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.

Let me say the cover is beautiful and that’s what initially drew me to this book. Now, the story I had a hard time getting into. I think it’s the writing style. It felt like it was informal like there was a block on connecting with the characters — a lot of telling. So there was no way for me to involve myself.

I got to 30% and decided to throw in the towel. Even though I couldn’t get through it. I do believe that there are people who will love it. I feel though it wasn’t for me.

Two Boundless Stars

Holy crap… This book was intense!

I’ve been excited yet leery from the moment I heard about this book. Lord of the Flies was one of my favorite classics and hearing that this is a modern, feminist, queer “version,” I was intrigued. And this did not disappoint!!

Wilder Girls takes place 18 months after an unknown Tox has infected all the inhabitants of Raxer Island, an isolated island off the coast of Maine with an all-girls school as sole inhabitants. The Tox transforms the girls, giving some scales and others growths of bone, although not everyone has survived. There are only two surviving adults, Headmistress and Ms Welch, but the Tox never affected them the same as it did the girls. Hetty, Byatt, and Reese are best friends who support one another and are trying to survive against the threats of their body, starvation, and the unknown changes that have taken over the plants and animals to Raxter Island. Everything starts to change when Hetty gets a new role at Raxter and events begin to spiral.

This book was hard to put down, the story fascinating and horrifying in equal measure. I can definitely see how Lord of the Flies influenced this story and like the way the themes of isolation, terror, and survival were executed. The girls were complex and reading this broke my heart at many points, but I couldn’t put it down and I’m sure it’ll be on my mind for a while to come.

One of the elements I really loved was the friendship between Hetty, Byatt, and Reese. They were all messed up in different ways and kept different parts of themselves separate, but their care for one another was obvious. One of my favorite scenes was the kiss between Hetty and Reese was honestly so soft. They’re fighting for survival and in this dark, scary situation, but realizing the other likes you back was such a sweet scene to witness. Things aren’t easy for them and the ending is ambiguous, but I have hope that they find a way to be together given how much they care about one another.

Overall, this book was honestly so good. I had trouble putting it down and liked the way the Tox was portrayed. This is definitely a dark, creepy story so I highly recommend checking content warnings (also on author’s website: https://itsrorypower.com/wilder-girls/) but I found the story worth it. The ending is very ambiguous but hopeful, much like I remember the ending of Lord of the Flies being, but also heartbreaking because so much has had to go wrong to reach that point.

Actual rating: 4.5/5
Rep: queer MC, queer LI, some secondary characters of color

[Review will be posted on Reader Voracious Blog on June 30, 2019.]

"The Tox didn't just happen to us. It happened to everything."

Friends, I really wanted to enjoy this book more than I did and no one is more disappointed than I am. While I absolutely loved the world-building that Power crafts in her debut novel, unfortunately, I struggled to connect with any of the characters and found it difficult for me to suspend disbelief - but not for the reasons you'd think.

"Wonder what she'll get, if it's anything at all. Gills like Mona, blisters like Cat's, maybe bones like Byatt's or a hand like Reese's, but sometimes the Tox doesn't give you anything - just takes and takes. Leaves you drained and withering."

Her prose is captivating and gruesome, as harsh as life has become on Raxter Island. The writing and story seem well suited for the screen, and I think I would enjoy this as a movie a lot more. Power has a vivid imagination that she is able to translate well onto the page, but there is something about the narrative flow that doesn't work for me as a novel. It is almost as if the narrative relies heavily on foreshadowing, only it is so overt that you notice something isn't right long before the characters uncover anything. This may be fun for some readers, but it annoyed me to no end.

I found myself having an intensely difficult time believing the circumstances of life for the Raxter girls following the Tox, to the point that it prohibited me from ever fully being swept away by the narrative. I hesitate to point out specifics because I do not want to spoil the reading experience, but I couldn't stop myself from asking logical questions like How are they fighting over blankets and jackets when earlier in the text it is stated that the US Navy continues to send food & clothes for the full number of girls originally on the island (even though their numbers have dwindled)? and Why are there not enough rooms when a lot of girls have died? I am not sure if some of these things are continuity errors or not, but much of what made me frustrated and roll my eyes wound up being part of the plot... which honestly wasn't a satisfying revelation for me because it was so overtly off earlier.

