This was a really beautiful story of finding your power as a woman. I loved the concept of being in the wilderness and how that helped them find their power. The detailed writing made for a quick read; I couldn’t put it down because I was immersed.

The bildunsroman will always be my favorite genre. Especially when it focuses on young women creating and finding their own happiness. Being my favorite genre, this book fit right in. Main character with a mysterious troubled past moves to start fresh in a new town only to discover a pack of girls. These girls are strong and feral - and unaware that they were probably kidnapped and raised in the wild.

This is the story of their transition back to civilization and to finding their pack. Sprinkled in with a little bit of magic. Loved it.

<i>”There is room for the unknown, the undefined. There is room for magic, and wildness. There is room for so much more than any of us had ever dared to imagine. And how beautiful this world must be, to contain so many possibilities.”</i>

Thank you to Zando projects and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

The Wilderness of Girls has an exciting premise: Four young women are found in the woods, guarded by a wolf. They have been raised in the forest by a man named Mother and claim that they are princesses from another land. When they find their lost fifth sister, they can return to their homeland. The publisher describes the book as, "a gripping exploration of how the world teaches young girls to cage their wildness—and what happens when they claw themselves free." It sounded right up my alley! Unfortunately, this one was just okay in my opinion. I understand this has a touch of fantasy, but it was too far-fetched for me. I enjoyed learning about the main character's backstory quite a bit. It was mostly the parts about the Wilderness Girls that I didn't connect to. It was almost like there were 2 different storylines that may have been better off each having their own novels.

Thanks to Zando Young Readers and NetGalley for a review copy of The Wilderness of Girls.

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

This book was powerful and so moving. I really enjoyed the journey these young women went on to discover themselves and how to adapt to society. The way that magic was incorporated was really well done as it felt like the magic could have been real and yet there was a question in my mind as to if that magic was real. The terror I felt for the wild girls was crazy and I really enjoyed their characters and how they learned to survive and to go on with all that they had endured. This was a great book and left me breathless.

This book is about, Rhi, a teen who finds 4 girls in the woods who were being guarded by wolves after the death of their caretaker, Mother. The girls believe Rhi is their missing 5th sister they need to find before they can return to their magical kingdom.
Rhi stays friends with the girls even after they are placed in different foster homes. Each begins to question what is real: what Mother always told them or this world they are in now. We also learn about the trauma and abuse in Rhi’s past.
This book reminded me a lot of the Netflix show The OA - some definite parallels. It took me a while to get into the book, however, things picked up for me after the girls were placed in their foster homes. I enjoyed the author’s style, but just couldn’t get into the plot.

Thank you to NetGalley and Zando for the eARC.

I ate this YA book up. I loved the world building, I loved the characters, the mystery, the entire thing was just so good to me.

I really enjoyed this book! I have enjoyed all of this author’s books. I would love to see this book adapted to film and would love to read more but it’s like this one.

Big love for this book, even though it overdoes some things as I find a lot of YA novels do. The themes and realities hit though, and I am surprised this is a debut. Very good.

Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review

Living with her uncle and a troubled past, Rhi finds four feral girls living in the woods, guarded by wolves. She befriends them and gains their trust, learning about how they are princesses from another realm, raised by a prophet called Mother. They are convinced she is their fifth sister.

She leads them back to civilization, where one is reunited with her “real” family and the others are taken to a group home. Rhi doesn’t really believe that they are magic princesses, but she does feel close to them. When she witnesses something she can’t explain, Rhi isn’t sure what to believe, but she’ll have to make a decision as the hunt for the truth intensifies and she’s forced to face her own past.

I got really into this story. I love stories that are a world within a world, or worlds that exist alongside or outside of our world. I love an unreliable narrator situation/questioning whether what we as readers are told. Plus, lore and magic is my jam, so this book had me on several levels. There’s some difficult subject matter in this book, but it feels authentic, and I love the bonds that the girls build and the relationship they form with Rhi, who needs them as much as they need her.

4.5 stars, rounded down (only because I think it could still benefit from a final round of editing to correct grammar/spelling and a few inconsistencies).

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect going into this book since the synopsis left me with a lot of questions, and a quick flip-through had me questioning my desire to commit to a book with characters with names like Oblivienne and Epiphanie. But, OH MY, how I was wrong.

It has been a long time since I have felt so emotionally invested in a set of characters, and The Wilderness of Girls ripped my heart out and then brilliantly put it [mostly] back together. I just finished reading this, and I'm currently sitting in a deep puddle filled with ALL the emotions.

Be sure to read the trigger warnings, because those issues, as well as the overarching theme of major trauma, are central to the plot.

This was a fantastic debut, and I can't wait to see what Madeline Franklin writes next!

The Wilderness of Girls by Madeline Claire Franklin is her debut novel and it’s so good!! This book YA but make sure you check your trigger warnings before you get started.

Rhi's has had a rough life, her mother has passed, her father gets arrested and her awful stepmom vanished not too long after her father’s arrest. She is happy to learn that she is being sent to live with her uncle Jimmy, who soon becomes her guardian.

