Thanks to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for the free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wilder Girls by Rory Power follows girls quarantined at Raxter School for Girls. We follow Hetty, Byatt, and Reese as they deal with the ongoing ramifications of the Tox. The girls at Raxter are given rations by the military, and the remaining teachers and headmistress at the school help the girls get by.

This book is incredible. I loved following these characters and the twists and turns of this story, as the mystery of the Tox unfolded, as the fates of other characters were revealed. I think this is an outstanding debut novel, and I'll definitely be picking up any works by Rory Power in the future.

I like the idea of this as an all-girl Lord of the Flies, and I can see the inspiration there. I think this strays enough away from the concept of Lord of the Flies that it stands on its own.

I'm not a big horror reader, but the body horror and mystery here really intrigued me, even when it grossed me out, ha!

Loved every bit of this book. The horror and setting were amazing and had me addicted had wanting to read more at every page turn.

First... thank you NetGalley and publisher for my free copy for my honest review!

I will be honest, when I saw the cover I knew I needed to read Wilder Girls ASAP! I sent my very hopeful request and I was approved! I cant tell you how satisfied I was when I finished this book! The story follows Hetty and a group of girls stuck on an island for school, when a outbreak happens all Hell breaks loose. The story has lots of gore, blood and some more blood. The author does a awesome job of describing when things happen that make you want to wince in horror...but you continue reading because YOU HAVE TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!
We loved this book so much! Totally check it out when it is released in July!

4/5 stars only because maaaaaan that ending left me want more!!!

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I was confused for most of the book. Wasn't sure what was going on with the Tox. Aliens, warfare, experiment, etc? I was invested in Hetty and the girls and enjoyed the development of the story. Ending left me a bit wanting. Didn't really have a solid conclusion and it wasn't something I would read another book about.

This book is freaking weird. I don't know how else to describe it other than that: weird as hell. The most important thing to understand when starting this book is that it's weird, that's okay, and it might take a while for you to understand the entire world/idea of the Tox. Once you get used to it, this book is a wild ride from beginning to end, and it doesn't slow down.

This book is not for the faint of heart, it's full of <em>extremely explicit body horror</em>. Also, it was very good. I had to put it down and close my eyes to stop feeling nauseous a couple of times, but I kept picking it up again moments later because I needed to know what would happen.

Wilder Girls is set at an all-girls boarding school which has been placed under quarantine after students and teachers start dropping dead of a mysterious illness. While Hetty and her friends are waiting for the military and CDC to deliver a cure, they endure meager food rations, watch as their classmates have varying degrees of flare-ups related to "The Tox," and make sure never to go beyond the gate and into the wilderness surrounding the school. When Hetty gets selected to join the group of girls who leave the grounds to retrieve shipments of supplies from the Navy, she starts questioning what's really going on at Raxter.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book, but feel it could've been longer; the ending kind of went off the rails there.

This book was set at a boarding school where the girls and the teachers are affected out of nowhere with this virus known as Tox that causes different things to happen to their bodies. Many of the girls and teachers pass away and the school is put into quarantine. They are confined to the Raxter School of girls and are separated from the outside world. Hetty, Byatt, and Reese are a group of girls that have chosen to stick together. When Byatt is taken away from their group after another wave of Tox hits, Hetty will do anything to save her. They find that nothing is at it seems and that their life is just one big experiment that has went wrong. I loved that this book has so many genres tied into one and that it is so deliciously different from anything else I have ever read before.

Wilder Girls is an exciting survival thriller with an all-female cast and a suspenseful story line that persists until the very last page. I really enjoyed this one! I was a little hesitant at first because of all the hype, but now I see exactly why. We follow our main character Hetty and her two other friends Byatt and Reese as the Tox wreaks havoc over Raxter, an island where their school is located. There are routines and customs these girls abide by to keep themselves safe, but as new information about the Tox and their quarantine comes out of the woodwork, Byatt disappears and Hetty and Reese set out to find her, no matter the cost.

Hetty and Reese are incredibly dynamic characters, each one polar opposites of the other. But it's their wisdom and courage that helps keep them together, as well as a subtle romance kindling in the background. I found it very hard to put this down, and it presents important themes such as the strength of friendship and familial bonds, individual strength and courage, and women's strength. The only issue I found was that even though it was told in first-person, I still found it challenging to empathize with Hetty and Reese, and certain plot details lacked sufficient explanation (spoilery to discuss those elements). I also was a little disappointed with the ending--it felt abrupt and left many things unresolved and unanswered. I'm not too big of a fan of narratives that end in the middle of the climax.

The setting of Wilder Girls is lush from page one. Maybe lush isn't how you would describe it. The setting transports you to a world that's almost primordial. With overgrown forests, dangers lurking in the shadows, and a silence that feels heavy in the air. But what Wilder Girls really shows are girls who are allowed to be wild, scarred, and terrifying - monstrous. It seems the perfect setting for changes we cannot predict and that leave us soaked in blood. But it's also the perfect setting for exploring what happens when we are faced with our own mortality? What relationships will we create, honor, and sacrifice?

