2013 Hub Reading Challenge discussion

Just finished this one last night; I don't think the sentence-level writing is all that great, BUT talk about an engrossing read! It was an immensely creepy story and I kept turning the pages long into the night. Agatha Christie is my favorite author, and I think McNeil did her original story justice and modernized it in a great way for a teen audience. I have a few minor quibbles about unbelievable plot points, but, really, I see this as a book teens will positively eat up.

I had a similar reaction - on a basic level, really fun, and just what a horror/slasher novel should be. But I also had some problems with how McNeil approached physically describing her characters and how race was dealt with, which I blogged about (http://mclicious.org/2013/03/27/the-c... if it's okay to self promote), and how problematic Meg's relationship with Minnie was, which I did not blog but definitely thought about.

I agree that this is an obvious remake of Christie's "And Then There Were None," but this newer version would definitely appeal to teens. I found myself pulled into the story even though I already knew what was going to happen.

I love 'And then there were none' and was excited to see this update. I enjoyed it until the end, which left me annoyed and frustrated. I think that the final push for YA and relationships in this novel was frustrating. In my opinion, it should have been left more like the ending of the original. The unbelievable plot points I could get around - the ending bugged me. I guess it opens up the possibility of a sequel?

Alison wrote: "I guess it opens up the possibility of a sequel?"

You're probably right! If there's one thing that is making YA weaker these days, it's the push for everything to be a marketable trilogy rather than a strong novel.