The Tenth Girl By Sara Faring Source Received from the publisher
Published by Imprint on September 24, 2019
Received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Rating:
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.
Describing a book as a ‘gothic psychological thriller with a haunting twist’ pretty much guarantees that I will read it, so I was very excited when Raincoast Books sent me an ARC of this one!
I really wanted to love this! I enjoyed the writing and initially really liked the setting, but there was just something about this that I couldn’t quite get into. And then the ending…knowing that there was a twist coming (it says so right in the synopsis), I was trying to anticipate it and thought I had it figured out. I was so wrong. This book definitely gets points for surprising me! I do love being truly surprised by a twist. But the twist was so jarring to me and I really struggled to integrate it with the story that I’d read to that point.
I think I wanted this to be more of a gothic thriller than it felt like it ended up being. But there were elements I liked. I was drawn to Mavi and her story, and the writing. It was atmospheric and did leave me a little unsettled, trying to figure out what was happening.
But I definitely struggled with the ending, and I just didn’t enjoy this one as much as I’d wanted to.
