Review--The Tenth Girl by Sara Faring

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.

I picked up Sara Faring's debut, The Tenth Girl on a bit of a whim. I had refrained from reading any reviews on it but from twitter buzz I got the impression that this was a perfectly creepy read for October! It was definitely an eerie read, but it was also a tad confusing as it was told in two points of view, but one character definitely was making this bizarre puzzle even more bizarre!

Let's start at the beginning, it's 1978, Mavi is a young girl who is trying to escape capture from government types for the things her mother did. Her mother has already been taken prisoner and Mavi feels she might share the same fate so she takes her mother's advice and goes to her uncle for help who gets her a job at an elite school ofr young girls. Mavi isn't exactly teacher material but she can fake it until she makes it with these adolescent girls.

The school is in an old mansion style home and there are many rules meant to be followed by students and teachers alike. Mavi first learns that one of these rules is to never leave her bedroom at night. So of course, she ends up doing just that. The old mansion is filled with Others, or ghosts, if you will and strange and sinister things tend to happen at night if one leaves the safety of their room.

Mavi's priority is to protect the girls but how can she do that when she's not entirely sure what she's fighting against?

Then there's Angel and boy was he a mystery! For a few of his chapters, I had thought he was a girl since Angel is one of those generic names and I'm not entirely sure why I thought girl first anyway! Lol. But it does finally mention him being a him and I just went with it. Lol. Angel is a ghost just trying to get by with his new existence. And yet...he'll think certain things, things that happened after 1978 that lead you to wonder just what kind of afterlife is he living? It's mind-boggling. Absolutely mind-boggling!

Angel soon possesses the body of the only teenage boy in residence, Dom, the son of the principal and as you might guess, a romance of sorts starts to form between him and Mavi. It was definitely an odd sort to get behind as Angel is a ghost in another person's body, who is still in said body spiritually, so they're kind of co-inhabiting said body. Mavi thinks she's falling for one guy when it's actually someone else entirely. I'm not usually a fan of this sort of deception and I will admit there wasn't a great deal of focus put onto this sort of romance, so it wasn't the greatest aggravation that it could've been.

The mystery really opens up in the last 50+ pages or so and it's life changing! Like a serious shocking twist that I never would've guessed in a million years! I enjoyed that sort of scandalizing twist but then at the same time, I was still a tad confused at it's mechanics and whatnot. It gets explained to some extent but I suppose it was the matter of the explanation that left me a little wiped out. Plus, I was reading this at a far slower pace than I was used to and with such gaps between the time I started and finished, I am possibly missing some of the connections that would have made this explanation so much easier to comprehend! But it is what it is.

The Tenth Girl was a jaw-dropping shock of a mystery read with an ending that you won't see coming! While the mystery only continues to build as the book goes on, the answers will leave you spellbound! It's a refreshing read in a sense and I can easily say this is not the last time I will be reading Sara Faring's books! She's definitely an author to keep an eye on!



Overall Rating 3.75/5 stars--the awkward rating makes another appearance! This one was almost a 4 star for me, but still better than 3.5, hence the awkward rating! If I was able to read this more consecutively these last few days I am sure my rating would've been the full 4!