What do you think?
Rate this book
10
10 unfolds the story of the troubled and impulsive Simone struggling to navigate through the tumultuous years of adolescence. She finds support and guidance through an exchange of letters with the enigmatic Joy, a beautiful and affluent globe-trotter, helpful and wise far beyond her teenage years. As Simone’s life gradually descends into chaos, Joy strives to rescue her, drawing from her life experiences. 10 is a coming-of-age story about friendship, love, depression, and the virtues of life. Simone and Joy build a strong bond through letters as they both, in their own unique and surprising ways, grapple to come to terms with the significance and challenges of living a fulfilling life.
103 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 31, 2019
1 person is currently reading
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 14, 2021
This is a beautiful book with a great heart and a real zinger of an ending. I have to give this book a five-star rating because the concept is so touching, tear-inducing, and real, whether it is based on personal experience or really fine research. But it is also an early novel in the career of someone who appears to be on her way to being a great writer with a little more experience. I hope this author will come back to this after writing ten more or so and give it a thorough rewrit. I have been a writing teacher in public schools for 31 years, and I can clearly see some areas in this book where a bit of polish will make it a great piece of literature.
1. Epistolary novels (stories told through a series of letters) are hard to write This would be improved if the young ladies writing the letters tried to show more and tell less. Perhaps even include some dialogue. I know most letter writers don't do that, but both of these characters are portrayed as unusually smart and well-spoken (even if Simone's family and peers don't quite recogni, ze this.
2. The vocabulary is too daunting for YA readers. Joy uses these hard vocabulary words and more; prelapsarian youth, gobsmacked, fortissimo, taradiddle, bedizen, and logomachies. Simone uses words like cacophonic, debilitating, and enervated victim. In my high school English classes these words would discombobulate 99.9% of all the readers. I couldn't even say "discombobulate" in front of my YA readers without explaining it in context.
3. The "helping" nature of this epistolary friendship is too one-sided. It would read as a much more natural back-and-forth if Joy discussed problems and heartaches of her own to get advice from her friend Simone. This would make her seem less preachy and all-knowing than her letters now seem. I understand how that is being used to set up the zinger ending, but it wouldn't hurt to make the dialogue between friends seem more natural and less forced.
I do give my highest recommendation for this YA novel. It has the potential to be a classic young-adult heartstring-plucker. I look forward to how great this author will be in the near future.
1. Epistolary novels (stories told through a series of letters) are hard to write This would be improved if the young ladies writing the letters tried to show more and tell less. Perhaps even include some dialogue. I know most letter writers don't do that, but both of these characters are portrayed as unusually smart and well-spoken (even if Simone's family and peers don't quite recogni, ze this.
2. The vocabulary is too daunting for YA readers. Joy uses these hard vocabulary words and more; prelapsarian youth, gobsmacked, fortissimo, taradiddle, bedizen, and logomachies. Simone uses words like cacophonic, debilitating, and enervated victim. In my high school English classes these words would discombobulate 99.9% of all the readers. I couldn't even say "discombobulate" in front of my YA readers without explaining it in context.
3. The "helping" nature of this epistolary friendship is too one-sided. It would read as a much more natural back-and-forth if Joy discussed problems and heartaches of her own to get advice from her friend Simone. This would make her seem less preachy and all-knowing than her letters now seem. I understand how that is being used to set up the zinger ending, but it wouldn't hurt to make the dialogue between friends seem more natural and less forced.
I do give my highest recommendation for this YA novel. It has the potential to be a classic young-adult heartstring-plucker. I look forward to how great this author will be in the near future.
September 6, 2025
would give this shitrag “novel” 0 stars if i could🥹🥹 mediocre would be far too kind and generous a descriptor for the writing here.
I think the author—a neoliberal and a misogynist who breaks bread with racist supporters of genocide—bought a thesaurus one day and went to town.
she should do all humanity a favor and never write or publish anything ever again. unfortunately it doesn’t seem that we will have that respite because she’s now in JOURNALISM school.
but, then again, I guess it’s fitting that someone with her moral shortcomings is joining the American journalist class— the same ones who manufacture consent for horrific crimes the world over.
TLDR: Shitty book written by a shitty excuse for an “author”
I think the author—a neoliberal and a misogynist who breaks bread with racist supporters of genocide—bought a thesaurus one day and went to town.
she should do all humanity a favor and never write or publish anything ever again. unfortunately it doesn’t seem that we will have that respite because she’s now in JOURNALISM school.
but, then again, I guess it’s fitting that someone with her moral shortcomings is joining the American journalist class— the same ones who manufacture consent for horrific crimes the world over.
TLDR: Shitty book written by a shitty excuse for an “author”
September 28, 2025
Reading this book involved wasting hours of my life that I will never get back. PLEASE save yourselves from a similar fate and don’t bother engaging with this sorry excuse for an author’s sorry excuse for a YA piece. We’re dealing with a level of bumbling talentlessness that only an aspiring amerikan journalist (who breaks bread with genocide-supporting white men from dating apps) could possibly espouse. Shameless shitrag of a story. I mourn the trees killed to fulfill this horrific individual’s hubris.
September 9, 2025
ONLY read this book if you want to lose brain cells and waste hours of your life in the process.
This awful shitrag of a book is written by someone with awful character—someone who seemingly supports and stands by manipulative, vindictive, dishonest, racist, and openly genocide-supporting white men. And now this author’s tryna become a JOURNALIST instead of doing what the readers deserve—retreating from public life altogether.
This awful shitrag of a book is written by someone with awful character—someone who seemingly supports and stands by manipulative, vindictive, dishonest, racist, and openly genocide-supporting white men. And now this author’s tryna become a JOURNALIST instead of doing what the readers deserve—retreating from public life altogether.
August 17, 2021
Short but good
Adolescent and active volcanoes are very much similar. Very unstable. Met Simone the active but very unstable .. she met another girl whom they kick their friendship instantly at the hospital.
The book characters are well developed but found relatively short.
Adolescent and active volcanoes are very much similar. Very unstable. Met Simone the active but very unstable .. she met another girl whom they kick their friendship instantly at the hospital.
The book characters are well developed but found relatively short.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews