also made her characters more relatable. The Tenth Girl is told from dual point of view. We have Mavi and Angel in alternating chapters. In the first few chapters, I wasn't quite sure what was going on with Angel. Who is she? What is she? Why is she at Vaccaro School? Is he a ghost? These are questions that I know readers are going to long for. But ALL of them get answered in the most brilliant of ways.
My biggest advice going into this novel: Keep your mind open and take in every single detail. Also, take a look at the aspects of the cover real closely. They don't stand out right away, but look at the fading edges of the cliff and the shading and you'll see them!
I am completely blind sided by the climax and the plot twist in The Tenth Girl. What. The. Hell. My mind was completely blown. With the pieces you are given in the novel, you come to your own conclusion on how you believe that this novel is going to end and then suddenly BAM! Everything is revealed and you are flipping through the pages to see what is going to happen next. You also might look like me who according to my sister, "Looked like a fish out of water."
I really loved The Tenth Girl and I can't wait to read my by Sara in the future. She has a unique writing style that is going to suck you in at the first page and spit you stuttering and in shock at the last page!
*Thank you so much to Sara and Imprint for the opportunity to read THE TENTH GIRL!*
***I tried to keep this review as spoiler free as possible! But please read at your own risk!***
Hi. Hello. It's been three days and I am still trying to wrap my head around the last 150 pages of The Tenth Girl. I been working with Sara on an interview for The Tenth Girl and I was thrilled when she sent me a copy to read so I could ask more specific book related questions! Jessica and Emily had the opportunity to attend a Fierce Reads event at BookExpo where Sara was a keynote speaker and met her when she was signing ARCs of The Tenth Girl! (I was on another signing line, so Jessica got a copy signed for me and then told Sara how much I loved The Tenth Girl!) I was hoping to meet her another day of BookExpo but I had sadly cut my trip short do to an injury.
The Tenth Girl is a dark and twisty horror novel set in Argentinian Finishing School in the 1970s, where Mavi becomes a teacher to ten young girls. Only, there is no tenth girl and no one seems to know about her or her whereabouts. Besides the darkness The Tenth Girl is rich in history and myth from Argentina and is written by an Argentine-American author. As Mavi's students and fellow teachers begin to show symptoms of possessions and the headmistress' son suddenly befriends her, Mavi knows she must get to the bottom of what ever is haunting the Vaccaro school.
I really enjoyed Sara's writing style. It is different then what I am use too and was quite refreshing. It also made her characters more relatable. The Tenth Girl is told from dual point of view. We have Mavi and Angel in alternating chapters. In the first few chapters, I wasn't quite sure what was going on with Angel. Who is she? What is she? Why is she at Vaccaro School? Is he a ghost? These are questions that I know readers are going to long for. But ALL of them get answered in the most brilliant of ways.
My biggest advice going into this novel: Keep your mind open and take in every single detail. Also, take a look at the aspects of the cover real closely. They don't stand out right away, but look at the fading edges of the cliff and the shading and you'll see them!
I am completely blind sided by the climax and the plot twist in The Tenth Girl. What. The. Hell. My mind was completely blown. With the pieces you are given in the novel, you come to your own conclusion on how you believe that this novel is going to end and then suddenly BAM! Everything is revealed and you are flipping through the pages to see what is going to happen next. You also might look like me who according to my sister, "Looked like a fish out of water."
I really loved The Tenth Girl and I can't wait to read my by Sara in the future. She has a unique writing style that is going to suck you in at the first page and spit you stuttering and in shock at the last page!
October 15, 2019
2 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2019/10/13/...
I guess I’m just not having the best luck with my horror reads lately. The Tenth Girl was the latest to disappoint, and this one stings especially, considering how it started off leading me to believe I was going to fall in love with this book. Somewhere along the way though, everything started unraveling.
Labeled a gothic psychological thriller, The Tenth Girl follows 18-year-old protagonist Mavi who arrives at Carmela De Vaccaro’s elite finishing school for girls, to which she had given false information in order to gain a teaching job. Said to be cursed, the isolated boarding academy sits in an icy region of Patagonia which has seen much political unrest, resulting in the ousting of its local peoples. It is the 1970s, and Mavi herself has come to this remote part of the continent from her home of Buenos Aires following the death of her activist mother at the hands of the military regime, hoping to find some refuge in the mountains.
What she did not expect to find, however, was even more trouble. At the school, Mavi is introduced to its nine students, though if the whispers are true, there is a tenth girl who is missing, but everyone is tightlipped about that. Things are certainly creepy enough at Vaccaro’s without the disturbing rumors flying about, with its foreboding headmistress and dire warnings not to go wandering on the grounds at night. Whispers of phantoms and ghostly possession also plague the school halls, which have seen their fair share of tragedy and devastation. As Mavi learns more about the dreadful history of the academy, she also finds out about the mysterious Others through one of their members, a spirit boy named Angel.
One incredibly jarring thing about The Tenth Girl is its structure. The narration flips between perspectives, mainly those of Mavi and Angel, and the novel also appears to be told via more than one timeline, though seeing how that is one element of the ultimate surprise, I’m not going into too much detail about that. I think my biggest issue with this book is the ending. On the one hand, it had a great twist, one that should have been right up my alley due to certain elements I am unable to reveal. Unfortunately, though, I was not a fan of the way it was handled. Since I can’t really talk about it due to spoilers, I’ll say this: it felt like a copout, and I didn’t like the sudden shift in how it made readers view the world. All that delicious gothic atmosphere that I was enjoying? Completely destroyed.
The ending was also implemented in a way that felt out of place and broke any kind of connection I was having with the story up to that point, making me look back at the first three-quarters of the book with mistrust and more than a few eyerolls. Here’s the thing: twists that make me feel shocked and blindsided are fine, but twists that make me feel cheated and robbed are not. I bring this up because I suspect readers will fall into one of these two mindsets once they reach the end, and that will ultimately determine how you feel about this book.
And really, it’s just such a shame when looking back, because the author clearly has a good grasp of the gothic horror tradition, as evidenced by how well she created the perfect mood for her haunted school story. While billed as a thriller, the novel’s pacing is more of a slow-burn—which was exactly what the plot required. The characters were also intriguing, and I immediately took to Mavi and the heartbreaking history of her family, while the personalities and behaviors of the students, staff, and Others at the Vaccaro school added extra layers to the mysterious sense of the place. All this and more contributed to the fantastic historical setting, and if anything, that was what made the eventual bait-and-switch feel even more frustrating, adding to my regret.
