I thought after all the praise this has been getting that I’d enjoy it more. The setting and the female friendships/relationships are richly and gorgeously described, but everything else felt so haphazard or not fully realized. I enjoyed it and I hope there’s some sort of continuation, as the ending leaves room for it, but I can’t help but be a little disappointed after the hype it’s been receiving. This is a good readalike for Sawkill Girls and Annihilation though.

Gorgeous prose. Creepy/Disturbing imagery that drives the plot forward. Though, I wanted a little more from the characters in terms of individual development and relationships so that I felt the horrors the girls faced more intensely as a reader.

Posting to all links 7/2
Discussing the content of Rory Power's debut novel Wilder Girls is going to be very difficult without ruining the totality of what makes it without any doubt, in my mind, the best of the year to date. Having said that, I will do my best.

Before that exercise in futility, there is plenty to discuss about Power’s writing craft that can be discussed. And it has as much a hand in the brilliance of Wilder Girls as the content. Powers exudes influence of Jack Kerouac.

For those that might not be familiar with his style and don’t need a full course from the linked website, here is a brief rundown of the specific – not all- parts of his “spontaneous style” I found in parts- again, not all (mostly during Byatt’s point of view) - of Kerouac’s style. (very brief and by no means meant to be critically commented on or attacked, I beg of you).

• No periods separating sentence
• Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition
• …and trying to eliminate the period, he created a writing style all is own to go with the rhythm of the Beat generation.
• Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition

Powers uses these literary devices to provoke emotions from readers in reaction to a deep psychological understanding of character’s thoughts, circumstances and situational contexts. It is the first time I have seen it utilized in prose. I have previously seen it utilized in poetry such as Jason Reynolds Long Way Down I have also seen structure shattered in a unique and brutally impactful way in Tiffany Jackson’s Monday’s Not Coming.

However, this is the first time I’ve seen sentence structure played with within a novel written in prose that becomes a character, itself. It is used sparingly as to not overtake or overburden the reader, when it will provide the most impact and when the character’s surroundings and condition most benefit from conveying a level of understanding that drags the reader not just into that point in time but into the character’s body, both mentally and physically.

“But they slip in and out of my head, and I’m not I’m not I’m not as hear as I thought I was.”

“Light my eyes tearing up they always do they’re too sensitive I could never get my pupils dilated when I went to the eye doctor and somebody bending down over me blinking and sharpening”

Structurally there is also a patience to Powers style not often seen in a debut novel. When I recommended, on twitter, to M.R. Carey (the author of The Girl with All the Gifts- originator of the phrase “books that make reading a contact sport”) that he read Wilder Girls, there was a reason. I would never do such a thing lightly.

There is a patience to this book akin to The Girl with All the Gifts. It is an unraveling of what is happening to the Raxter Girls that builds up a tightness in your chest, an inability to breathe and a turning of your stomach. It doesn’t rush. It doesn’t move at your pace. The narrative will not be bullied into doing what to do or how to do it. It will make you squeamish. It will make you plead. It will make people who care about you beg you to stop reading it. But you won’t. You can’t.

You will find out what you want to know only when Power is good and ready to tell you. That is to say, you will know only when the Raxter girls know.The book unfolds itself in real time. And as situations happen to them, they will grab you by the gut, by the jugular and psychologically and not let go. As information reveals itself to the girls (perceived, misunderstood and then the truth), it will be revealed to you.

The unknowing of how and why of what is happening while bearing witness to what is happening, from survival to the growing plague and threats (obvious and not so much) to the girls that makes Wilder Girls a complete Mind bend.

Yes, Power is descriptive in the horrific and gruesome brutality of the sickness taking over the Raxter girls. But I would argue that it is the psychological games that Power weaves throughout Wilder Girls that is the fiercest part of the content.

I am afraid there isn’t much more I can say about Wilder Girls. If this isn’t enough? Ask a question in the comment section and I will see if I can answer it sans spoilers.

Otherwise?

GO READ THE BOOK



Here’s the thing. While Wilder Girls would have been a remarkable novel without the intrinsic writing craft Powers holds, it is these pieces that throw it over the top.

Wilder Girls started out super slow for me, but then it picked up a bit. Then, it fell very, very flat again.
I felt like there were a lot of holes in the story that needed to be addressed. I had a hard time connecting with the characters and just felt like it didn’t live up to its hype.

" It's like that, with all of us here. Sick, strange, and we don't know why. Things bursting out of us, bits missing and pieces sloughing off, and then we harden and smooth over."