While working at her new job at Happy Valley Wildlife Preserve she finds four feral girls who were raised in the wild with wolves and by their “Mother.” The feral girls are scared but are told by the wolves that they can trust Rhi and have a feeling she is their missing sister. Overnight the girls are thrust into the spotlight while adjusting to a new world they no longer know. Rhi becomes their source of guidance and a safe space while navigating all these new changes.

Madeline wrote such a heartbreaking yet beautiful story. This world she created is fascinating, heartbreaking, captivating, and intriguing. This is a page turning story with an edge of darkness, realism, trauma, grief, with a hint of a fairytale that will tug at your heart string or just break it. These girls including Rhi always had to keep up the appearance of being strong to not let on how scared they were feeling inside. Thank you to NetGalley and Zando Young Readers for letting me read this ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts and opinions. I want to add that Rebecca Soler did an amazing job narrating this book. I was very impressed and hope I get to hear her narrate again.

There is so much wrapped up in The Wilderness Girls by Madeline Claire Franklin that I don't even know where to start.

First of the all, the main character, Rhi, is a teenager that I wanted to wrap my arms around each day of her story. Then she comes across four feral teenage girls in the middle of the woods. I mean, who DOESN'T want to read that story? Admittedly, I think about it each time I am walking through a forested area now. What would I do if I came across these girls? When they bring the four girls into society, it reminded me of Crocodile Dundee. The girls believe they are part of some magical world, but society thinks they were part of a sinister kidnapping. I kept hoping for the magic part to be true.

I also loved the character of Rhi's uncle, who takes her in under his wing. For some reason, I pictured him like John Stamos in Full House. He was so loving toward Rhi, and I like how their relationship developed.

The four teenage girls are also well-developed characters in their own right. Franklin does a wonderful job of building up each of their personalities and challenges, while showing what's it's like to live in foster homes.

Although this is listed as a YA book, I think it's more of an adult book because of the issues involved in the story. I wouldn't share this with my middle school students. There are strong content warnings for this book listed on Goodreads. Don't let the YA genre stop you from reading it, though.

I first gave this book four stars. But I can't get it off my mind, so I switched it to five stars. It's a great clash of fantasy meets real world, and it's beautifully written.

Thank you to NetGalley, Zando Young Readers, and Madeline Claire Franklin for my free copy of this book. This is based on my honest review.

Super interesting and super heartbreaking. This is gonna do some damage (good damage, probably) to some teenagers

It took me an embarrassingly long time, even given the not so subtle clue of the name situation, to realize this was at least somewhat allegorical. That said, even my overheated little brain recognized it as lyrical, occasionally touching, and quietly inspiring in a way I can't quite put my finger on.

An absolutely incredible experience - carve out a large chunk of time because you won't be able to put this down. There's an incredible pull between the sisters, a tie that binds them - are they princesses stepped out of the pages of folklore, victims of trafficking/kidnapping, crazy, or right? Perhaps the girls see the world as we've always been meant to see - what an incredible read - highly, highly recommend.

The format of this book made it so weird on my Kindle that I had a really hard time reading it. But I loved the writing style.

I'm sort of smitten with this novel. The story is captivating, the character development is amazing, and the plot is compelling. I loved Rhi and her finding the Wild Girls of Happy Valley. All of them were amazing. The complexity of the story was very intriguing and I appreciated how each one of them grew and built themselves up as individuals.

There are some tough parts in this book, but I think that it's all paid off by the end. Several times I caught myself tearing up with the story and the development of the characters. The balance between magic realism and realism is pretty awesome and I found myself pulling for the former all the way through.

I can't recommend this book any more than to say, if you are looking for a novel that will have you riveted to the end this is the one. Many may find it daunting, but I loved it. There are many different ways of the story being told through narrative and text messages and television shows and whatnot it keeps you on your toes. This is the one, my people. This is my book of the year right now (June 2024).

I had a really hard time finishing this book. The first 50% or so was good and engaging. But the struggle really started in the second half. I think the premise is good. But I didn't love the execution. The underlying message about girls and their treatment and expectations in society was good. I just may not have been the target audience.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I am so sad to say that I could not finish this due to my own annoying pet peeves.
I really love the set up, the feral girls, the wolves! And as a foster kid myself, I was looking forward to being deeply touched by this story. I'm sure at some point I will finish it [I have purchased a copy and it's sitting on my coffee table lol].
But I have the hardest time reading in present tense, which yes I know is an obnoxious pet peeve. Because the pacing in just the first chunk of this book is lightening speed, I feel like it would have made much more sense for this to be in past tense [again, just for my preferences which are absolutely not in the majority so I understand!]. To me, it felt as if the author couldn't wait to get the character to her new town to witness these majestic girls [swoon], and so info dumped/present tense skipped through the events that would get her there. Which just doesn't make sense in present tense because time is very much literal in those scenerios. I just couldn't take the pacing seriously, and it really irritated me [I hate writing that, I'M SORRY!]
The word choices and quotes were absolutely piercing me through the heart though. So because of that and the themes/topics that I was so excited for, I'm going to return at some point, but not now. I'm going to give it a three rating because of how much I connected with just the synopsis [that's powerful lol]! And because I know this is definitely a me issue.

When I read the description for The Wilderness of Girls, I knew immediately that this book was going to be excellent. I loved the story. It was well written and the characters were captivating. The book was a little darker than I originally expected, but it works with the story's message.