Still, kudos to Sara Faring for taking such a bold risk here, with one of the most extreme and daring twists I’ve seen in a while. I certainly don’t resent the twist itself, and might have even enjoyed it had it been handled better, but I think that would have required a very different book. Ultimately, The Tenth Girl didn’t work too well for me, but I believe others might do better with it. So if you’re willing to take the chance, it could be worth a look.
Audiobook Comments: Of the two narrators for The Tenth Girl audiobook, Frankie Corzo probably did the better job reading as Mavi, while Mark Sanderlin voice sounds way too young for someone like Angel, hence his chapters were somewhat distracting and not as good.
I guess I’m just not having the best luck with my horror reads lately. The Tenth Girl was the latest to disappoint, and this one stings especially, considering how it started off leading me to believe I was going to fall in love with this book. Somewhere along the way though, everything started unraveling.
Labeled a gothic psychological thriller, The Tenth Girl follows 18-year-old protagonist Mavi who arrives at Carmela De Vaccaro’s elite finishing school for girls, to which she had given false information in order to gain a teaching job. Said to be cursed, the isolated boarding academy sits in an icy region of Patagonia which has seen much political unrest, resulting in the ousting of its local peoples. It is the 1970s, and Mavi herself has come to this remote part of the continent from her home of Buenos Aires following the death of her activist mother at the hands of the military regime, hoping to find some refuge in the mountains.
What she did not expect to find, however, was even more trouble. At the school, Mavi is introduced to its nine students, though if the whispers are true, there is a tenth girl who is missing, but everyone is tightlipped about that. Things are certainly creepy enough at Vaccaro’s without the disturbing rumors flying about, with its foreboding headmistress and dire warnings not to go wandering on the grounds at night. Whispers of phantoms and ghostly possession also plague the school halls, which have seen their fair share of tragedy and devastation. As Mavi learns more about the dreadful history of the academy, she also finds out about the mysterious Others through one of their members, a spirit boy named Angel.
One incredibly jarring thing about The Tenth Girl is its structure. The narration flips between perspectives, mainly those of Mavi and Angel, and the novel also appears to be told via more than one timeline, though seeing how that is one element of the ultimate surprise, I’m not going into too much detail about that. I think my biggest issue with this book is the ending. On the one hand, it had a great twist, one that should have been right up my alley due to certain elements I am unable to reveal. Unfortunately, though, I was not a fan of the way it was handled. Since I can’t really talk about it due to spoilers, I’ll say this: it felt like a copout, and I didn’t like the sudden shift in how it made readers view the world. All that delicious gothic atmosphere that I was enjoying? Completely destroyed.
The ending was also implemented in a way that felt out of place and broke any kind of connection I was having with the story up to that point, making me look back at the first three-quarters of the book with mistrust and more than a few eyerolls. Here’s the thing: twists that make me feel shocked and blindsided are fine, but twists that make me feel cheated and robbed are not. I bring this up because I suspect readers will fall into one of these two mindsets once they reach the end, and that will ultimately determine how you feel about this book.
And really, it’s just such a shame when looking back, because the author clearly has a good grasp of the gothic horror tradition, as evidenced by how well she created the perfect mood for her haunted school story. While billed as a thriller, the novel’s pacing is more of a slow-burn—which was exactly what the plot required. The characters were also intriguing, and I immediately took to Mavi and the heartbreaking history of her family, while the personalities and behaviors of the students, staff, and Others at the Vaccaro school added extra layers to the mysterious sense of the place. All this and more contributed to the fantastic historical setting, and if anything, that was what made the eventual bait-and-switch feel even more frustrating, adding to my regret.
Still, kudos to Sara Faring for taking such a bold risk here, with one of the most extreme and daring twists I’ve seen in a while. I certainly don’t resent the twist itself, and might have even enjoyed it had it been handled better, but I think that would have required a very different book. Ultimately, The Tenth Girl didn’t work too well for me, but I believe others might do better with it. So if you’re willing to take the chance, it could be worth a look.
Audiobook Comments: Of the two narrators for The Tenth Girl audiobook, Frankie Corzo probably did the better job reading as Mavi, while Mark Sanderlin voice sounds way too young for someone like Angel, hence his chapters were somewhat distracting and not as good.
September 7, 2019
You can find this review on my blog Shades of Paper.
The Tenth Girl was one of my most anticipated books of this year. Not only I love me a good YA thriller, but also the premise of this novel sounded like the perfect book for fall/Halloween, and I was so looking forward to read it. Overall I think this is a very polarizing book, that either you’re going to love or hate, and sadly for me it was the latter one.
I think that The Tenth Girl had such an amazing and intriguing concept, but it was a bit of a lackluster for me. The first few chapters of the novel were actually very interesting and left me wanting to continue with the story, but as I kept reading I found that it was a bit repetitive. I think that was done on purpose because the author was trying to keep the reader in the dark and make everything appear more mysterious, but I’m pretty sure when we started to learn more things about what was going on was after the 50% mark, which made the first half quite boring, to be honest.
I also thing that some of those triggering situations that happened at certain parts of the story were only there for shocking value, but didn’t add anything to the story. They could have perfectly been left out of the book without any repercussions on the plot or the characters. And that thing exactly could be applied in 30% of the things that happened in this book. There were scenes where I didn’t understand what was going on and felt so incredibly confused, and that didn’t add much to the plot, and it was the same with some interactions between certain characters.
But the cherry on top that made me lower my rating and said “oh, gosh, I’m not liking this book at all” was everything that happened in the last 20% of the book after a major plot twist. To be honest I don’t know what I was expecting to see or how everything was going to end, but for sure it wasn’t like that. I think that that big twist at the very end of the novel made the other 80% of The Tenth Girl seem insignificant and senseless. It felt as if I was reading more than 300 pages for nothing, and for the story to completely change tone and plot. I don’t know, it was super weird the way everything was done, quite anticlimactic and a bit of a mess.
The characters were pretty flat. I was expecting much more from them, but I think they were quite simple and most of them were underdeveloped. I enjoyed certain interactions between some characters, but maybe because the plot was so focused on the mystery elements and going back and forth between POVs, the layers of these characters weren’t as explored as I wanted or hoped.
Something that I really enjoyed was the mythology and the Argentinian elements that were introduced in the book. They were so interesting and dark, and I would love to read more about that, and I liked how it was own voices on that representation.