Raw. Gory. Suspenseful. The Raxter School for Girls has been under quarantine for almost a year and a half due to a strange viral outbreak the girls refer to as the "Tox." Under the direction of the headmistress and Ms. Welch, the only two teachers left alive, the girls of Raxter struggle to stay alive. All communication from civilization has been severed - no phones, Internet, nothing. The only contact from the outside world is the periodic ration deliveries from the Navy, and then the Boat Shift risks their lives to venture outside the school walls to retrieve the supplies.

"Reese and Byatt, they're mine and I'm theirs. It's them I pray for when I pass the bulletin board and brush two fingers against the note from the Navy, still pinned there with edges fraying. A talisman, a reminder of the promise they made. The cure is coming, as long as we stay alive."

Hetty, Byatt, and Reese look out for each other. So when Byatt has a "flare up," she gets carted off to the infirmary, but ends up missing. Hetty and Reese, determined to find Byatt, stumble upon a much deeper, darker secret.

This is one of those books that is action driven and hard to put down. I read it so quickly trying to figure out what was going on that I feel as if I missed something. The story is not straightforward - you get the history of the Tox and the island in bits and pieces - which is great for driving the plot. However, I would have liked more character development to feel more connected to Hetty, Reese, and Byatt - there are too many facts that seem to drop from nowhere making the story feel a bit disjointed. But, maybe that's the author's intent.

I was allowed access to an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.

I love the cover of this book. I wanted to buy it the first time I saw it in Barnes and Noble because I feel sure that the kids will request it. Unfortunately, I had a hard time reading it. The author jumped right in and kept a fast pace until the end. Since the girls had different problems because of the Tox, it's going to take a second pass through this book to straighten things out for me. Or, maybe a movie? Just a thought......

This book is not going to be for everyone, but it was one of my favourite books of this year. It is a body horror story (CW for death, disease, disfigurement, violence, etc.) with fantastic f/f LGBTQ+ content, portraying three complex queer characters with a complicated relationship between all of them. I feel like I have been waiting for books like this for a long time. I will be reviewing this on my blog very soon.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Children’s for the advance Kindle copy of this book. It’s out 7.9.19! All opinions are my own.
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⭐️⭐️⭐️/5. This kind of reminded me of The Maze Runner meets Scar Island meets Lord of the Flies, but with an all-female cast. Quarantined on an island, students at The Raxter School For Girls have been on their own since the Tox hit. It is different effects on everyone, but the bottom line is that not everyone survives. When Hetty’s best friend has an episode and then disappears, she vows to get to the bottom of it; what she finds is more than she ever imagined. I would recommend this for grades 8+, and I would be interested to see what students think of it.

Raxter School for Girls is on an island, and for eighteen months, its residents (or what is left of them) have been under quarantine, the result of a mysterious illness the girls just call the “Tox.” It reacts differently inside each girl but mangles and twists their bodies into unnatural things, but they guess it’s better than the older teachers who just straight up died one by one. When Hetty’s best friend, Byatt goes missing, she’ll go to any length to bring her back, and in the process, she finds that there’s more to the Tox and their current situation that she could have imagined.

I have seen Wilder Girls compared to Lord of the Flies. I got all of four pages into it, so I can’t attest to that. What I can attest to, though, is that this is a compelling read, and hell yes, there are only two minor, male characters in the whole book. There are certainly themes of human nature, crisis, and reverting to base instincts when cut off from civilization, but it’s also just an intriguing mysterious horror. I love a good puberty theme in horror, and this one did not disappoint.

The book tells the story alternatively from Hetty and Byatt’s point-of-views, but we get a good sense of the other characters as well through their eyes. There was a slight romance, but it wasn’t the focus of the story, and I appreciated that. I like my romance subtle and in the background of something larger.

It took me a bit longer to read than most books, but I did enjoy letting the story unfold more slowly rather than just mainlining it over a couple of days. I think the POV breaks helped build the mystery well. Rory Power did a solid job, and I can wait to see more from this author.

One final note, check out that BEAUTIFUL cover! It looks like a creepy art print I would hang on my wall.

It’s out Tuesday, so be sure to pick up a copy from your favorite, local bookstore or request it at your library.

"We’re gonna make it. Tell me we’re gonna make it."

4 STARS

CW: body horror, violence, gore, medical scenes, gun violence, animal death, suicide, loss of a loved one, self-harm, gas chamber killings

For starters, I want to say that this book is gory. Like, grossly gory, with huge heaps of body horror. Girls vomit up teeth and grow gills and lose their eyes, and there's worse content than that. Take the content warnings seriously before you dive in, because this one isn't toying around. It's gross and graphic in a lot of ways, and even though I was able to power through it, there were a few scenes where I nearly DNFed for my own peace of squeamish mind.

