Wilder Girls
Ratings177
Average rating3.4
(2,5) This was unsatisfying. Did not enjoy the premise of a school full of girls indulging in the worst of their individualism. Maybe that was the point and I missed it, but I feel disappointed nonetheless.
It's been a while since I was shaken up over a book.
That being said, I loved the setup of the story. You don't really know what the tox is, there's the question of a cure, and what's going on behind the scenes. But as the book progressed, it left me feeling intrigued, but none of the questions were getting answered.
And then the ending. Oh my God, the ending. I am so confused. The last line makes no sense, and I'm left with so many questions. The most important one being: what was the point?
{Spoilers}
I HATED the fact that, as much as Hetty had a resemblance to plain white bread, her only good quality was that she thought of other people. But at the end, after she goes on her spiel with the headmistress about the other girls' safety, she totally abandons them to be eaten or to be blown up. Hetty also says multiple times that her dad is in the Navy but it's never built on. When she and Reese go to the visitor's center, I expected her to call up her dad since they must've had some communication with the mainland if they were able to evacuate. The ending, as I mentioned, was very disappointing. There's no concluding statement about waiting for the bombs to arrive or at least trying to go to the mainland in Reese's boat. There's no cure for the tox and there's no reason as to why the tox even started. It's vaguely suggested that it's due to global warming, but we're never given a straight answer.
This book does a great job of creating stakes, but I feel like the questions don't get answered. The ending is very disappointing and left me confused and angry if anything.
This was not what I thought it would be at all but if I didn't enjoy the hell out of it anyway, tho.
It's actually gross, so don't read it if you're squeamish. But otherwise? Who doesn't love some good ol' wlw romance?
I liked it but ¿¿¿¿¿¿ where was the ending ? It just. Ended. But no ending . If that makes sense
What??
Wilder Girls was not what I expected.
The premise of this story is a group of girls in quarantine on Raxter. Raxter is a school for girls that contract something that makes them other. Something that makes the animals of the island other. The way that Rory Power wrote with was incredible. I have never read anything like this before, but I am so glad I finally got to it! There were parts that just about killed me. Then when Hetty and Reese sneak out... Man. I was holding my breath the whole time!
All in all this was a great book! Someones comment called it a Feminist horror story and they were dead on.
i enjoyed myself reading this,, dont get me wrong,,
but i feel like i wasted my time ://
Interesting setting and very complex way the TOX attacked and mutated its victims. I did like the relationships but felt the actual conspiracy to keep/test the girls could have been explored more.
i liked the book, but i wish the ending was more concrete. i wish we woul've gotten a reese perspective too.
I was hesitant to read this because Lord of the Flies is not a favorite, but it is not a retelling of Lord of the Flies, but like Lord of the Flies mixed with body horror sci-fi. So I enjoyed it. The ending felt incomplete, so I was expecting to see a sequel, but I didn't. So the ending was a little disappointing, but it fits. I liked the interaction between the girls. I liked seeing from Byatt and Hetty's perpective. The body horror was not too gory, so the body mutations were ineteresting and added well to the story. There some things that weren't directly answered, but you can guess what the answers are.
I guess overall I wasn't ready to leave yet. I want to see more with these girls.
2.5 Rounded to a 2
I was expecting a lot more with this one after reading the premise. It was very interesting to start, but just didn't catch my attention much. It felt rushed in some spots and slow in others. Not a very put together format or flow (for me anyway).
I'm honestly not sure if this is a series or ... the ending leads one to believe there should be more to it. I honestly can't stand when a story just abruptly cuts off and leaves me feeling unsatisfied...open-ended finishes are great when they work and make sense. This did not.
I loved the atmosphere of this book. Great descriptions of this new world created by the Tox, and lots of tension created by how these school girls were dealing with this situation.
The romance to me was okay, it was actually hard for me to picture the two girls together, as it seemed like they were always on completely different pages of thought for me.
I'm okay with the open ending I suppose but some of the stuff leading up to the ending I just didn't love. As another reviewer points out some of the character motivations were hard to understand, a little flat. This makes me wish the book was longer so we could have filled in some more back stories or details for them.
I did like this a lot however and I think it will stick on my mind.
This was not the book for me. I just didn't connect with the characters and the ending is not even close to satisfying to me.