Overall, I was pretty let down by The Tenth Girl. I thought I was going to fall in love with this book, but I had so many issues with the plot and the characters, and the ending was definitely a no for me. The writing was very beautifully woven, so I would like to pick up another book by her in the future and give her another chance.
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. This doesn’t change my opinion whatsoever. All thoughts are my own.
TW: pedophilia, rape, miscarriage, gore, child abuse, mention of cannibalism in page
....
..
Thank you Macmillan and Imprint for the ARC
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“Something in the atmosphere is wrong here, a something I can’t articulate— I only feel a discomfort in the hollow of my chest, the same one that tells you you are not alone when you want to be, or that you are entirely alone when you shouldn’t be.”
The Tenth Girl was one of my most anticipated books of this year. Not only I love me a good YA thriller, but also the premise of this novel sounded like the perfect book for fall/Halloween, and I was so looking forward to read it. Overall I think this is a very polarizing book, that either you’re going to love or hate, and sadly for me it was the latter one.
I think that The Tenth Girl had such an amazing and intriguing concept, but it was a bit of a lackluster for me. The first few chapters of the novel were actually very interesting and left me wanting to continue with the story, but as I kept reading I found that it was a bit repetitive. I think that was done on purpose because the author was trying to keep the reader in the dark and make everything appear more mysterious, but I’m pretty sure when we started to learn more things about what was going on was after the 50% mark, which made the first half quite boring, to be honest.
I also thing that some of those triggering situations that happened at certain parts of the story were only there for shocking value, but didn’t add anything to the story. They could have perfectly been left out of the book without any repercussions on the plot or the characters. And that thing exactly could be applied in 30% of the things that happened in this book. There were scenes where I didn’t understand what was going on and felt so incredibly confused, and that didn’t add much to the plot, and it was the same with some interactions between certain characters.
“Hers is a certainty about the world I crave but refuse to feel blindly. Hers is a certainty I could have used in Buenos Aires, and that I could use now, in this otherworldly place, but I’ve never felt more removed from it.”
But the cherry on top that made me lower my rating and said “oh, gosh, I’m not liking this book at all” was everything that happened in the last 20% of the book after a major plot twist. To be honest I don’t know what I was expecting to see or how everything was going to end, but for sure it wasn’t like that. I think that that big twist at the very end of the novel made the other 80% of The Tenth Girl seem insignificant and senseless. It felt as if I was reading more than 300 pages for nothing, and for the story to completely change tone and plot. I don’t know, it was super weird the way everything was done, quite anticlimactic and a bit of a mess.
The characters were pretty flat. I was expecting much more from them, but I think they were quite simple and most of them were underdeveloped. I enjoyed certain interactions between some characters, but maybe because the plot was so focused on the mystery elements and going back and forth between POVs, the layers of these characters weren’t as explored as I wanted or hoped.
Something that I really enjoyed was the mythology and the Argentinian elements that were introduced in the book. They were so interesting and dark, and I would love to read more about that, and I liked how it was own voices on that representation.
Overall, I was pretty let down by The Tenth Girl. I thought I was going to fall in love with this book, but I had so many issues with the plot and the characters, and the ending was definitely a no for me. The writing was very beautifully woven, so I would like to pick up another book by her in the future and give her another chance.
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. This doesn’t change my opinion whatsoever. All thoughts are my own.
“Souls aren’t like steam, I realize. They’re like viruses, spreading to the surrounding organisms, infecting them with their unfulfilled dreams and inescapable worries.”
TW: pedophilia, rape, miscarriage, gore, child abuse, mention of cannibalism in page
....
..
Thank you Macmillan and Imprint for the ARC
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December 19, 2025
4.5 🌟 Re-read Update: such an original book but so underrated on Goodreads: only 3000 ratings in six years. I think most readers didn’t understand the concept and themes behind this genre blend polarizing debut. The writing is excellent. I think the marketing was misleading on this one. "The tenth girl" is a hybrid of a book, a mix between gothic/horror ghost story and a sci-fi thriller. It's got a complex plot line that starts a little bit confusing, but it gets clearer and better and more enjoyable as you read on. It has a sci-fi twist about 60 pages before the end that some people will hate. I really liked it. What I love about it: 1-The setting is very well constructed. As an Argentine myself, born during the last dictatorship taking place from 1976 to 1983, the sociopolitical context is very accurate on page. The Spanish terms are accurate too. There's no way I could translate for you things like milanesas, empanadas, facturas, chicles, dulce de leche, etc., without a picture; 2- Well constructed and interesting characters; 3- Original but ambiguous plot, slow at the beginning, but requires patience from readers; 4- It's got a Gothic atmosphere and creepy scenes but it is not a horror book; 5- the twist involves a time loop, a trope I enjoy. It's a polarized book because, in my opinion, it was wrong marketed. It doesn't read YA, it aims to a more adult reader. I recommend it, especially if you enjoy weird books.
October 7, 2019
I really wanted to like this debut YA Horror novel since the concept sounded like it had so much potential. Unfortunately, it didn't really work for me overall. What I did like was all of atmosphere and the author's style in the beginning especially. Of the two perspective characters, Mavi was the only one I was particularly intrigued by. As this overly long novel progressed I wished that we didn't have split POV chapters. Also just a fair warning about the ending - the twist really comes at you from nowhere and a lot of readers are probably going to find it to be very polarizing. I, for one, am firmly in the what-kind-of-ending-was-that camp.
November 14, 2018
Most. Highly. Anticipated!!!
October 14, 2019
What a wild ride... Kept me guessing... and an odd read..
September 22, 2019
You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight
The Tenth Girl is a super atmospheric book with some stunning twists based on some really intriguing folklore. So, I shall break down all my feelings for you, as one does.
What I Loved:
• Holy incredible atmosphere! Right from the start of the story, the tone is set by the setting and how well the author develops the entire vibe. From the first page, the reader feels like they are legitimately in this Argentinian boarding school, isolated from the rest of the world, shrouded in secrets and mystery. But at the same time, it's clear to see the allure of the place, why Mavi didn't just get the hell out of there. It's peaceful at first glance, and a seemingly perfect place for a fresh start.
• The twists were pretty epic. I admit, I saw none of this coming, and for that I must applaud the author. And I liked the twists. A lot. So if you're looking for surprises and jaw drops, this book delivers.
• The characters were quite well developed and I was really interested in all of their stories. Even the most minor character seemed to have some kind of backstory to explore, and I loved that. Especially since the setting was so mysterious, it increased my yearning to learn more about all the things.