That said, Wilder Girls has been a phenomenal read if you can get past the more gruesome aspects of it. For one, the prose is just enchanting, which you wouldn't expect to find in a story about girls abandoned to a vicious, mutation-creating disease on an island that was once meant for just a boarding school, not a quarantine center. You get flashes of how Raxter Island used to be, and how sunny and pleasant life was before the Tox hit. You get these glimpses of irises popping up from the earth and crabs scuttling along the beach, and a chill Maine breeze fluttering down the coast. And on the other hand, you also get life as it is now, where the beasts in the woods are ravenous and deadly, and the girls in the school are sometimes just the same. It's haunting, really, to have such a dangerous and deadly place described with such lyrical language.

It's also queer, though it isn't so much a romance. There are romantic elements for sure, but this is a survival horror story. If you're looking for a soft happy ending, this is not the place to visit. If you're looking for something more tangled and unpleasant and gritty, though, you're going to get it here. Hetty, Byatt, and Reese make for a complicated trio, and the way their navigate their relationships with one another is harsh but generally honest. It's fitting, really, on an island like this, where weakness will eat you alive in more ways than one.

Wilder Girls also gets compared to Lord of the Flies a lot, which I'm not sure is a fair comparison. Yeah, it's a bunch of girls stranded on an island, but they're not without adult supervision, and it's not a mass free-for-all. There's a way of things on Raxter, and it's a way that's kept the girls mostly alive for nearly a year and a half. Changed, but alive.

Really, I think the reason I gave such a fantastic, tense novel only four stars was first because of personal preference re: gore (it's just too much for me personally), and because the ending was the only part I felt didn't deliver. The resolution comes up short just when it needs to follow through, and I'm left with so many questions unanswered. It's not so horrible an ending that I'm mad about it necessarily, but it was a little frustrating, and I wanted a little more out of it. It needed further resolution than it got.

But altogether, Wilder Girls is vicious and gruesome and enchanting all at once, and it comes out July 9th, if you're thinking of pre-ordering or requesting it from your local library! Just be aware of what you're getting into, given the graphic nature of the book, and if it's not for you, it's not for you. I definitely don't emphasize this lightly. 💚

[This review will be posted to The Words Gremlin at approximately 10am EST on 7/3/19.]

It took me a while to figure out how to rate this book, but I think I’ve settled on a 4.

Let me preface this by saying that horror is not my thing. However, I was very intrigued by ‘Wilder Girls’ from the beginning - mostly because of the beautiful cover but also because the synopsis sounded so interesting.

With that said, overall I enjoyed my experience with this book. It was not what I expected, and I’ll admit I had a hard time getting into it right at first. It’s extremely gory and graphic, so know that going in. I’m not squeamish at all really, but I had a hard time reading some of the scenes. However, once the plot began to take off I was hooked - I HAD to know what the hell was happening on this island! I would find myself thinking about it when I wasn’t reading it.

This book isn’t scary per se, it’s just creepy and gory. If that’s your thing, I think you’ll love this. I also went into this not realizing one of the characters was queer, so that was a nice surprise. That’s not a main factor of the storyline, though, which was fine.

Overall, I’m glad I read this, and I think people are really going to like it. I’m glad it got me out of my comfort zone a bit.

I went sent an e-ARC of this from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book was incredible. I will be thinking about it for a long time. The entire time I was reading it, I was explaining what was happening to anyone around me because I just couldn't wrap my head around it. The story made me angry but in the best way possible.

First, the writing style was incredible. It was told in dual POV, and the second one was really unique. I don't want to describe it too much because it's better to go in without knowing too much. I will say, though, that it will leave you confused but also wanting more.

Our three main characters, Hetty, Byatt, and Reese, were also so great. They had a ton of flaws- they are definitely not your typical heroic characters. In fact, they are actually more "bad" than "good." However, they all have such a strong love for each other (some less platonic than others), and they would do anything for each other-- and they do.

In addition, I really loved the way the disease and its outbreak were described. It was so unique and interesting, and I kept wanting to learn more. It is definitely a bit gruesome at times, but it worked so well for this book. It had just the right amount of detail to leave you feeling uncomfortable, but not entirely disturbed that you wouldn't want to pick up the book again.

There were a few times where the writing left me wanting more because some details were left out, or it just felt lacking. Also, I wish the ending were done a bit differently. It left the story open-ended, which I usually like in books (even though it makes me so frustrated), but I needed more in this one. The ending was slightly rushed and needed more explanation, which is why it isn't getting 5 stars!

Overall, I really, really enjoyed this one. It was so great, and it deserves a lot of love when it comes out.

