The Tenth Girl by Sara Faring – Book Review

Wow, am I in the mood for Halloween. Pumpkin-scented everything, spooky movies, and cooler weather. It is everything I could ask for. I think this desire for fall is coming sooner and sooner every year. It’s still August and here I am, burning a pumpkin scented candle and drinking hot coffee. I blame capitalism.

Anyway, in my quest to find fall vibes in this scorching summer heat, I read The Tenth Girl by Sara Faring. I picked up an ARC of this book at YALLWEST this year, and needless to say, it was my favorite find. It sounded so interesting, spooky, and atmospheric, and this is exactly what it was. But, with a KILLER twist…

Disclaimers:

I received a free/gifted copy of this book, which in no way impacted my review of the book. In addition, this is a voluntary review.

Clicking the title of the book will bring you to book depository, where you can pre-order/purchase this book. This is an affiliate link meaning that I will make a small profit from every purchase made through this link with no impact to you. Thank you!

Rating 4/5 Stars

Content Warnings: gore, pedophilia, suicide ideation, description of suicide, an allusion to suicide, statutory rape, miscarriage, sexual assault, pregnancy of a minor, PTSD, mentions of self-harm

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I can honestly say, this was one of the most unexpected books I have ever read. If you have browsed the Goodreads page for this book, you can probably see how difficult it is to even write something cohesive about this book. Everyone talks about the Twist™ at the end of the book, but nobody really goes into detail because… you can’t. And, I won’t, because I want to keep this review spoiler-free.

One thing I can say is, Sara Faring is an incredible writer. This is her debut novel, but the writing has a feeling of expertise and ease to it. Faring’s writing as intelligent yet consumable, and the way the settings were described pulled me in quickly. I was soon sitting on the steps of an old mansion on a hill in Argentina. I could feel, see, smell, and taste everything that the characters were experiencing, all through the written word. Due to the impressive writing, the world-building felt natural and strong. This is a level of talent I aspire to, and I will certainly be looking for more from this author.

The characters were…interesting. I think the main character, Mavi, was my favorite, as she was the most fleshed out. Quite frankly, she was the only one that made any sense throughout the book. That is to say, I feel the motivations of the other characters shifted rapidly, and I constantly had to readjust my ideas about them, which I didn’t particularly like. Now, this kind of makes sense by the end of the book but, of course, spoilers…

Overall, my experience in reading this book was enjoyable. It started out as a 5 star read, dipping near the middle of the book because nothing was happening, and the twist wasn’t able to bring it back up. However, I was constantly thinking about this book, when I was and wasn’t reading it, and the writing put in me in that fall mood that I have been craving. Who wants to watch a scary movie with me now?

I recommend this book to those who are ready to pay attention to the world that Faring created, because the author embedded a lot of detail into the story that is wonderful, yet easily missed. Many reviews of this book state that it will be polarizing, which can sound scary. However, I am coming to you from the positive side to say, give this book a chance. If you don’t like it… oh well. *shoulder shrug* That is the life of a reader, right?