• Gorgeous writing. It was beautiful and painted such perfect pictures. I will definitely be reading whatever the author does next!
What I Didn't Quite:
• So there's really only one thing I didn't like: it was draggy at times. I admit, I almost DNFed a time or seven. The beginning felt like a bit of a slog, albeit an atmospheric slog. The twist, for me, definitely made the last bit of the book fly by, but I know not everyone will love where it goes (when I looked at reviews upon finishing, the end is... polarizing, to say the least). Regardless, the pacing is definitely slower, just something worth mentioning.
Bottom Line: Haunting and full of surprises, this will appeal to fans of a slower, more poetic journey.
The Tenth Girl is a super atmospheric book with some stunning twists based on some really intriguing folklore. So, I shall break down all my feelings for you, as one does.
What I Loved:
• Holy incredible atmosphere! Right from the start of the story, the tone is set by the setting and how well the author develops the entire vibe. From the first page, the reader feels like they are legitimately in this Argentinian boarding school, isolated from the rest of the world, shrouded in secrets and mystery. But at the same time, it's clear to see the allure of the place, why Mavi didn't just get the hell out of there. It's peaceful at first glance, and a seemingly perfect place for a fresh start.
• The twists were pretty epic. I admit, I saw none of this coming, and for that I must applaud the author. And I liked the twists. A lot. So if you're looking for surprises and jaw drops, this book delivers.
• The characters were quite well developed and I was really interested in all of their stories. Even the most minor character seemed to have some kind of backstory to explore, and I loved that. Especially since the setting was so mysterious, it increased my yearning to learn more about all the things.
• Gorgeous writing. It was beautiful and painted such perfect pictures. I will definitely be reading whatever the author does next!
What I Didn't Quite:
• So there's really only one thing I didn't like: it was draggy at times. I admit, I almost DNFed a time or seven. The beginning felt like a bit of a slog, albeit an atmospheric slog. The twist, for me, definitely made the last bit of the book fly by, but I know not everyone will love where it goes (when I looked at reviews upon finishing, the end is... polarizing, to say the least). Regardless, the pacing is definitely slower, just something worth mentioning.
Bottom Line: Haunting and full of surprises, this will appeal to fans of a slower, more poetic journey.
June 25, 2019
** I received an early copy from the FierceReads booth at BookCon on June 1**
Uh, wow. I needed time to figure out what I was going to say. You know when you just know that a book, movie, or T.V. show is going to have a cult following? This is that. I’m part of the Sara Faring cult after reading this book. I have so many thoughts that I wish I could talk about with someone besides the one friend I forced to read my copy. I have to be satisfied with reading the GoodReads page until all of my friends finish it. For now I have two things to say:
*I would be surprised if this book doesn’t break out in a big way. I’m not even talking about the twist which you might love or hate, though it disrupted my view of what it means to live, in a way I won’t forget. There is just a lot packed into this (complicated characters, psychological insight in spades, chilling and unique atmosphere) especially if you take the time to read between the lines. For example: Angel is never described in a gendered way.
*This book is also going to piss some people off. My friend who read it after me threw it across the room at a certain point. But we are both still talking about this book weeks later. I think that’s the sign of a real accomplishment.
Just read it, ok? Read it so we can talk.
Uh, wow. I needed time to figure out what I was going to say. You know when you just know that a book, movie, or T.V. show is going to have a cult following? This is that. I’m part of the Sara Faring cult after reading this book. I have so many thoughts that I wish I could talk about with someone besides the one friend I forced to read my copy. I have to be satisfied with reading the GoodReads page until all of my friends finish it. For now I have two things to say:
*I would be surprised if this book doesn’t break out in a big way. I’m not even talking about the twist which you might love or hate, though it disrupted my view of what it means to live, in a way I won’t forget. There is just a lot packed into this (complicated characters, psychological insight in spades, chilling and unique atmosphere) especially if you take the time to read between the lines. For example: Angel is never described in a gendered way.
*This book is also going to piss some people off. My friend who read it after me threw it across the room at a certain point. But we are both still talking about this book weeks later. I think that’s the sign of a real accomplishment.
Just read it, ok? Read it so we can talk.
Read
September 15, 2022The ending to The Tenth Girl is the love it or hate it kind. I'm predicting polarized ratings.
The story is extremely atmospheric. I loved the setting and the premise so much - an isolated, haunted boarding school in Patagonia full of society's cast-offs, a tragic history and a disturbing local legend. I read the book with a friend and we both enjoyed uncovering the mystery. This is not a fast-paced book, but I found myself interested enough to continue reading. There were enough hints and strange occurrences along the way that I found myself needing to know what happened next.
The characters are numerous. I liked the way the romance played out, adding to the danger and suspense. And I loved the way historical events were incorporated and the way the main character's viewpoint allowed us to consider how women, natives, minorities, and others were treated and exploited during the time and in certain circumstances.
This was a solid debut novel and I would definitely read more from Faring in the future!
ARC provided by Imprint Reads in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
The story is extremely atmospheric. I loved the setting and the premise so much - an isolated, haunted boarding school in Patagonia full of society's cast-offs, a tragic history and a disturbing local legend. I read the book with a friend and we both enjoyed uncovering the mystery. This is not a fast-paced book, but I found myself interested enough to continue reading. There were enough hints and strange occurrences along the way that I found myself needing to know what happened next.
The characters are numerous. I liked the way the romance played out, adding to the danger and suspense. And I loved the way historical events were incorporated and the way the main character's viewpoint allowed us to consider how women, natives, minorities, and others were treated and exploited during the time and in certain circumstances.
This was a solid debut novel and I would definitely read more from Faring in the future!
ARC provided by Imprint Reads in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
March 4, 2020
I wanted this to be five stars, the plot is amazing and it had so much potential. This book was based in Argentina and as a proud Latina I was set to give this 5 stars but man this book was a long disappointment.
dnf
October 7, 2019Buddy read with Chelsea!
