A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!“The perfect kind of story for our current era.”—HypableFrom the author of Burn Our Bodies Down, 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.… 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!
Praise for Wilder Girls:
4 STARRED REVIEWS!
“Take Annihilation, add a dash of Contagion, set it at an all-girls’ academy, and you’ll arrive at Rory Power’s occasionally shocking and always gripping Wilder Girls.”—Refinery29
“This thrilling saga…is sure to be one of the season’s most talked-about books, in any genre.”—EW
“Fresh and horrible and beautiful….readers will be consumed and altered by Wilder Girls.”—NPR
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A feminist, LGBT+, sci-fi-horror story with all the tantalizing elements of gore, mystery, war, and love you can ask for. Real, flawed, brave girls against a world gone mad. A shudderingly good read!
Wilder Girls is the bold, imaginative, emotionally wrenching horror novel of my dreams — one that celebrates the resilience of girls and the earthshaking power of their friendships. An eerie, unforgettable triumph.
Okay, this book was different and I loved it. A lot of readers have compared it to Annihilation and I get that as well but this book was so much more. We never quite get the answers to what is going on and, personally, I loved that. Long after reading I’m still asking myself what really happened. Much like The Giver, we are never given a straight answer as to the fate of the girls but we know they are experiencing weird and horrific episodes as their bodies turn inside-out (literally sometimes) and they transform into creatures that are both inhuman and yet extremely human. You’ll just have to read it to know what I mean.
Late to the game on this one. So glad I read it! I knew just from the cover that I’d this one. I know it’s fiction, but it’s hauntingly realistic.
With climate change, the melting of the ice caps, prehistoric ancient things coming awake, “a parasite slowly reaching into the weakest things until it was strong enough to reach into us….”
This is labeled a YA novel but labels are just labels, and this is a great story for all ages. The author develops a good scenario of a contagion, of being left to survive as best as possible, quarantined on an island. The characters devotion to each other is constantly being tested as events turn horrific and hope runs out! Author includes some great twists and turns near the end and the descriptions of disruptive changes that occurs to the girls makes for a disturbing story.
The eeriness of Raxter Island permeates every scene, and Rory Power’s characters are fierce and honest, blazing from the pages. This is a groundbreaking speculative story — brutal and beautiful, raw and unflinching. I adored this book.
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.
A nightmarish survival story that’s as much literary fiction as it is young adult… I couldn’t look away.
This kept me on my toes for more than 50% but the ending bumped the book down a star. I’m not typically a fan of cliff-hanging endings and this one just…lacked. It didn’t seem to wrap everything up for me.
2.5 Rounded to a 2
I was expecting a lot more with this one after reading the premise. It was very interesting to start, but just didn’t catch my attention much. It felt rushed in some spots and slow in others. Not a very put together format or flow (for me anyway).
I’m honestly not sure if this is a series or … the ending leads one to believe there should be more to it. I honestly can’t stand when a story just abruptly cuts off and leaves me feeling unsatisfied…open-ended finishes are great when they work and make sense. This did not.
It’s always fun to write excessively positive or harshly negative book reviews. Unfortunately, Wilder Girls by Rory Power fell into neither category for me. I’ll preface my review with the usual suggestion to check the content warnings on The StoryGraph, as this book did have some graphic violence, illness, and overall gore.
The premise of the novel is that our protagonist, Hetty, is trapped at her boarding school due to a contagious outbreak called the Tox. The illness killed most of the teachers at the school and left the girls with strange deformities that flare up occasionally and eventually kill them. Most of the novel revolves around Hetty’s closest friend, Byatt going missing, and Hetty using another girl, Reese, to help find her.
I found the relationships Hetty had with both Byatt and Reese confounding and shallow. Hetty has an odd attachment to Byatt that is never fully explained in my opinion. On the other hand, Reese only becomes part of Hetty’s and Byatt’s friend group because they need her help with a school project. Similarly, Hetty goes on to use Reese both physically and emotionally, failing to acknowledge the other girl’s emotions and viewing her as a means to an end, despite claiming to have romantic feelings for her.
This book was so overrated! I’ve been looking forward to it for a while now and have heard nothing, but great things, but it simply didn’t live up to the hype. I was also probably influenced by the fact that Rory Power is close friends with Emily A. Duncan, who made some extremely racist and anti-Semitic comments. Power herself was rumored to help Duncan in bullying minority authors, so this certainly had an influence on my opinion of the book too.
I won’t ruin the ending in case you’re still wanting to read Wilder Girls, but I promise you, it is just as disappointing as the rest of the book. However, I used this opportunity to find new books I wanted to read by minority authors, so in a way, the negative accusations about Duncan and her friends has led to more publicity for authors they have victimized. I haven’t had a chance to read them yet, but I highly recommend supporting Hafsah Faizal and Rin Chupeco!