I legit hated this. None of the worldbuilding made any sense to me. All the characters were so much the same that I could not remember their names or who was who. The main character is a horrible person with no empathy. But we are supposed to rote for her. Everything in this novel happened because people did stupid shit but it's not framed as a lesson either.
Then out of nowhere it suddenly switched perspectives, with some horrible grammar so I guess signify a slower thought process because she is sick? But it was not done very well and getting through it took so much effort. Then she is also totally incompetent and basically kills a guy because she wanted a kiss. None of the characters are likeable.
The ending was immensely anticlimactic and basically meaningless.
I kinda wanna give it 1 star but I only do that if the book included unnecessary racism, homophobia, transphobia or sexism. Tho I would also like to mention fucking everyone in this book is white. Anyway fuck this, 2 stars
(Content warnings from author here: https://itsrorypower.com/books/wilder-girls/. Hard agree on the body horror warning in particular.)
This isn't usually my thing and I'm not quite sure how to review it - I enjoyed it but I wanted more answers, and I wish the ending had been a little less abrupt. The writing was excellent and I enjoyed the slow reveal of what was going on with all the girls and the Tox (by the way, this is quite a book to read in the second year of a pandemic, though the Tox is very different than Covid-19). I tend to prefer lighter works, but this was compelling and I had to know what was going to happen.
Rating: 3.4 leaves out of 5
Characters: 2.5/5
Cover: 5/5
Story: 3/5
Writing: 3/5
Genre: SciFi/Dystopian Fiction
Type: Audiobook
Worth?: Kinda
Another book I found on Tiktok. I will admit that the cover had a major play in me reading this book. I have been putting off YA novels for a reason but I decided to give it a go.
Is it a horror? Not really but the description of the Tox is disgusting. I love horror, not gore. The mystery around the virus is what kind of kept me going for most of it though the characters played a good part in it too.
HETTY 5/10
I never know who she likes. The book makes her all out for Byatt but then somehow she is supposedly in love with Reese? She literally makes no sense. The only thing that makes her bearable is her determination. Hetty rushes into things and doesn't think of who she is hurting behind her.
BYATT 8/10
I don't know much about her besides that she lies a lot. She seems to be caring towards the girls. Hetty makes it seem like she is super soft and caring whereas Reese says she is someone totally different with her. I was really confused if she liked Hetty as a friend of more. Though it seemed to be a big theme in this book. During her time with the scientist I kinda liked her more except for what she did to that poor guy.
REESE 7.9/10
She is as stubborn as a mule, dumb in her anger, and maybe almost the most likeable character. Byatt one by a hair. If only Reese hadn't fallen for Hetty. It just didn't make sense. Especially with how she started beating one Hetty for getting a spot she wanted though Hetty hadn't wanted it.
I really wish we got all three girls' side of the story. It was really dumb to just do two. I felt like a good chunk of the book was missing. I really loved Byatt's story. It gave us so much more answer but sadly also that much more questions.
What I really hated was the lameness of what was causing the virus and the ending. The girls all come together and leave the island after most of them died from the virus or the killer bear. We don't know if they made it on shore or what happened after that. The author was VERY lazy with the ending and I almost rated the book a 2 because of it.
I really wanted to like Wilder Girls but personally, I just could not connect with the characters. From the beginning, I did not feel like I was introduced to the world well. It felt like I was just dropped in without any context. I did not feel a connection to any of the characters mainly because I felt like they had no voice in the writing. I felt no personality. Teenagers are full of feelings and I feel like this situation would make them angry yet I got nothing from them to indicate that. The love interests felt force. I think the book would have been fine without them since we felt no connection to that love either. The ending was a disappointment as well... I feel like the entire book was just a lead up to the last 2 chapters where you learn the purpose of the disease and then that is it.
OH MY GOD!!! This was absolutely FANTASTIC!!! The character were absolutely WONDERFUL the the premise was both interesting and Terrifying!!! The writit style was really different and a little odd, but it was so well done that it was easy to read!!! I HIGHLY recommend this if you like horror and survival stories!!! It was kind of like girl-version of lord of the flies but they get the Weirdest plague I have Ever heard of!!! This was DEFINITELY a fantastic book to read for my last-book-of-the-year!!!
Just read this book. It will have you guessing what's going to happen next. It had me glued from the beginning and I couldn't put it down!