"We don't get to choose what hurts us."

I never felt connected to any of the three main characters. They felt one-dimensional and paper-thin to me. The one I felt most believable was Reese with her hardened emotions and propensity for protecting herself from emotional pain. But when you don't really connect with or care for any of the characters, it is difficult for you to root for their struggle in an action-packed and dangerous plot. I was more interested in the Tox itself than what was going on with the characters in the book.

The most compelling part of the story for me is omitted from the narrative. I understand that this is in large part because we learn about the disease through Hetty, and there is a lot that she doesn't understand or uncover. But for me as a reader, the ending felt anticlimactic and reasonably there could have been another 100 pages added to the end to expand her understanding a little bit and provide some closure for the reader.

Wilder Girls is definitely a plot-driven novel, and I kept reading because Power crafted a horrifically compelling micro-dystopian world and I wanted to see how it ended. How it began. Any sort of explanation, really. But the ending felt abrupt and unsatisfying to me. Then again, I am one of the few people that didn't enjoy this book so please do take my experience with a grain of salt!

I do want to mention that while this book is sapphic, I would hesitate to call it a romance. I think some hype and early reviews may mislead some readers into thinking this book is more centered on a f/f romance that hardly exists, and I do not want people to be disappointed.

Unfortunately, Wilder Girls was not the book for me. Being a close reader who needs things to make logical sense, I had a difficult time suspending disbelief for the dystopian circumstances on the island and it really hampered my reading experience. I know that this is an artistic choice as the book centers around Hetty's struggle for autonomy, and through that struggle, she learns that the world isn't what she was led to believe. This is an important story, but unfortunately for me, the execution fell flat because I couldn't relate to the characters.

This book is about an all-girl boarding school on an island just off the coast. Two years ago, the island developed a "Tox", some sort of disease that made everything on the island, including the girls, grow wild and deformed. The girls have since been cut off from the mainland and held to a strict quarantine to prevent the spread of the disease. The Tox affects each girl differently, some girls growing extra body parts, some with changing body parts, and some that can't handle it and die.

When Hetty's best friend Byatt succumbs to a flare-up of the Tox and is taken to the infirmary, Hetty doesn't initially suspect anything. But it soon becomes apparent that Byatt is no longer in the school and the two remaining teachers are acting strangely. Hetty convinces her other friend and love interest, Reese, to help her look for Byatt and rescue her.

When I first started reading, this book was really depressing. These kids had been cut off some civilization and essentially left to their own devices, come what may. They received food every week from the mainland, but not enough to survive on. Things go from bad to worse in each chapter, the suspense building quickly as the story unfolds.

It reminded me of Aurora Rising in a lot of ways, and if you've read that book, you'll know which similarities I'm talking about.

I liked Wilder Girls, but I'll admit that the graphic violence in it left me cringing. I can handle quite a bit, but this was too much for me in a few places. There's almost no romance in the story--just a couple of kisses that don't go into any detail and don't progress to anything else.

If you like weird stories, science-fiction, conspiracies, bizarre diseases, and can handle the violence, I say give it a try. It's well written and you might love it.

Content: Graphic violence, some language (a couple of f-bombs), and kissing (female/female and male/female). Movie rating would be R for violence.

**For a full list of content and trigger warnings, visit the author's website. She has everything listed.

I loved this book so much! The writing is amazing, the story is gripping and I need more! The open ending was so good but also so evil because I really need more. I need to know how this all ends and WHAT HAPPENED. I really hope there's another book because there were so many unanswered questions! Just, wow this, was amazing. One of my top favorite books of the year!

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. The first thing that drew me into this story was the cover. After reading the synopsis of the story I was very intrigued however, the story was just very confusing and hard to follow. Maybe this is one I will pick back up down the road and give another try but I found this book a little disappointing.

4.5 ⭐’s

“Because I think I’d been looking for it all my life - a storm in my body to match the one in my head.”

I don’t think I’ve ever been so disturbed by or in awe of a book. It sounds crazy, but that’s pretty much how I felt the entire time I was reading. This book is something special. I have never read anything like this, and I doubt I ever will. This book is dark, twisted, gory, and beautiful.