Thank you to Netgalley for proving me an e-ARC. All opinions are my own.

"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, new 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."

As an artist I am in awe of this cover.

Wilder Girls is literally everything I've ever wanted from body horror. The descriptions of what is happening to the girls' bodies are gory and disturbing and terrifying and I loved every bit of it. So much creepy and horrifying stuff! Such a dark, gloomy atmosphere! So mysterious! So compelling! The body horror was the best part of this book, and is probably why I'm compelled to rate it so highly. I also very much appreciate the potential metaphorical implications of this book re: misogyny and girlhood and the casual queerness.

The rest of the book was good, but I can't help but feel a vague sense of disappointment. I'm not exactly sure what else I was expecting that I didn't get, but I just feel like the payoff wasn't proportional to the buildup. There's so much mystery about what the Tox is and how the government is involved that I was expecting some huge shocking twist, but I don't think we really got that, or maybe we did and it was revealed so badly that it just didn't have the impact it was supposed to.

I do think the writing was great, though; it's a fantastic example of writing that suits the story's mood and plot. It's almost staccato, but not in an irritating way; rather, it serves to create a heightened sense of constant tension, of confusion and a vague sense of dread. Combined with the normalized body horror this served to create a deliciously disturbing atmosphere.

Aside from my vague disappointment with the ending I don't know that I have very much to complain about, but I don't have much to praise beside the body horror (seriously! it was so good!). This is definitely a great, well-written book, but it unfortunately didn't have as much of an impact on me as I was hoping.

2-3 stars, while this book was creepy and original, there were aspects that bothered me greatly and made it hard for me to completely enjoy. I think it may have felt like some political stance/social issue push underlay, which I do not enjoy in books at all. I look to reading to escape reality and when books tend to push issues we are facing, I tend to lose interest. If you are one that can overlook those things, you will enjoy this creepy, chilling, original YA book!
Will let Chapter Chatter Pub about it!

I definitely enjoyed this read. I spent like 2 days devouring it, itching to see what would come next. The best way I can describe it would be an eerie, gory mystery island full of a bunch of sick girls.

I loved the slight speculative aspect of it. Not only are these girls sick and (probably) dying, their illness, the Tox, includes random body modifications. Hetty, our mc, has something growing behind one of her eyeballs. Byatt, another mc/side character, has a second spine growing out of her back. The body mods are creative and totally gruesome.

The Plot

Throughout the book you’re following Hetty as she uncovers more and more about what exactly is going on and why the Tox is the Tox. She’ll probably learn some unsavory things. (hint: she does) This is definitely a book that expects you to put the puzzle pieces together yourself to create the larger picture. All the clues are hidden throughout the book, and it’s your job to fit them together and figure out what the hell is going on here. Because there sure it a lot going on. I’m not going to lie. I did not love the ending. It’s one of my least favorite types of endings. I understand why people do it, but I’m still here waiting for more.

The Setting

This was atmospheric. I felt like I was in a chilling northeastern island running through the halls of an abandoned boarding school, while in actuality I was standing in a hot, overly crowded subway car. She went for spooky and she made it there.

The Writing

Right after finishing the book I couldn’t decide whether I liked it. The more I thought about it, I realized it was because I didn’t exactly connect with the voice. It felt kind of detached, bleak. I’m not sure whether that is intentional or not, but looking back at it now, I think it fits the story pretty well. Based on the girls’ current predicament, everyone is feeling a bit bleak. It’s very matter of fact which is not typically my writing style of choice, but I understand why it was used here. Talk of death was so casual that is sometimes surprised me. Not necessarily in a bad way, but I guess that says more about the mindset of these girls and how all they can really like about is themselves and their own survival.

The Romance

The one thing that I still feel fell flat for me was the romance. There are two romance-ish situations going on in this book and I really did not believe either of them. One is meant to be hate-to-love/ignore to love (lol) and the turning point seemed too simple, too fast. I don’t know. I wanted more believable build up I think. With a few minimally changed scenes the romance could be completely eliminated. (imo) I’m actually really curious to see what everyone thought about the romance. Based on hype, I thought it was going to be a much more prominent part of the book.

***spoilers for the end***

Dude, the scene with the parasite had me fully gagging on the subway.

