Love this book! It had an interesting setting, unexpected plot twists, and some creepy scenes that I should not have read at 3:00AM.

Tw: pedophilia, sexual assault, graphic violence, self harm

I originally requested this ARC because it was being billed as a creepy gothic thriller "simmering in Patagonian myth", which is normally right up my alley, bookwise. I love thillers, love creepy gothic tales, love absolutely anything based on mythology. I was envisioning a creepy haunted house and deliciously slow-building suspense leading up to a (purportedly) shocking twist at the climax, and I don't know anything about Patagonian mythology, so I was hoping for a bit of an education to boot. The Tenth Girl just did not deliver on any of these points.


WARNING: Spoilers to follow!


For me, part of what makes a really excellent thriller or gothic novel is the slow build-up of tension and dread over the course of the narrative, but every time I really started to get into the feel of doom and despair, the narrator would switch and it just totally threw me out of the mood. While Mavi has no clue what is going on, which should have lent really well to the ratcheting up of tension of the course of the novel, it's obvious that Angel does, but is all sly allusions and vague references, and just as I would really get into Mavi's feelings of urgency and dread and paranoia, the narrative would then switch to Angel's POV only to break the tension, and then tiresomely retread half the information I'd just gotten from Mavi's POV. This style of storytelling seriously detracted from the overall mood I was hoping for from this title, and I would have put this book on my DNF list if I hadn't had to finish it to write this review.

I'll admit the "twist you'll never see coming" I actually did not see coming, but only because it was Completely Ridiculous. It turns out that Mavi is actually an NPC in a full-immersion VR game created by Angel's mother before she died. Angel manages to free her and the other characters from the game by helping them download themselves into the bodies of the other players, a fact which totally squicked me out. I was even more bothered by the fact that I was apparently suppose to feel happy that Angel had managed to create a new family for himself by this method (they all show up on his doorstep at the end of the book). Taking away other peoples' agency is Not Okay, whatever your tragic backstory.

I just could not get into this book at all. The premise is right up my alley, and I found Mavi's storyline intriguing, even though the writing left something to be desired. If it had just focused on that narrative, I probably would have stuck with it longer. However, Angel's storyline was just so hard to read that I couldn't keep doing it. Unfortunately I had to DNF this one. I gave it about 100 pages but I just couldn't keep it up.

What a Gothic wonder this story was, steeped in the tale of Argentinian folk tale, involving a finishing school that was cursed and a girl that was missing but whose spirits did make an appearance.

Set In 1978, Mavi becomes a teacher in the finishing school to 10 girls. But the tenth one seemed missing. Slowly over the course of time, Mavi's colleagues and students started feeling ill, with signs of being possessed by The Others. Along with the headmistress's son, she decided to investigate and save the tenth girl.

A debut by Sara Faring, I could see how it has set the literary world into a furore. The writing in the first half was so tangential that it was difficult to get into the story. There was an aura of darkness and the prose was haunting to the point I was sure that there was something so dreadfully wrong with all of them.

Written in dual POV of Mavi and another character called Angel, the book was like the swirling winds in a storm. I actually didn't know what I was reading. The winds pushed and barred me from getting to the secrets of this house. But I was determined. And richly rewarded for that.

Therein lay the clever twist of this writer's imagination where a single line turned the story upside down. Everything I knew went up like smoke into the clouds. The number of details that were coded into these characters had me plainly astonished at the deft hand of the creator. Sara Faring was all that and more. The confidence in her writing was brilliant to see. It changed the score and the outcome. My nayy went yayy!!

The author knew her book would produce reactions but stayed strong by her convictions. Lots of triggers in the story which was clearly mentioned in the blurb, the book went the way one would go down the river Styx with Charon as the driving it. A haunting folktale of the ancient tribes and a daunting plot line was all I was left with.

Stick with the book, keep the mind open, the unknown soon becomes an unreal reality. Brilliant in its concept, this book took over my entire day and left me shocked and laughing with glee.

I want to open by saying that my response to The Tenth Girl says more about my personal preferences as a reader than it does about the quality of this book. I'd been hoping for something Gothic, which this was to a certain extent, but other genre elements were more foregrounded—particularly paranormal and science fiction—and I simply don't enjoy them as much. I know many other readers who have really, truly loved this book.

Bottom line: if you're looking for old-school Gothic, along the lines of Wilkie Collins, this probably isn't the title for you, but if you're open to other genres, you're quite apt to enjoy this title and to be repeatedly surprised by it.

Mari just wants a place that she belongs. She has lied about her age and teaching experience and it has finally paid off. She has been hired as an English teacher at a finishing school with a rocky and possibly haunted past. She is ignoring all of the warnings because we wants to hide from the military that has taken over the government and she also doesn’t want to face her mother’s disappearance. She is willing to overlook a lot, but when she can’t get a satisfactory answer about a missing student, her secret investigation uncovers more than even her mind could have imagined.