“A knife in my belt, and the shotgun in my hands. A year and a half of empty sky, of not enough medicine, of bodies burning behind the school. We have to help ourselves.”

The premise of this book hooked me immediately. When I got approved for an ARC on Netgalley, I was thrilled to tear into this book ASAP. I heard so many good things and went into this book with a lot of high expectations, and let me just say: Wilder Girls is as amazing as everyone says it is. There were times I gasped so loudly people were concerned about me, there were times I cried (and, again, people were concerned about me), yet there were also some beautiful moments that show the beauty of female friendship and love.

“I don’t need the truth anymore. I just want to live.”

Wilder Girls makes you question everything you think you know. Good, bad, otherwise, and in-between. It makes you realize people are complex and you may never really know someone and their true motives. People are more complex than we often give them credit for.

Another thing I really appreciated about this book was its representation of LGBTQ+ characters. So many of the girls on the island are not straight, but it is not a defining characteristic. This is not a romance novel or a book about being LGBTQ+. This is a horror book with lots of LGBTQ+ characters. Dropped in all throughout the novel are sentences about girlfriends, about queerness, about having crushes on girls and boys. Now, the small romance that takes place within the novel barely is even a romance, but it’s there. I wish it could have been fleshed out some more, but I also realize that this was not the novel for that.

Now, almost the entire reason this is not a 5-star rating is because of the ending. It doesn’t feel finished to me, and parts just felt unrealistic (I say about a book where girls grow second spines and have gills, but my point still stands). [BEGINNING OF SPOILER]⚠️⚠️⚠️ Byatt coming back to life felt wrong. It sounds terrible, but I wish she had stayed dead. It didn’t really feel like it stayed on theme with the general heartbreak and darkness of the book. I also have so many questions as to how she is still alive, what happened to her, etc., and none of them really get answered. ⚠️⚠️⚠️[END OF SPOILER] There are too many loose ends, too many questions unanswered. I hope there will be a sequel because I don’t feel any sense of closure by that ending.

Another thing: I totally recommend listening to the author’s Spotify playlist while reading, because this book has a very specific aesthetic, mood, and theme and the playlist perfectly encapsulates that.

In sum: Please read this book. Please buy this book. Please love this book the way it deserves to be loved.

Please check out the link below for trigger and content warnings from the author:
https://itsrorypower.com/wilder-girls/

This was such a pleasant surprise. Certainly one of the most beautiful YA books I have ever read. I loved all of the girls, and really, honestly, just no words. The environment was like a character unto itself. This was almost zombies (and I love me some zombies) but clearer, more earthly, and quieter. Just gorgeous.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Received an arc from Net Galley for an honest review.
Expected Release: July 9th 2019

This book had so much potential. I heard it was supposedly a Lord of the Flies retelling and when I read that sophomore year of high school I loved it, but I didn't think that this book even came close to that one.

**This link will provide the list of Trigger Warnings as mentioned by the author
https://itsrorypower.com/wilder-girls/ **

Summary
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.

The synopsis and cover really had me intrigued about what this book would end up being. The cover is absolutely gorgeous, but I'm not sure the story quite lives up to it. Don't get me wrong, I did like the story because it was unique to most of the things I've read recently, but when it comes to being labeled as a Lord of the Flies retelling, I expected more. I understand that in a way it was a retelling but my expectations might have been set too high by the original.

I found this book grasping my full attention because I desperately wanted to know what was going to happen and what the Tox was. And I was disappointed with the end result. However, the hype leading up to it was gripping; The flare ups and when Byatt goes missing, ooh I was intrigued. Something I didn't fully expect but enjoyed was the alternating perspectives once Byatt went missing because we weren't completely in the dark even though Hetty was. The one thing I did find similar to Lord of the Flies was the increasing amount of subtle chaos as the story progressed.

I also enjoyed the friendships throughout this story. Not just the main characters but the detail in mentioning that the other girls had groups and that nobody was really alone. I don't know why but that provided me with some comfort. When it came to the main characters, I really did enjoy their friendship and how we learned pieces about how it came to be and tiny bits about each girls background. I do think the part where things almost(?) turned romantic was kind of strange. It didn't really fit for me compared to the rest of the story. I do enjoy the LGBTQ+ rep but I think in this books case, the hint of romance only made me more confused for the rest of the book. I kept wondering if they were even still romantic or if they just let that one encounter go and moved forward as friends? Maybe that was something I missed somewhere in the story but still.