June 4, 2020
wtf Faring
En The Tenth Girl nos encontramos en la Patagonia (el libro no aclara qué parte específicamente) con nuestra protagonista Margarita “Mavi” Victoria (un nombre suuper argentino(?) quien viajó desde Buenos Aires hacia el traste del mundo para descubrir qué había pasado con su madre. Mavi es argentina, vivió toda su vida acá, bajo la protección de su Tío Adolfo (así, con mayúscula, porque eso es lo correcto🙄) ya que a su madre se la llevaron los militares. Es por esto, para buscar refugio, que ella decide pasarse por profesora de inglés para que la contraten en la prestigiosa y aislada Escuela De Vaccaro (colegio construido en tierras malditas por parte de la tribu Zapuche)
Una vez que llega a este colegio, es recibida por la vicedirectora y es esta quien le advierte a Mavi que por las noches no salga de su habitación y pasee por los pasillos por su propia seguridad. Y es que en este colegio están pasando cosas muy raras. Mavi empieza a notar que nunca tiene una décima alumna en sus clases a pesar de que la directora le comunicó sobre sus diez alumnas, además que comienza a observar que sus alumnas están cada día más enfermas.
Por otro lado, tenemos a Angel (así, a lo yankee, no Ángel sino Angel, él es estadounidense hijo de una argentina si no me equivoco), una especie de espíritu o fantasma que mágicamente aparece en Vaccaro School y se la pasa dando vueltas por esta mansión. Pero él está en el 2020, y Mavi está en el 1978, pero todo pasa en la misma línea temporal 🤔 Y acá es donde comienzan los plot wholes a lo loco 😅
Primero voy a pasar a comentar todo lo que me gustó de esta novela. Si bien prometía ser un “thriller psicológico gótico con un giro inquietante” y está lejísimo de ser todo eso que promete, admito que la historia tenía su atmósfera gótica. Y esto me estaba gustando. Además de gótica, la atmósfera se sentía constantemente fría, pero esto también puede ser porque la autora se la pasó describiendo la Patagonia con cual adjetivo que signifique “frío” se le cruzara. We get it, estás en la Patagonia, hace frío!
Y otra cosa que me gustó fue el punto de vista alternado entre Mavi y Angel. Esto siempre hace la lectura un poco más ágil. Y en este libro, que se sintieron como 700 páginas, eso se agradece.
Ah, y esa escena onda flashback en la que los militares van a la casa de Mavi cuando ella era chica, buscando su madre, estuvo buena, bastante realista👏 Y las escenas “creepies”, a pesar de no ser muchas, estuvieron bien interesantes.
Y bueno, voy a admitirlo de vez en cuando me entretenía. Cada un 30% de la novela me encontraba leyendo un 20% bien rápido y enganchada en la lectura.
Dejando todo eso de lado, tengo millones de quejas, así que empecemos a numerarlas sino la reseña me queda larguísima.
• La maldición en las tierras bajo la Escuela De Vaccaro por parte de los “Zapuches”… Cambiándole una sola letra, Sarita, no disimulas lo que querés comunicar cuando ponés como “villanos” a los nativos americanos de esa región. Y el motivo por el cuál existe esa maldición es… es… well, it’s something.
Básicamente existen “los Otros” quienes aparecieron, and I quote, “para ayudar a los nativos del lugar a enloquecer a los colonizadores y así ellos poder reclamar sus tierras”. Como dije, es… algo. Interesante. Original. Pero se menciona así, de una, una sola vez en la novela, agarrado de los pelos como todo lo demás en esta historia, sin mucha más explicación.
• La existencia de “los Otros” no se las comenté antes en la reseña, honestamente porque no sabía dónde meterlo. Esta historia es tan confusa, tan patética, tan agarrada de los pelos que hay tantas cosas para decir, pero cero organización o hilo conector para cada una de ellas por lo terrible que está narrado todo esto y por ende se me saltan algunas cosas o no sé dónde mencionarlas. En fin, los Otros son estos entes/fantasmas que acechan por la noche en este colegio. No lo considero spoiler porque se dice en el prólogo. Los Otros, como dije, son unos fantasmas malignos, una clase de poltergeist, que nacieron de una maldición de los Zapuche en esas tierras, y se alimentan de los sueños y pensamientos de las personas.
• “the City of Good Airs”. Como habrán visto por historias, me estuve quejando de esto porque en el prólogo, a solo una carilla de haber empezado, la autora se refiere a Buenos Aires como “the City of Good Airs”. Señora, si toda su novela sucede en Argentina, dígale Buenos Aires. Si su novela transcurre en Jamaica o en Ámsterdam, dígale Buenos Aires. La ciudad se llama Buenos Aires, no hay ninguna necesidad de que cometa ese error tan atroz queriendo traducirlo al inglés. Cualquiera.
• "La biblia es el libro más popular en Argentina". Mmm, me parece que de todo el mundo, eh.
• Se la pasan comiendo milanesas, empanadas y facturas. Todo el tiempo. Incluso a Mavi se le dice que "tiene olor a facturas" y ella responde algo como que "en Buenos Aires todos tienen olor a facturas”. Lo que me pareció raro es que estereotipara con esas comidas y no con el mate.
• Tampoco me gustó el romance que quiso meter la autora en esta historia. Además, no sé ni cuántos años se llevaban entre sí pero supongamos que todo es legal. Creería que sí. Incluso sin consideramos eso, sigue siendo twisted por otros motivos 😅
• Tanto la escritura como los personajes se me hicieron super forzados, todo el tiempo. No sé bien cómo explicarlo, pero se siente así, rara. Y no se siente para nada fluida. También hay fallas extrañas como la mención de las manos gigantes de la vicedirectora que se mencionan al principio de la historia y al final. ¿Con qué fin? Pues ninguno, totalmente irrelevante a la trama, yet Sara sentía necesario comentarlo dos veces. Cosas como “laughing like falling water” también molestaban. Y así es toda la novela, como pueden notar, medio mal escrita.
• Sumado a esto, se siente como si el libro no tuviese un trabajo de edición. Tiene esos errores bastante graves como “the City of good airs”, hay tantas fallas no solo en la historia sino también en la escritura que es como si nadie se hubiese encargado del proceso editorial.
• Como dije entre las pocas cosas que me gustaron, la escritura nos está informando continuamente, con la misma constancia con la que se la pasan comiendo facturas/milanesas/empanadas del paisaje “frío”, “helado”; “gélido”, “icy”, “frosty”, etc, etc etc. Sí, la Patagonia es fría, supéralo Faring, ponete una bufanda.
• Con la misma constancia se menciona que Angel tiene un pasado oscuro, y que Mavi no lo va a aceptar por lo que hizo, que no merece perdón, etc, etc. Y se habla mucho del tema sin dar ninguna explicación hasta el 90% de la historia en el que por fin se digna a decir qué es. Y termina siendo no tan terrible como te lo pintaban. La autora hace mucho eso. De inflar cosas, de dar muchas expectativas, y al final todo termina siendo re meh.