The Tenth Girls is a stand-alone gothic thriller with an added twist. The story is told through two different timeline viewpoints and readers must discover the connections. Faring has definitely provided a different ending than I was originally expecting. Although I would have liked my ending too, the unexpected twist was refreshing. This book will be enjoyed by many readers and it definitely should be tried by all triller fans.

There are moments that I pray we never experience or witness in life but at the very least we have observed on TV or the movies. Those moments before a doctor walks up to a character and everything is suddenly moving frame-by-frame. Or when you know a car crash is about to happen. And the world seems to. Just. Stop. But of course, it doesn’t. It just moves so excruciatingly slow.

Until the moment the news you know is coming, but those the doctor is approaching doesn’t, drops. Until the screeching of the cars stop and the cars collide. There is this split second when the world goes dead. Deafening silence. And then with a snap of the fingers? With an explosion of immeasurable cruelty, the world careens out of control at a cataclysmic speed.

This is the workings of The Tenth Girl By Sara Faring. Horrifyingly mesmerizing. Obscenely memorizing. It will grip you in the gut and it will not let go. But it is not full of action and it is not paced like a thriller. It is a slow-moving terror. It does not care about the breath you’ve been holding for two hours. It does not care that you hear the silence, see the dark and feel a presence.

It does not care that when you close your kindle you have to side-eye it as you walk away, because what if it is watching you. Ok. Maybe the last one is just me. I blame that on The Girl with All the Gifts. But I blame a lot of things on that book and M. R. Carey.

No. Faring doesn’t care. She just ratchets everything up, instead. Until The Tenth Girl is ready to reveal its shattering conclusion. The dark will consume you slowly and completely. Then you will be the on the other end of the doctor’s news. In the cars that crash. In that shocked silence that is attached to a turbulent, abrupt and merciless bullet train.

Beyond the ability to maintain terrorize readers for 400 pages, Faring’s spectrum of writing abilities is wielded appropriately, never forced that adds unexpected depth and wonder.

Angel is a teenager that is often brought to life by a teenager’s typical humorous observations, with a true to tone teenage voice and literally laugh out loud wit.

-It is hard to pick these quotes. So please understand that this aren’t necessarily the epitome of examples. They are the best references I could find that, out of context, aren’t in the least bit spoilers. Because I don’t do spoilers.-

“…the size of a centaur with thick veins threading through the skin of his arms; they popped up when he was hot, or turned on (don’t ask, please don’t ask), or pissed off.”

Effortlessly she swings into more atmospheric writing…
“I can feel the brightly colored threads moving through consciousness, like the yarn on Circe’s loom; her skin warm to the touch… She’s running along a field, running, running, running. “

“I’ve absorbed an extension of myself, effortlessly. Like a concert pianist nailing a ridiculous chord during one practice as if by magic. I broadened my handspan on the cosmic keys, my footprint on the sand of the new world, in more ways than I can understand.”

And then, of course to the utterly disturbing.
“The edges of her lips look strained and vaguely wet, like she also just ripped the delicious head off a small and fluffy creature with her teeth and holds it back by the damp root of her tongue.”

Last, but certainly not the least of importance, but the least I’m qualified to talk about is the implications of colonization and genocide that Faring interweaves throughout the Tenth Girl. What has happened and since become of the indigenous Zapuche when the De Vaccaro family eradicated them from their land is a cornerstone to the setting and story. It is Faring's representation of cultural erasure at the hands of the entitled, colonizers and conquerors.

It is how the country I live in was created, when Europeans took the land From Native Americans. It is a shame that haunts America today and will as long as it exists, as it should. Because that is what was earned.

The Tenth Girl is a warning to heed. Yes, it is a brilliantly written horror story. But it also integrates the real- life horror of genocide that while might have started a millennia ago, continues today.

This was truly one of the most original stories I've ever read. The story takes place in a remote
South American village in a school for girls that has been closed for sixty years after tragedy struck. It's been re-opened to teach daughters of wealthy families from around the world. The protagonist, Mavi, a young girl fleeing the political uprising in Buenos Aires that took her mother and has left her to fend for herself. She gets a job teaching at this school and she figures it's the perfect refuge to escape her past before it catches up with her.
But things aren't all they seem to be. The eclectic faculty, the foreboding director of the school and dire warnings to stay in her room at night all make this story intriguing, terrifying and spellbinding.
I don't know that this story would be great for younger readers as there are very dark topics such as rape, pedophilia, and molestation.
The ending, no spoilers here, totally threw me for a loop. I didn't see that coming at all. It kind of makes me want to re-read the book knowing how it ends.