Next is the end result. There were a lot of turns and they all seemed really fast and there with some with little explanation. Starting from the last boat shift is when everything truly went downhill and fast. But the one thing that really bothered me was the research people giving up. There wasn't really an explanation for them giving up on a cure for the Tox other than someone breaking quarantine. Is that really enough to give up on all the research already done? It just doesn't make sense how that one little part will make you throw away everything you've already done. It also could've been because of Teddy, but that was his own fault in my opinion. Then all the sudden Reese and Hetty escape and leave everyone else behind to be bombed essentially? This whole part happened so fast to me it was hard to keep up. Then all of the sudden they are on the island where Byatt is and they find the place and then her but she's dead and they have to hurry her back to the boat before they also get bombed. Like it was all so fast. Then it ended with them on the boat with no resolve. It left me wanting a lot more than I got. But just because I wasn't fully satisfied with this book doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it or think it was decent.

In terms of writing, this probably earns a higher rating. It's conceptually well-done, powerfully written, and tautly plotted, with the intensity ratcheting up and keeping those pages turning as mysteries are solved and yet more emerge. However, I felt that the characters and their relationships didn't have the substance I would have liked. Hetty especially felt like just the conduit through which the story was being told rather than an independent character. The book seemed to have a hard time clearly and fully balancing fleshed out relationships with Byatt and Reese with the Tox plotline. Finally, the ending didn't feel as satisfying as I would have liked - it left me wondering if a sequel is planned.

3.5 Stars

Completely disturbing, bordering (for me) on horror. A group of adolescent girls and two teachers are stuck on an island where they are infected with the Tox, something that causes deformities in the form of abnormal things. The writing is great but the subject matter was not for me as I have a queasy stomach when it comes to gross things. Still a higher rating b/c if this had been my type of novel, I would have loved it.

I received an advanced copy through Netgalley in return for an honest review.

So many keywords drew me in when I saw what this book was about. Boarding School, Virus, and Quarantine. It was such a eerie setting with this remote boarding school up north, which the government has quarantined. What I loved most was the uniqueness of the virus and how it affects each girl differently. I thought I was going to like it more though. It took me about 70% of the book to become really into it and I actually was going to DNF it at that point but I decided to read one more chapter and that’s when the pacing and the plot picked up and then I had to read it to the end to see what happens. It switches between two of the girls perspective (Hetty and Byatt) and I was more interested in Byatt’s side and wasn’t really interested in Hetty. It does end on a cliffhanger which makes it seem like it is the first in a series (or I would hope so).

A creepy page-turner set at an isolated Maine boarding school under quarantine, this book is quite effective at building a sense of dread. The characters are sympathetic and sometimes opaque, adding to the claustrophobic atmosphere. The relationships between Hetty, Byatt, and Reese -- the three main characters -- were a high point. The ick factor of the "Tox," as the illness is known, is also high but actually becomes somewhat normalized as the book goes on (and is never all that gross for those of us who've read enough horror novels).

The plot, although it's the weakest part of the book, was still strong enough to carry the girls towards an inevitable understanding of the Tox, and of themselves. The last few chapters brought the whole book down a little, as the author attempted to wrap things up neatly and give some definitive answers to questions that would have been better left alone.

I really wanted to love this book - I hear so many good things about it! But for some reason it just did not stick with me. I suspect it's because the beginning just didn't grab me like I wanted for it to..

I really wanted to love this one and I'm disappointed that I hated this one. I wish I got the feminist message that a lot of people have received from this book. I couldn't connect to the characters or anything else about this novel. We're placed right into the action for this novel, it didn't work at all. I feel like I was dropped into this very confusing world without being able to form a connection with anyone or anything. I couldn't connect to any of the girls in this story. It was super narrative heavy which I think is another obstacle in the way of getting to know the characters. It needs a whole host of trigger warnings and I don't even know where to begin to list them. Opening this book, I feel like I ran head first into a brick wall and I couldn't ever get my bearings straight. It wasn't a great start to the novel and nothing got better.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Delacorte Press through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.*