Si bien nunca busco conectar con personajes, Angel se me hizo muy aburrido, medio boludo y haciéndose el pobrecito todo el tiempo como expliqué recién.
• Existe otro personaje que no es muy importante explicar quién es, pero sí qué hace, y ese es Charon. Charon es un personaje infumable pero no porque esté bien construido o porque sea así la personalidad de este personaje secundario, no. Es completamente detestable, y es que esa manera de ser un estúpido no le aporta nada en absoluto a la trama. Y es por esto que quiero mencionarlo como algo negativo. De la boca de Charon, y también de la de Angel, la autora nos deleita, bastante seguido, con comentarios completamente racistas y slut shaming. Se la pasa refiriéndose a Mavi como la “nut-brown-girl”, y, sobre todo Charon, se la pasa tratándola de prostituta, perra, puta, etc, etc.
• El plot twist fue la gota que colmó el vaso. Venían siendo 3 estrellas (si no tenía en cuenta todos los fallos en la escritura y los comentarios racistas y sexistas) porque de verdad que de vez en cuando me entretenía y estaba agradecida de esas escenas creepies con fantasmas, hasta que al 80% llegó el bendito plot twist y arruinó absolutamente todo. Voy a intentar hablar del plot twist sin spoilers. En caso de que quiera spoilear, les avisaré antes, lo prometo.
Ese pot twist hubiese funcionado bien si al menos UNA vez en toda la historia que veníamos leyendo antes (un 81% para ser exactos) diera al menos UN indicio de esa resolución.
Un plot twist funciona muy bien cuando agarra desprevenido al lecto y también hace que el lector mire hacia atrás en la historia y pasen como flashes ciertas escenas que te hacen pensar “CIERTO, ESTABA AHÍ TODO ESTE TIEMPO, EL AUTOR JUGÓ CON MI MENTE Y ME SORPRENDIÓ A PESAR DE IR TIRÁNDOME PISTAS CADA TANTO”. Bueno, así no es este plot twist. El plot twist de The Tenth Girl es una verdadera porquería. Es un giro de 180 grados a toda la historia que construyó antes la autora. Literalmente se siente como si a Sara Faring la hubiesen apurado para entregar su tan prometedora “historia de terror en la Patagonia argentina” y como no tenía final escribió uno de camino a encontrarse con su editor mientras viajaba en colectivo urbano(¿) Como dijo Isabel de storyofalady, se siente como si no hubiese tenido EN ABSOLUTO corrección editorial. Tiene cero sentido, cero base previa. Deja más preguntas que respuestas. Está tan agarrado de los pelos que las explicaciones que empieza a tirar la autora sobre ciertas cosas abren 8000 dudas más porque, de nuevo, nos está introduciendo una historia completamente nueva, completamente distinta, y para nada relacionada con el resto del libro, con todo lo que pasó antes. Es re contra rebuscado y con cero correlación con el resto de la historia.
Tardé doce días en leerlo, se sienten como cuarenta. Tiene 458 páginas y se sintieron como SETECIENTAS. La atmosfera, los personajes, la creepyness que había creado hasta antes del 81%, las tiro por la ventana y dijo “a la bosta, YO HAGO OTRA HISTORIA” 😅
En resumen, una gran pérdida de tiempo porque las cosas malas de la novela sobrepasan las cosas rescatables de la misma. No lo recomendaría en absoluto y menos a personas argentinas o que leen terror; se van a defraudar mucho. Pero sí aún les queda curiosidad, que Dios los ampare(?) porque esto es desastroso.
Tal vez me esté olvidando de vaarias cosas en esta reseña pero ya es demasiado larga para seguir comentando cosas que no me gustaron o las fallas que tiene. Simplemente creanme que es malo(?)
1,5🌟
--- Reseña completa en mi bookstagram: Libros con(té)
🌟
En The Tenth Girl nos encontramos en la Patagonia (el libro no aclara qué parte específicamente) con nuestra protagonista Margarita “Mavi” Victoria (un nombre suuper argentino(?) quien viajó desde Buenos Aires hacia el traste del mundo para descubrir qué había pasado con su madre. Mavi es argentina, vivió toda su vida acá, bajo la protección de su Tío Adolfo (así, con mayúscula, porque eso es lo correcto🙄) ya que a su madre se la llevaron los militares. Es por esto, para buscar refugio, que ella decide pasarse por profesora de inglés para que la contraten en la prestigiosa y aislada Escuela De Vaccaro (colegio construido en tierras malditas por parte de la tribu Zapuche)
Una vez que llega a este colegio, es recibida por la vicedirectora y es esta quien le advierte a Mavi que por las noches no salga de su habitación y pasee por los pasillos por su propia seguridad. Y es que en este colegio están pasando cosas muy raras. Mavi empieza a notar que nunca tiene una décima alumna en sus clases a pesar de que la directora le comunicó sobre sus diez alumnas, además que comienza a observar que sus alumnas están cada día más enfermas.
Por otro lado, tenemos a Angel (así, a lo yankee, no Ángel sino Angel, él es estadounidense hijo de una argentina si no me equivoco), una especie de espíritu o fantasma que mágicamente aparece en Vaccaro School y se la pasa dando vueltas por esta mansión. Pero él está en el 2020, y Mavi está en el 1978, pero todo pasa en la misma línea temporal 🤔 Y acá es donde comienzan los plot wholes a lo loco 😅
Primero voy a pasar a comentar todo lo que me gustó de esta novela. Si bien prometía ser un “thriller psicológico gótico con un giro inquietante” y está lejísimo de ser todo eso que promete, admito que la historia tenía su atmósfera gótica. Y esto me estaba gustando. Además de gótica, la atmósfera se sentía constantemente fría, pero esto también puede ser porque la autora se la pasó describiendo la Patagonia con cual adjetivo que signifique “frío” se le cruzara. We get it, estás en la Patagonia, hace frío!
Y otra cosa que me gustó fue el punto de vista alternado entre Mavi y Angel. Esto siempre hace la lectura un poco más ágil. Y en este libro, que se sintieron como 700 páginas, eso se agradece.
Ah, y esa escena onda flashback en la que los militares van a la casa de Mavi cuando ella era chica, buscando su madre, estuvo buena, bastante realista👏 Y las escenas “creepies”, a pesar de no ser muchas, estuvieron bien interesantes.
Y bueno, voy a admitirlo de vez en cuando me entretenía. Cada un 30% de la novela me encontraba leyendo un 20% bien rápido y enganchada en la lectura.
