Wilder Girls

by Rory Power

"Wilder Girls is so sharp and packs so much emotion in such wise ways. I'm convinced we're about to witness the emergence of a major new literary star." --Jeff VanderMeer, New York Times bestselling author of Annihilation

New York Times Bestseller • A feminist Lord of the Flies about three best friends living in quarantine at their island boarding school, and the lengths they go to uncover the truth of their confinement when one disappears. This fresh debut is a mind-bending novel unlike anything you've read before.

It's been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty's life out from under her.

It started slow. First the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island home, the girls don't dare wander outside the school's fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure they were promised as the Tox seeps into everything.

But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie beyond the fence. And when she does, Hetty learns that there's more to their story, to their life at Raxter, than she could have ever thought true.

And don't miss Rory Power's second novel, Burn Our Bodies Down!

• ISBN10: 0593703561
• ISBN13: 9780593703564
• Publish Date: 4 April 2023 (first published 9 July 2019)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Ember
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 400
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780593703564

Reviews

[pamela]

I think the best I can say about Wilder Girls is that it is...fine? It wasn't badly written, and the plot was pretty compelling, it was just lacking something I can't quite put my finger on.

I think the big issue for me was that I just couldn't connect with any of the characters. The narrative sort of puts you in the middle of this story, with no world-building, context, or even a wind-down. It just sort of started, touched on some interesting concepts, and then ended before ever exploring them.

I wanted more. I wanted to know the characters, feel for them, and hurt with them. But instead, there was just a whole bunch of body horror, some vague hints at something sinister, and then a pretty lacklustre resolution. I was gripped when I thought it was going somewhere interesting, and then as I reached the 3/4 mark and realised it probably wasn't, I ended up just wanting it to be over.

Wilder Girls seems to be quite polarising. I'd say it's probably a 2.75 rounded up to me, but I'm giving it three stars just on the brilliance of the cover art alone. The art commissioner and cover illustrators (Regina Flath and Aykut Aydogdu) saved this novel from mediocrity and deserve a round of applause

[maggiefan]

Too confusing, not only in the end. It's a shame, as I was very excited to read it.

[stressedrach]

Reading the blurb I thought I would be blown away with this book, sadly I was left feeling a little disappointed. Don’t get me wrong it was a good read and was written well but the ending was deflating, it felt unfinished. I would still give it a 3.5 star rating though because it did have many good bits and it was just the ending that let me down.

I couldn’t decide how to rate this at first so I pondered for a few days before writing my review. In short summary: it was ok, but it also left a lot to be desired. ⁣
⁣
The first half was strong and suspenseful, but the second half became disjointed and confusing. I appreciated the dystopian vibe, but it lacked the creative thrill I was expecting from this genre. And while the author’s writing style was almost poetic, it clashed with the way it was implemented - allowing too much vagueness in certain details and confusion in areas that should have been more clear. There was so much potential in the plot but it felt like the author was trying too hard to make this work. ⁣
⁣
I also felt let down with the way this ended. It was too neat, too tidy, and too easy to the point of thinking “seriously? That’s it?” There was enough build up to catch my attention in the beginning, but the mediocre thrills in the middle and a non-impressive ending ultimately decided my 3 star rating. It didn’t quite deter me away from this author (I do plan to read her next book “Burn Our Bodies Down) but depending on how I feel about the next one will decide whether I ultimately avoid this author all together in the future. ⁣
⁣
I know there are a lot of mixed reviews for this one, so I’m sure there is someone out there who may appreciate the book the way the author intended it to be. As for me, I wouldn’t make this a priority read. ⁣

[Nessa Luna]

This book was honestly a bit odd. Not much was explained and though I loved the spooky setting, I was a bit bored halfway through. The writing was really nice, though, and I did love Hetty as a character. However, I was not satisfied with the ending and I kind of wish there had been more.

CAWPILE: 8 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 (Avg: 7.00)

[tylerrosereads]

Is this supposed to be a series because that was the worse non-ending ever. Its like we were just starting to figure out what was going on and then they ran out of pages and just stopped....

[chymerra]

Liked the book but wasn't a fan of the ending.

[Jo]

3.5 Stars.

Trigger Warnings: This book features blood, vomit, death, mutations, graphic and gorey violence, descriptions of wounds, self-defense killing, experiments on people, self-harm, suicide ideation, suicide, gassing. Also, see Power's own list of trigger and content warnings.

Wilder Girls by Rory Power was one of my most anticipated reads on 2019, but while I really enjoyed it, it wasn't as amazing as I expected it to be.

On an island off the coast of Maine is Raxter School for Girls. A year and a half ago, everyone on Raxter - the girls, the teachers, even the animals in the woods surrounding the school - contracted a deadly virus, known as the Tox. All but two of the teachers died, as did a number of the students, but everyone else was changed. Hetty's eye fused shut and she can feel something growing behind it. Byatt grew a second spine that pierced through the skin of her back. One of Reese's hands turned a scaled silver, with razor sharp nails, with her blonde hair letting off it's own glow. All the other girls have mutated as well. They've been in quarantine, while the CDC and the Navy try to work on a cure. Meanwhile, they are starving, changing each season as the virus flares, and dying. Trying to survive while the animals outside become monsters. That is until after Byatt has a flare up - one that leaves makes her voice excruciatingly painful to all who hear it, including herself - disappears after being taken to the infirmary. Hetty cannot sit back and do nothing when her best friend is missing, and is determined to find her, along with the help of Reese. She breaks quarantine, and steps outside the gate - only to discover there's more to what's happening to them at Raxter than they realised.