Special thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for providing a ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Tenth Girl is definitely original. I was unsure what to expect from a YA novel that has a dark, Gothic feel to it. This is out of my normal realm of reading. However, I thought I would give it a try.

Sara Faring's imagination is spectacular. I always marvel in how writers can actually put stories on pages like this. I love the dark, eery, twisty feel of The Tenth Girl. I love how it incorporates mythology with an indigenous culture.

I did, however, have a hard time getting into the story. The plot - switching between two different voices - was a little hard to follow. I had to fight really hard to get over the weirdness of it.

As for the ending, spoiler free, I am not sure if I love it or hate it. There will definitely be readers who love it because it can be mind blowing. There will also be readers who do not like it because it can be viewed as a cop out. Me? I haven't a clue. I am both disappointed, unsatisfied and WOW'ed at the same time.

Maybe that's the point?

Thank you to Imprint and Netgalley for a copy of the eARC in exchange for a fair review.


Normally I would tell you about the book and what is going on, but as much as I loved the cover and the synopsis this didn't go for me like I wanted it too. The atmosphere was great, the setting was amazing, the background good. But even though the chapters told me who was telling the story at that point. The back and forth between present and past and different characters completely threw me off. By the time a twist was revealed I wasn't that invested in this story. For me this had a ton of potential but failed to follow through.


I think a lot of readers will love this, but I didn't find this such a gothic mystery more like a futuristic sort of mystery that really didn't deliver all that well. I really couldn't follow the story and to be honest it held me in some chapters and I could barely remember what I read in others. I really hate to sound like I am tearing the book up. It just wasn't my thing at all.

I read about 1/4 before deciding that it wasn't for me. The premise was interesting but I just couldn't connect with the main characters - the minors were indefinitely more interesting. And in the 7ish chapters I read, nothing was happening other than the potential revelation of the 10th girl.

Not bad by any means - just not for me.

What a strange book. Not what I expected, but still good.

First I'll start with warnings. This is a mature ya/na book. It's dark. It's crude at times (which doesn't bother me). There are a lot of dark topics at least mentioned including suicide, child abuse (all types), minor/adult relationship (rape), drinking, a lot of swearing, crude sex comments, a mention of a naked man, gore, death, missing girls, miscarriage, and more. This is not a book for everyone.

The Tenth Girl is told in alternating (not always) chapters. Mavi in the 1970's and Angel in 2020. But the stories overlap. A school with a dark history reopens after a mysterious illness killed most of the people there. The school was said to be cursed. The local Zapuche tribe cursed it to keep other people away. The legend mentioned that people would have to sacrifice a girl to keep the curse away for so long. So, weird place to reopen a school, right? But there are a couple people left from the original owners and Carmela De Vaccaro wants to start a new program there. She chose some middle school aged girls and a handful of teachers. The school is almost impossible to arrive and leave. The only way is by boat when the weather is ok.

Mavi is only 18, but she lied about her age and history. She is running. Her mother was taken by the military government and Mavi was afraid they would take her, too. So she goes to this isolated school, hoping for a new life as an English teacher. When Mavi arrives, she finds that the school has very strict rules. Including one that says that they cannot leave their rooms at night. It's not safe at night.

"You would be well-advised to lock the door behind you, if you wish to survive this place," she sends back, her morbid warning echoing down the hall.


Mavi doesn't listen though. She is curious and wants to explore. Especially when she has 10 places in her class, but only 9 girls. When she asks about this, she is told the Tenth Girl is sick, but will be around. But no one sees her. Mavi starts feeling odd things. Can there be dangerous ghosts haunting the school? Some of the girls start getting sick and another disappears. Mavi decides she needs to figure out the secrets to the school and help save these girls.

Angel is an Other. Time is circular to the Zapuche, so Angel from 2020 shows up at the school in 1978. The Others have no real form. They can come and go and must feed off the people at the school. They eat their dreams while draining them of energy. Angel finds a way to possess Carmela's son, Domenico. Angel is dealing with the grief of losing family. Angel has a kind of mentor that sort of helps. But mostly is just really rude and gross. Angel, in Domenico's body, starts to interact with Mavi. To the point of truly caring for her.

As more and more people end up sick, the house also seems to get sick. The weather is bad, they are almost out of food, and the house is rotting inside. Mavi and Angel work together to find this Tenth Girl that came to warn Mavi to get everyone out of the school. A warning no one else listens to. They don't believe Mavi. There is a thought that the Tenth Girl is the daughter of Carmela's that recently died.

The pacing of the book is very slow, but it has such a dark atmosphere that kept me reading. I also thought the writing was really good. Overall, I liked the book and there are some major twists that I can't talk about. It was weird, but I think I liked it? I feel a little silly at some of the clues I missed. I gave this book 4 stars. Thank you to the publisher for my review copy.