Dejando todo eso de lado, tengo millones de quejas, así que empecemos a numerarlas sino la reseña me queda larguísima.
• La maldición en las tierras bajo la Escuela De Vaccaro por parte de los “Zapuches”… Cambiándole una sola letra, Sarita, no disimulas lo que querés comunicar cuando ponés como “villanos” a los nativos americanos de esa región. Y el motivo por el cuál existe esa maldición es… es… well, it’s something.
Básicamente existen “los Otros” quienes aparecieron, and I quote, “para ayudar a los nativos del lugar a enloquecer a los colonizadores y así ellos poder reclamar sus tierras”. Como dije, es… algo. Interesante. Original. Pero se menciona así, de una, una sola vez en la novela, agarrado de los pelos como todo lo demás en esta historia, sin mucha más explicación.
• La existencia de “los Otros” no se las comenté antes en la reseña, honestamente porque no sabía dónde meterlo. Esta historia es tan confusa, tan patética, tan agarrada de los pelos que hay tantas cosas para decir, pero cero organización o hilo conector para cada una de ellas por lo terrible que está narrado todo esto y por ende se me saltan algunas cosas o no sé dónde mencionarlas. En fin, los Otros son estos entes/fantasmas que acechan por la noche en este colegio. No lo considero spoiler porque se dice en el prólogo. Los Otros, como dije, son unos fantasmas malignos, una clase de poltergeist, que nacieron de una maldición de los Zapuche en esas tierras, y se alimentan de los sueños y pensamientos de las personas.
• “the City of Good Airs”. Como habrán visto por historias, me estuve quejando de esto porque en el prólogo, a solo una carilla de haber empezado, la autora se refiere a Buenos Aires como “the City of Good Airs”. Señora, si toda su novela sucede en Argentina, dígale Buenos Aires. Si su novela transcurre en Jamaica o en Ámsterdam, dígale Buenos Aires. La ciudad se llama Buenos Aires, no hay ninguna necesidad de que cometa ese error tan atroz queriendo traducirlo al inglés. Cualquiera.
• "La biblia es el libro más popular en Argentina". Mmm, me parece que de todo el mundo, eh.
• Se la pasan comiendo milanesas, empanadas y facturas. Todo el tiempo. Incluso a Mavi se le dice que "tiene olor a facturas" y ella responde algo como que "en Buenos Aires todos tienen olor a facturas”. Lo que me pareció raro es que estereotipara con esas comidas y no con el mate.
• Tampoco me gustó el romance que quiso meter la autora en esta historia. Además, no sé ni cuántos años se llevaban entre sí pero supongamos que todo es legal. Creería que sí. Incluso sin consideramos eso, sigue siendo twisted por otros motivos 😅
• Tanto la escritura como los personajes se me hicieron super forzados, todo el tiempo. No sé bien cómo explicarlo, pero se siente así, rara. Y no se siente para nada fluida. También hay fallas extrañas como la mención de las manos gigantes de la vicedirectora que se mencionan al principio de la historia y al final. ¿Con qué fin? Pues ninguno, totalmente irrelevante a la trama, yet Sara sentía necesario comentarlo dos veces. Cosas como “laughing like falling water” también molestaban. Y así es toda la novela, como pueden notar, medio mal escrita.
• Sumado a esto, se siente como si el libro no tuviese un trabajo de edición. Tiene esos errores bastante graves como “the City of good airs”, hay tantas fallas no solo en la historia sino también en la escritura que es como si nadie se hubiese encargado del proceso editorial.
• Como dije entre las pocas cosas que me gustaron, la escritura nos está informando continuamente, con la misma constancia con la que se la pasan comiendo facturas/milanesas/empanadas del paisaje “frío”, “helado”; “gélido”, “icy”, “frosty”, etc, etc etc. Sí, la Patagonia es fría, supéralo Faring, ponete una bufanda.
• Con la misma constancia se menciona que Angel tiene un pasado oscuro, y que Mavi no lo va a aceptar por lo que hizo, que no merece perdón, etc, etc. Y se habla mucho del tema sin dar ninguna explicación hasta el 90% de la historia en el que por fin se digna a decir qué es. Y termina siendo no tan terrible como te lo pintaban. La autora hace mucho eso. De inflar cosas, de dar muchas expectativas, y al final todo termina siendo re meh.
Si bien nunca busco conectar con personajes, Angel se me hizo muy aburrido, medio boludo y haciéndose el pobrecito todo el tiempo como expliqué recién.
• Existe otro personaje que no es muy importante explicar quién es, pero sí qué hace, y ese es Charon. Charon es un personaje infumable pero no porque esté bien construido o porque sea así la personalidad de este personaje secundario, no. Es completamente detestable, y es que esa manera de ser un estúpido no le aporta nada en absoluto a la trama. Y es por esto que quiero mencionarlo como algo negativo. De la boca de Charon, y también de la de Angel, la autora nos deleita, bastante seguido, con comentarios completamente racistas y slut shaming. Se la pasa refiriéndose a Mavi como la “nut-brown-girl”, y, sobre todo Charon, se la pasa tratándola de prostituta, perra, puta, etc, etc.
• El plot twist fue la gota que colmó el vaso. Venían siendo 3 estrellas (si no tenía en cuenta todos los fallos en la escritura y los comentarios racistas y sexistas) porque de verdad que de vez en cuando me entretenía y estaba agradecida de esas escenas creepies con fantasmas, hasta que al 80% llegó el bendito plot twist y arruinó absolutamente todo. Voy a intentar hablar del plot twist sin spoilers. En caso de que quiera spoilear, les avisaré antes, lo prometo.
Ese pot twist hubiese funcionado bien si al menos UNA vez en toda la historia que veníamos leyendo antes (un 81% para ser exactos) diera al menos UN indicio de esa resolución.