Wilder Girls is seriously weird, but in the best possible way. It's freaky and strange and quite graphic, but deliciously so. The things the Tox has done to the girls is just unbelievable, and you can't help hurting for them as they change and wait for a cure. However, the first third of the book was quite slow. Nothing major actually happens. I guess it's mainly world building, showing us the life of the girls now as we're filled in on all that's happened, but world building can be shown while things are happening, you know? So it took a while to really get going. But when it does, mate, the weirdness is dialled right up. Power's imagination is incredible, and Wilder Girls is so disturbing. I'm not going to give away spoilers, but the things discovered, it's so messed up, and really gives off major Stranger Things vibes, in regards to just how strange things get. It would definitely make for a great movie or TV show.

However you may have noticed I've not said it was scary or creepy, and that's because it's not. It's supposed to be, but it just isn't. Power's writing is beautiful and poetic, while not straying into purple prose, but there was no scary or creepy atmosphere. Even when things are as messed up as they can be, I was thinking to myself, "What they hell?! But also, I should be scared right now, and I'm not." I really felt there was a massive lack in regards to atmosphere, which was pretty disappointing.

But I did love the feminist side of things. The allegory of girls bodies changing at puberty, and how that can be scary for the girls, but how the world has issues with women's bodies, and demonises them for what they do. And how Byatt was unable to speak - she has a voice, but not one that will be heard; they want her to keep quiet, because what she has to say will only lead to trouble. She is silenced. And I loved the relationships between the three main characters, Hetty, Byatt and Reese, but also the other relationships we see as well. People clinging to each other when they have almost nothing else. The codependency that brings. Hetty cannot cope without Byatt. Yes, she's gay, but she's into Reese, not Byatt, but Byatt is the one who keeps her sane and breathing. But Byatt seems to have secrets of her own, and I have no idea what to believe about her.

There is a massive cliffhanger of an ending, which I expected due to reviews I've read, but I didn't expect it to end so abruptly. And we're left with more questions than answers. Which is fine, if there's going to be a sequel, but if there isn't... well, I'm massively disappointed.

Wilder Girls is definitely worth the read for the weird and crazy and brilliant, just don't expect to get many answers, or to be all that scared. It didn't live up to my expectations, but I did enjoy it.

[leahrosereads]

Conceptually, this is a 5 star book for me. I fucking loved the premise of it, and the weirdness of this story really elevated it for me. Unfortunately, I didn't particularly like the romance element to this (it felt incredibly forced and unnecessary), the multiple POV, or the pacing. Those three items almost ruined a perfectly bizarre story. I'm definitely interested in seeing what other YA weirdness I can discover, and I'll be interested in seeing what this author puts out next.

[Amber]

I received Wilder Girls as a review copy from the publisher. Obviously, these are my honest thoughts and feelings about the book. I also posted this review on my book blog if you'd like to check it out!

Wilder Girls has received a lot of hype this year in the run up to its release. I think a lot of people were excited because a) it’s queer, and b) it sounds super weird. And it is super weird. I don’t normally go for weird books, but I picked up Wilder Girls at YALC and decided I should give it a go.


The beginning of Wilder Girls is quite slow. It takes Power some time to set up the premise and to introduce the reader to the island. We are introduced to the girls who are stuck at the school, and to be honest I’m not really sure what kind of vibe Power was going for here. The whole beginning felt very slow and demure, but then the gruesome body horror was introduced along with fights between the students. I struggled a bit in the beginning because the pacing was so slow and to be honest, the book wasn’t very engaging.

Towards the middle of the book, something clicked. I ended up really connecting to the characters, especially after we saw more of the relationship between Hetty and Resse. I was really enjoying discovering the mystery of the infection and the island, and learning what had been happening between the school and the government.

I was a bit confused by what Power was going for with Byatt’s character. Things were revealed about her in the middle of the book, which should have shone a different light on her personality, however it then didn’t come up again? The whole thing seemed a bit irrelevant and I’m not sure why it was included.

Things got bad again towards the end of the book. There was a bit more going on than in the rest of the book, which upped the stakes a bit and made things a little bit more exciting. But then the very end was confusing to me again, because I had heard this book is a standalone but it felt like Power was prepping things for a sequel. That could also explain the revelations about Byatt’s character, and how they weren’t touched upon later on in the book. If Power is hoping for a sequel, then these decisions make sense. If not, Wilder Girls feels very underdeveloped and incomplete.

It’s a shame I didn’t enjoy Wilder Girls more because it did have a few redeeming qualities. I enjoyed the body horror, I enjoyed the relationship between Hetty and Resse, and I enjoyed parts of the ending when things got a bit more action-packed. I just feel that Wilder Girls could have been a bit more.

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