I gave myself a day to think about this review before I wrote it because I was so pissed off with the ending. After some thought, I lowered my rating from 3 to 2 stars, and I’m still pissed.
Let me tell you right now…if you’re struggling through this book but don’t want to DNF it because you want to see how it ends, DON’T. BOTHER.
The ending is one of those…”Maybe they made it, maybe they didn’t. What do YOU think happened?”
Well, *I* think the author got f-ing lazy and tried to go for an ambiguous/mysterious ending, but wasn’t a strong enough writer to pull it off and instead wrote a disappointing cop-out of an ending.
The prose of this entire novel is so awkward and vague in a way that I think is supposed to make the characters seem deep and enigmatic but just comes off as annoying. None of the characters are particularly likable, and the story is just so unbelievable.
These sick girls who are being ripped apart from the inside out supposedly are able to summon super-human strength to overcome a number of things that are trying to kill them at the end…yeah. Ok.
Overall, I do NOT recommend this book, and I do NOT understand all the hype it received. I’d give it 1 star, but I did trudge through the entire thing, and it’s not the worst book I’ve ever read, but yeah…not a fan.
Initially, I felt off about this book. It didn’t feel like horror, it felt like a thriller. High-stakes and tense moments, but nothing scary past the graphic body horror. As a body horror fan, that was enough to keep me going, even if I wasn’t sure I was reading a horror book.
It took me until halfway through to realize I went into this book with the wrong expectations. Not every horror story involves running away from a murderer or trying to escape the attention of a ghost. This is a story about being trapped in a bleak situation and trying to survive when everything is out to kill you. It’s about the strength of love and friendship that powers you through every horror you face.
Once I realized that, the emotional horror of this book hit me. Every paragraph made me question if there was some ounce of hope in the end. I can say I was satisfied with what I received, even if in the end it felt like I had no idea where I was being led until I was punched in the gut.
Additionally, I enjoyed the characters. There were times when I was angry at them, wondering why the girls were behaving so irrationally and why the adults felt so unhelpful. I had to remind myself of what it would be like to be a 14 to 17 year old girl, trapped on an island with a virus twisting your body into a mockery of itself, with little to no hope of surviving. Alternatively, I had to imagine what it would be like to take care of these children and watch as they die off, one by one. There’s no way I could react logically in either scenario. The characters did the best they could do in the situation they were forced into and trapped in.
I admire stories that make me read deeper into the thoughts of the characters. To me, a good horror story makes me compare how I would face each situation to how the characters do. In this case, every event made me want to throw up, run away, or cry.
So, yeah, this story gave me the emotional turmoil. I was joyfully horrified.
This wastes no time setting a dark, dystopian theme and I’m here for it!
It completely gripped me right away and I couldn’t put it down until there was no more. It did end on sort of a cliffhanger so even though it’s not listed as a series, I do hope there’s more to come.
This book features good writing, in a post-apocalyptic world, and the POVs of teenage girls. There are a few twists you may not see coming. Super fun, exciting read.
4 stars.
Note:
I listened to the audiobook; a stellar performance.
Rory Power’s Wilder Girls is a harrowing adventure, fraught with romance, betrayal, terror, and above all else, beautiful, powerful women. And it takes place in Maine! I blazed through it in a matter of hours.
I wanted to like this book more, but it was slooow (especially the opening 1/4 or 1/3 of the book), and left so much unexplained. I love the idea behind this though, feminist YA, like a female Lord of the Flies. And I love the cover so much! Good plot idea, lack of connection with characters.
Fresh, dark, and exciting. A coming of age dystopian body horror that takes you on a journey with brave heroes that you want to follow, no matter how much it hurts. Wilder Girls is an interesting and compelling story with gruesome imagery and beautiful characters. I’m excited to see what the author does next.
This was a well-written, well-paced story that grips you from the start and weaves a compelling tale that holds you throughout. I don’t know if I would call this a “fun” or “entertaining” read (it’s really disturbing and gross at times) but it’s certainly compelling.
Rory Power’s has an excellent narrative voice. She did a great job capturing not only the pain and struggle these girls go through, but also the angst and girl-girl tension between Heddy and her friends. There is good tension throughout and just enough surprises to keep you off balance. As the mystery unfolds, we get rewarded with well-crafted plot twists and character development as each girl struggles with her own inner conflicts as well as outer challenges.
While this book is not something I would have picked up if not for the B&N YA Book Club, I’m glad it was and I’m glad I read it. Good stories and good writing are their own reward and this book falls into both of these categories.
The writing in this book is absolutely gorgeous, with characters you root hard for, and a deliciously creepy setting. You’ll be on the edge of your seat the whole time.
3.5s