If I didn't have to read and review this book, I honestly wouldn't have finished it. Needless to say, "Wilder Girls" started out interesting. I thought I was going to like it especially when I liked the relationships between certain characters (more than the characters themselves). Unfortunately, "Wilder Girls" just wasn't a book for me.

I think "Wilder Girls" would've been a book I might have enjoyed if we were still in the "Maze Runner" era or the era where dystopia YA was still pretty popular. Right now, I am just not feeling it. I didn't feel like I enjoyed reading this book despite the author's beautiful writing. Now, don't get me wrong, this book was pretty awesome for a debut YA novel. However, I'd say the writing "saved" this book but the story did not.

Now that I'm a bit older, I'm more conscious about the books I'm reading. I like to think about the "where," "why," and the "how's" of what I'm reading. I like to think deep or beyond what was being portrayed/showed in the story. In "Wilder Girls," the reader does not get all the answers or the answers weren't wrapped up in a nice way. In fact, it was pretty messy to the point that I'm actually doubting these characters or whether they know or understand what was going on.

There had also been a point where some characters knew what was happening but it just made ZERO sense to me on how they arrived to that conclusion. It just didn't make sense how they would understand the science behind the Tox just by looking at diagrams and scientific information. I can't even recall a time the girls in the boarding school were actually studying. They were just hunting, trying to survive, etc. There really wasn't enough backstory or substantial backstory for me to even understand what was happening.

At the same time, I don't know what the meaning is behind this story. This book seemed to be purely plot based just to show a horror and queer story. I couldn't find anything substantial in the book besides the relationships. All I'm saying is that while I'm reading this book, I can't help but think: "what's the point?"

All in all, this was a slow and less cohesive story with a pretty cover but ultimately it just wasn't for me.

*Thank you to NetGalley, Rory Power, and Delacorte Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review*

*takes a moment to drool over cover*

Okay, sorry, with that out of the way — I’m emotionally unraveling onto my bed right now and I don’t know how to make it stop.

Holy shit. If this was YA, I certainly cannot handle Rory Power’s writing adult. Holy shit guys.

“Some days it’s fine. Others it nearly breaks me. The emptiness of the horizon, and the hunger in my body, and how will we ever survive this if we can’t survive each other? “We’re gonna make it. Tell me we’re gonna make it.””

This story is told via dual perspectives — Hetty & Byatt — who are two of the remaining girls at Raxter. In isolation for the last eighteen months, they are quarantined on an empty island while the Navy and CDC are working to obtain a cure for ‘Tox’, a mysterious disease that inhabited the island and are causing Raxter girls to drop like flies.

“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.“

Those that survive the ‘Tox’ suffer from ‘flare-ups’ that leave their bodies with horrific, physical deformities. Horrific. Second spines, third eyes, gills. Those that can’t make it through their ‘flare-ups’ get dragged away, most never seen again.

I could not figure out this book up until the last page. I was waiting for this to be post-apocalypse, dystopian… but it ended up being more disease, viral outbreak, contained testing? I could see this book develop into a series, and I demand that so we can learn more or else…

…I will riot.

Surprising twist to all of this is the subtle ROMANCE that is obviously f/f at an all-girls boarding school and hella precious. It’s simple and delicate and absolutely refreshing. *sigh*

I don’t want to give this book away because I feel like it’s an experience each reader needs to individually have. I will say that Rory Power can WRITE. wowzers. This writing style was unique and gut-wrenching and immersive and terrible and so amazing.

I would suggest checking out the content warnings that Power’s has added to her website before diving into this. And then I would immediately pre-order this book.

This novel has so many great elements, from its writing to its setting and some great characters, but it didn't work very well for me. I didn't connect enough with the characters to feel things when I should have, which could entirely be on me. I wanted something harsher, I think.

Great premise but the execution was weak. The idea that the Tox was caused by climate change is a timely topic but the revelation was slow and there were not enough clues for the reader to figure out. I enjoyed the mystery of it and the relationships between the girls but the execution needs work.

I'm glad other people have liked this book but I just could not get into it. The premise was interesting but I just found it a little too strange for my taste. I also wasn't a fan of the writing.