"I came here to escape, I remind myself."

I don't think I was the right audience for this book.

The Tenth Girl has one the best synopses I've read this year: a girl on the run, a massive school with a history of hauntings, possessions and a plague that washed away its first residents sixty years ago...In the present time, Mavi doesn't understand the reason behind all the rules in this place. When other residents start acting strange and she realizes her life is threatened, she sets on finding out the truth, along with a few other teachers like herself.

The setting was stunning. Set in a dark, enormous building surrounded by nothing but clouds and ice. The claustrophobic feel to this place added to the chilling effect of its unsettling past. Faring's talent shows evidently through her writing and smooth pacing of the events. The story got to a point where it had the potential to become something extraordinary, but the twist that I found myself contemplating...it needs a particular audience that appreciates an intricate combination of Sci-fi and Horror, both of which worked very independently in this story (1st 70%: horror ; remaining 30%: sci-fi) that the ending felt a bit tangled. Like puzzle pieces struggling to come together.

This book might've worked for me if I believed in what it stands for. What I was hoping for was an unraveling of the connection between the secrets of the school and the past that our protagonist was running from, or at least a big revelation to who the "Tenth Girl" was. I loved the idea the book started off with, but I didn't find its construction just as appealing. However, I'm certain there are readers out there to whom this book - and the decisiveness put into it - will appeal to.

***Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC of THE TENTH GIRL in exchange for an honest review***

I am still questioning my true feelings towards this book. There were so many varying plot elements that made it difficult to keep up. While I enjoyed the characters there were many moments where I was left confused and needing to reread multiple sections of the book in order to understand what was taking place.

Beautifully written Gothic ghost story with many twists and turns. It will keep you guessing until the end.

Tried over and over but could not get invovled with the story. I couldn't follow along with the characters and was getting very confused. The story line just didn't flow well or the genre (which I read a lot of thrillers, mysteries and such) just didn't hit me right.

Unusal ghost story, pulling in some local mythology as well. Personally, I’m not appreciative of these kinds of stories but it did keep me intrigued.

I struggled to read this book in a timely manner. First, it read soooo slow. The pacing needed to be altered to keep the reader interested. I kept abandoning this book and coming back later and having to trudge through until I hit something interesting. It was rough going.
To be fair to the author, I may not be a fan of this type of read. Way too unbelievable but perhaps that was because the tempo was too slow.

2.5
Pacing people!!!!!

This type of story is all about pacing. We have a mysterious house with characters who have secrets so information needs to flow at a nice steady pace to keep the reader engaged. That didn't happen here so therefore, I didn't like it.

This book started off well. There are some dates and different years and characters from different years interacting. Is everyone dead? Is it all a dream? You look for clues to help you and there were some viable clues-this was the exciting part. In the beginning all the characters were mysterious because they had secrets and they were pretty well developed.

Here were the issues:
The Curse-The plot of this story is very simple-there's a curse on the house. Faring continued to remind the reading of this freaking curse when she didn't need to. How does one over-explain a simple curse? Read this book to find out. That became super annoying.

Angel-So for 75% of the story, I thought Angel was a girl but nope, it was a boy. I feel like that wasn't intentional and it should have been obvious that it was a boy. Maybe I missed it at the beginning; if I did, please let me know.

The villains-There were three. The mom's jam was predictable. Miss Morecy, or whatever her name was, was a cartoon villain. She was just mean and we kind of find out why WHEN SHE INFO-DUMPS HER ENTIRE BACKSTORY AT THE VERY END! The best villain was Dom but we didn't get to see him being a great villain because of reasons I won't say just incase you decide to read it. Such a wasted opportunity to read a character with a different voice but no.

The Pacing-You won't keep the reader interested if you just keep piling questions while providing no answers. Everything came out in the end and Angel knew what was up the entire time and didn't say anything!!! Could he not say anything for some reason? Did I miss something? I ask this a lot because I tend to skip pages when I'm bored so there is a strong possibility that I missed vital information. The character's backstories are built up so much but when you find it all out, it's anti-climactic.

The Twist-Anti-climactic. I didn't guess it because there was one clue and I don't know how we were supposed to connect those dots. I felt like a read this huge ass book and it was all for nothing. I don't understand the point of all of it.

This was a decent debut, full of gorgeous writing, but with a few flaws. First, it read soooo slow. The pacing needed to be altered to keep the reader interested. I kept abandoning this book and coming back later and having to trudge through until I hit something interesting. It was rough going. Second, although I read many people rave about the twist at the end, it just didn't do it for me. I felt rather let down. Overall though, a decent debut.