Un plot twist funciona muy bien cuando agarra desprevenido al lecto y también hace que el lector mire hacia atrás en la historia y pasen como flashes ciertas escenas que te hacen pensar “CIERTO, ESTABA AHÍ TODO ESTE TIEMPO, EL AUTOR JUGÓ CON MI MENTE Y ME SORPRENDIÓ A PESAR DE IR TIRÁNDOME PISTAS CADA TANTO”. Bueno, así no es este plot twist. El plot twist de The Tenth Girl es una verdadera porquería. Es un giro de 180 grados a toda la historia que construyó antes la autora. Literalmente se siente como si a Sara Faring la hubiesen apurado para entregar su tan prometedora “historia de terror en la Patagonia argentina” y como no tenía final escribió uno de camino a encontrarse con su editor mientras viajaba en colectivo urbano(¿) Como dijo Isabel de storyofalady, se siente como si no hubiese tenido EN ABSOLUTO corrección editorial. Tiene cero sentido, cero base previa. Deja más preguntas que respuestas. Está tan agarrado de los pelos que las explicaciones que empieza a tirar la autora sobre ciertas cosas abren 8000 dudas más porque, de nuevo, nos está introduciendo una historia completamente nueva, completamente distinta, y para nada relacionada con el resto del libro, con todo lo que pasó antes. Es re contra rebuscado y con cero correlación con el resto de la historia.
Tardé doce días en leerlo, se sienten como cuarenta. Tiene 458 páginas y se sintieron como SETECIENTAS. La atmosfera, los personajes, la creepyness que había creado hasta antes del 81%, las tiro por la ventana y dijo “a la bosta, YO HAGO OTRA HISTORIA” 😅
En resumen, una gran pérdida de tiempo porque las cosas malas de la novela sobrepasan las cosas rescatables de la misma. No lo recomendaría en absoluto y menos a personas argentinas o que leen terror; se van a defraudar mucho. Pero sí aún les queda curiosidad, que Dios los ampare(?) porque esto es desastroso.
Tal vez me esté olvidando de vaarias cosas en esta reseña pero ya es demasiado larga para seguir comentando cosas que no me gustaron o las fallas que tiene. Simplemente creanme que es malo(?)
1,5🌟
--- Reseña completa en mi bookstagram: Libros con(té)
🌟
May 26, 2019
*Spoiler free*
I've been delving into creepier books and books that can be classified as horror and thriller. I guess I enjoy freaking myself out haha. This book seemed like it would be a really great, really creepy ghost story. The secluded mansion, with dark secrets, made it a book I knew I wanted to try. Trigger warnings: pedophilia, self-harm, grief, gore, mentions of suicide
Wow, wow, I don't even know where to start. This book is something else. Throughout the book, I didn't love it. The writing style felt a little heavy to me, the plot was lagging, and I just didn't understand why certain aspects where apart of the story. It seemed like a typical haunted house story with a lot of cliches thrown in. I got kind of bored at more than a few parts. There was enough to keep me reading. I really enjoyed the setting and a lot of the characters were interesting. This book has an amazing feel to it. It feels like a haunted house, secluded, and surrounded by ice.
I thought about DNFing a couple times, but I was hoping there would be a twist that would tie everything together and the aspects I did like were enough to keep my going. AND WOW WAS I REWARDED FOR PUSHING THROUGH. I didn't see the twist coming. It's the kind of idea your brain might come with in passing, but you'll discard the idea because it's ridiculous and would never work. But, wow. Faring is able to pull it off absolutely incredibly. It fits with the rest of the story, it doesn't diminish what happened beforehand, and it makes everything more stark and horrifying.
I feel like people might DNF halfway through. But, I'm here to tell you that it is 100% worth it to finish the book. The ending completely changed what I thought about the book. I went from kinda meh, to absolutely adoring it.
And even looking at the cover after finishing it, I was able to see that the seeds are planted even there and it's SO COOL. The designers (Jeff Miller, Natalie C. Sousa) did such an incredible job. I just stared at it in awe after I finished the book.
I also really loved that this book is set in Argentina! I'm so happy there are more books being published that don't take place in the US.
Some of the aspects that I didn't love, turned out to be really smart and really amazing after everything was revealed. I love when books do that, they take something I'm sort of meh about and turn it into something really important for the plot and something that works really well.
The characters were fantastic. They're messy, they're hurt, they're real. They give so much depth to the book. They make the book so much better. They make it more terrifying, they make it more heartbreaking, and they make the book work. Even the most minor characters play such an important role.
Just, this book left me a little speechless. I don't know how to describe how good the ending is or how everything wraps up in such an amazing way. The little details that turn out to be important and the how characters development wraps up in such a great way. This book was terrifying and so smart. I really, really liked it.
I've been delving into creepier books and books that can be classified as horror and thriller. I guess I enjoy freaking myself out haha. This book seemed like it would be a really great, really creepy ghost story. The secluded mansion, with dark secrets, made it a book I knew I wanted to try. Trigger warnings: pedophilia, self-harm, grief, gore, mentions of suicide
Wow, wow, I don't even know where to start. This book is something else. Throughout the book, I didn't love it. The writing style felt a little heavy to me, the plot was lagging, and I just didn't understand why certain aspects where apart of the story. It seemed like a typical haunted house story with a lot of cliches thrown in. I got kind of bored at more than a few parts. There was enough to keep me reading. I really enjoyed the setting and a lot of the characters were interesting. This book has an amazing feel to it. It feels like a haunted house, secluded, and surrounded by ice.
I thought about DNFing a couple times, but I was hoping there would be a twist that would tie everything together and the aspects I did like were enough to keep my going. AND WOW WAS I REWARDED FOR PUSHING THROUGH. I didn't see the twist coming. It's the kind of idea your brain might come with in passing, but you'll discard the idea because it's ridiculous and would never work. But, wow. Faring is able to pull it off absolutely incredibly. It fits with the rest of the story, it doesn't diminish what happened beforehand, and it makes everything more stark and horrifying.
I feel like people might DNF halfway through. But, I'm here to tell you that it is 100% worth it to finish the book. The ending completely changed what I thought about the book. I went from kinda meh, to absolutely adoring it.
And even looking at the cover after finishing it, I was able to see that the seeds are planted even there and it's SO COOL. The designers (Jeff Miller, Natalie C. Sousa) did such an incredible job. I just stared at it in awe after I finished the book.
I also really loved that this book is set in Argentina! I'm so happy there are more books being published that don't take place in the US.
Some of the aspects that I didn't love, turned out to be really smart and really amazing after everything was revealed. I love when books do that, they take something I'm sort of meh about and turn it into something really important for the plot and something that works really well.
The characters were fantastic. They're messy, they're hurt, they're real. They give so much depth to the book. They make the book so much better. They make it more terrifying, they make it more heartbreaking, and they make the book work. Even the most minor characters play such an important role.
Just, this book left me a little speechless. I don't know how to describe how good the ending is or how everything wraps up in such an amazing way. The little details that turn out to be important and the how characters development wraps up in such a great way. This book was terrifying and so smart. I really, really liked it.
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