This book is dark, twisted, creepy, and deeply engaging. I caught my legs shaking with eager anticipation for what would happen next and I was always on the edge of my seat. I got big Maze Runner vibes from this book but it was far more satisfying and way more intriguing. A book about an all girl school with intense friendships, alliances, queer relationships, and honest portrayals of putting one's self/needs before anyone else. This has opened me up to a completely new genre of YA, Queer Horror, and I am here for it.

honestly. i did not think even a 1/4 of what was going to happen in this book. i thought it might be post-apocalyptic or dystopian... but it's not? more like a viral outbreak? testing?

but the why and how are still a bit out there. there wasn't enough number of pages to really get in there and get it all out there so i have a feeling that this will be a series because if not ...

i will riot.

so we have an all girls school for wayward girls. the only man on the island is the yard/facility caretaker who is father to one of the girls. and all the teachers and headmistress are women. honestly i'm a bit irritated that i can't remember much about the other girls because they are behind the scenes like in the background of a movie.

but we follow three girls for the most part, reese, hatty, and byett who met when they all first came to the island 30 miles off the coast of main.

honestly, this story gave me a bit of the chills and goosebumps. like it should have this book that was made into a movie instead of [book:The Maze Runner|6186357]. because it's almost like that, but darker. darker and more mysterious.

i mean ffs there is a second spine coming out the back of one of the girls for christ sake. another with gills and one with two hearts.

and i still have the creeps.

WILDER GIRLS had a lot of promise, and I think that it has some well done and powerful aspects to it. I loved the female friendships, and the queer romances that come into play as the book goes on. I also liked the mythology of The Tox, even if we didn't know much about it and why it came about. I also really enjoyed seeing how the social structure in the school has degraded as time has gone on, and how Power lays out how desperate the situation has become, and what characters will do in hopes of saving themselves. All that said, WILDER GIRLS didn't suck me in as much as I'd hoped it would. I felt that the pacing was a bit slow, and while I was interested in The Tox and how it has changed and affected the characters, I didn't feel like enough focus was on it. I usually like wider conspiracy stories, but for whatever reason WILDER GIRLS didn't hold my interests as much as I would have liked. I also didn't care for the ending, as it felt to be very clearly a way to write a sequel, but also to shut it all down should that opportunity not arise. Because of that it felt a bit abrupt, and unsatisfactory.

WILDER GIRLS didn't give me what I wanted from it, but that doesn't mean that it should be written off. There are definitely things within it that I liked. It just wasn't consistent in its appeal.

Do you ever buy a book without knowing what it’s about?

That’s kind of what I did with Wilder Girls…I didn’t read the synopsis, but I requested it on NetGalley and started reading without the faintest idea what it’s about. I just liked the cover and heard about it a few times so figured why not?

I’m really glad I decided to read this one. A horror/mystery novel but with some slight contemporary vibes, this was everything I needed in a mystery island novel.

Our main characters are three of the girls on this island; Hetty, Byatt, and Reese. I love how different these girls are but they still found each other, and despite their various ups and downs (some of them kind of extreme downs), they’re still always there for each other. The story is told from alternating POV’s of Hetty and Byatt as they both navigate their role in this strange new world.

They are however, not the smartest group. When various events lead to part of the group breaking quarantine, things go from really really bad to the absolute worst, and now survival is the only goal. The girls make a lot of really dumb decisions, not really realizing what the consequences could be, but none of the decisions were made out of hatred or wrong-doing, they just wanted to know what was going on.

I loved the various ways the virus manifests in this story. It’s not an illness in the typical sense, almost more of a mutation with illness side-effects. It gets weird and some of the girls actually have kind of cool mutations. The flare-ups sound absolutely dreadful though so I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. Some girls have simpler mutations, such as glowing hair, an extra heartbeat, some sales. But others have things like extra bones manifesting under their skin, horrible disfigurements, and then of course the girls who died from it.

And then there’s the ROMANCE. Obviously since it’s an all-girls boarding school the romance is f/f and it’s precious. Our main romance is slow and soft and the exact opposite of instalove in every possible way. I’m in love. It’s just so simple and adorable and NEW.

I really liked the way this story was told. We’re brought in over a year after the Tox started, long after the girls have an established system, flare ups, and a way of existing in this new world. We don’t learn a lot about what life was life before the Tox, and only get glimpses of what it was like at the beginning. It was a really interesting way to tell a story. I kept finding myself wanting more and more details, but only getting some of them.

I really hope in the future there is some sort of companion novel, or novella, ANYTHING, set in this world that will give me a few more answers, but overall I really enjoyed this story. It was original and kept me wanting more. I found myself so invested in these girls lives and wishing for a happily ever after for them.

Wow, just wow

I haven’t read a YA story in a while, and a dystopian one in even more. I’ve been so caught up in all the psychological thrillers which are all starting to blend together. This was next on my to be read shelf and I figured it would cleanse the palette if nothing else...

That was something else! The writing was fantastic. I could so clearly picture the characters, the setting and the action. This story is told mainly from Hetty’s perspective though there are some chapters from Byatt’s.

There is missing information throughout the story. The story opens without parceling out the background, cause, time period... It also ends in a similar fashion, very ambiguous. That is going to be the deal breaker for some but it just makes me hopeful that the tale will continue on.

I really enjoyed this and will look forward to the next by this author. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and Random House Children’s for a copy in exchange for a review.