Sometime this past fall, I saw Rory Power tweeting the cover of her debut novel, Wilder Girls, and the moment I saw it and read the blurb, I knew that I had to read it. Luckily, NetGalley hooked me up with an ARC cause I don’t know if I could’ve lasted till July to read it. This book fits nicely into my two favourite book genres, body horror and boarding school stories. I don’t know why I love boarding school stories, probably cause as an only child, I always envisioned going to one and being surrounded by lots of girls my own age. Fun fact: I almost got sent to a Catholic boarding school once, when my exasperated mum was tired of my teenage rebellious way and thinking it’d be a punishment, she promptly called a school up (I was ecstatic, to say the least). Sadly, not even the nuns wanted to deal with a rebellious teen, since they pretty much told my mum that I was better off staying home in a “loving environment” than far from my family. Still, to this day I kinda miss not having had the boarding school experience. So now, I vicariously live that experience through books about them.

But Raxter isn’t just any ordinary boarding school. Nope. This boarding school is located on an island that pretty much has nothing else on it but the school. So total isolation. The perfect setting for a group of girls who are having to deal with being quarantined by the military after contracting a disease they call the Tox. Now, the fascinating and maybe disturbing thing about the Tox is that it’s a disease that manifests in different ways depending on the individual. So one girl has a scaled hand (which I wasn’t sure if we were to envision scales like a fish or more like a dragon), another has an eye closed shut with plants growing inside of it, and another is growing a second spine. The body horror in this novel isn’t for the faint of heart, so if you’re a little on the queasy side, just keep that in mind.

But what made this novel memorable to me wasn’t the unexplainable horror that had taken over the girls’ bodies, but rather, the resilience these girls had, and strong bonds of friendship. On several occasions, it would’ve been easier for the protagonist, Hetty to simply give up on her friends and herself and just be. But she doesn’t give up, even when things are looking rather bleak (and boy do things get bleak fast in this novel!).

I know some have made comparisons of this novel to be the feminist response to Lord of the Flies, however, the fact that both novels have an island setting is the only similarity I could find, since Wilder Girls isn’t really a novel about the students created their own sense of structure as there are still adults who supervise the girls. Wilder Girls is more a celebration of sisterhood in the face of adversity, and the lengths one would go to in the name of friendship.

It’s a wild and dangerous ride, but one that is worthwhile.

*Thank you so much to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The Raxter School for Girls has been hit by the Tox several months ago. The Tox causes mutations that are so very gross and yet fascinating. The Navy quarantines the island the school is on and keep promising a cure, but it is not forthcoming. This is a story of survival and of fiercely loyal friendships.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A wonderfully creepy, queer, feminist reimagining of Lord of the Flies full of body horror, complicated relationships, and survivalist storylines. Three best friends living in quarantine at an isolated boarding school weather the horrors of an illness known as the "Tox" that has wreaked havoc on their bodies and the landscape around them. They spend their days fighting off mutated animals, fighting each other over supplies, and trying to stay alive as their own bodies morph in strange and terrifying ways-- growing an extra spine, skin erupting in blisters, eye sealing shut and weeping blood. But when Hetty's best friend Byatt becomes one of the most recent in a string of girls to go missing, she's determined to get to the bottom of what's going on at Raxter School for Girls and what the people who claim they're searching for a cure are really doing. Even if it means going up against the women who claim to be protecting them.

Definitely not for the squeamish or faint of heart--the body horror can be quite explicit--but such a good read. Full of prickly, complicated women-- some who are loyal, some who are selfish, some who are all of the above and then some. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone looking for some good YA horror or for anyone who enjoyed Sawkill Girls (though quite different).

The premise of Wilder Girls grabbed me from the start. Set on a remote island, The Raxter School for Girls has been under quarantine for over eighteen months. The CDC is working to find a cure for the Tox, a mysterious illness that has gripped the island, turning the bodies of the girls into something out of a horror movie. The underlying cause of the Tox is unclear but one thing is certain: girls keep dying. If they do happen to survive, the girls are left with horrific physical reminders of their situation from protruding second spines to silver scales, glowing hair, and fish gills. When their best friend Byatt goes missing after a horrible flare-up, Hetty and Reese set out to find her. They soon discover that there’s even more horror lurking at Raxter than they ever thought possible.

This story started off strong for me, I was super intrigued by the premise and the boarding school setting. I’ll admit that I wasn’t prepared for the body horror descriptions, they were pretty intense so be aware of those trigger warnings. Although the plot was there, I found the execution lacking. The author doesn’t give us much insight into why this illness is happening or how it came about, we are essentially thrown into the middle of the story. A background of the Tox would have helped to connect the dots and made the storyline more cohesive. Additionally, I felt the character development lacking as well. For whatever reason, I couldn’t quite connect with any of the girls.

Overall, I gave this book three stars for the unique storyline and setting. However, I got a bit bored towards the half way mark and couldn’t quite get on board with the characters or the resolution of the story. If you’re into post apocalyptic or horror stories, this one may be for you!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.