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?

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.

Thank you to NetGalley, Rory Power, and Random House Children's for the opportunity to read Wilder Girls in exchange for an honest review.

This book is told from the perspectives of Hetty and Byatt, two girls attending Raxter School for Girls,  along with their friend Reese.

The school and everyone on the island are quarantined because of a phenomenon they call the "Tox." Unsure of what this strange epidemic is, the girls at Raxter all know one thing: it mutilates and kills. Each girl is affected by the Tox in a different way. Perhaps growing an extra eyelid, or a second spine, or even another heart! While the appearance of these extra body parts might be painful in themselves, it's the flare-ups that really bring the girls to worry, never knowing if they will make it through the fevers. But still, they wait for a cure.

Hetty, Byatt, and Reese are as close as friends can be when there aren't many alternatives on a quarantined island. Each girl has her part to play, including Boat Shift, where the girls bring in newly delivered food and supplies, or Gun Shift, where girls are trained to shoot and kill anything that comes through the gate, for they aren't the only ones on the island affected by the Tox. The animals have mutated in frightening ways as well.

Hetty starts as Gun Shift but is later promoted to Boat Shift, which makes her friend Reese furious; she wanted the job herself. One of the better perks, being first to see what comes in, having prime selection from supplies before anyone else.

Their worries soon dissolve when Byatt, sick from a flare-up, goes missing. Hetty refuses to have her best friend, someone she even considers a sister, taken away from her. While Reese and Hetty work together to find Byatt, they also act on their own buried feelings for each other. While the LGBTQ aspect of this book is a bit short, it is there, and it's something that can be built upon later in the series.

Meanwhile, Byatt is being experimented on. Are they actually seeking a cure, or is there more to the experimentation?

When the school is compromised for a number of reasons, it's up to Hetty and Reese to find their friend and escape the island, no matter the cost.

This was a pleasurable read with its tinge of horror. The horrific descriptions are phenomenal in their detail, and the concept of the Tox and what it does to something alive (human, plant, or animal) is rather intriguing. I would recommend for the older side of the YA age group, or any fan of strange horrors and mysterious happenings.

Overall, an enjoyable book with exciting potential in a sequel.

Wilder Girls is set on in an all girl’s school on an island in Maine. Already cut off from the mainland, they are further isolated as the Navy and the CDC remove their ability to communicate with the outside world.
The unknown illness, or “the Tox” as they call it comes in waves, killing most of the teachers and several of the girls. Those that survive are forever changed in strange and obvious way, some growing claws, extra spines, a 2nd heartbeat, blindness and more.

And then they noticed that it began to do the same to the wildlife.

The story is focused on the relationship of three best friends that have survived. When one is taken to the infirmary during one of her spells, the girls discover that things are not what they appear to be. The remaining duo decide to find out more and get their friend back, no matter the cost.

The cover artwork was amazingly done and attracted my attention on several occasions before I read the synopsis.

My only regret is that there was not enough back story. The reader is thrown into the story during a changing of the guard with little information. I feel that had the history of the Tox been explained, the book would have been a little more cohesive.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book is weird, gross, intense, and horrifying... and I LOVED IT. I think this will shock and delight readers, as it did me. Fans of Annihilation should particularly love it.

Wilder Girls is set at a girls' boarding school on a remote island off the coast of Maine, that has been hit with the Tox, which ravages the girls' bodies and changes them. The mutations are fascinating/at times gross (one girl's eye is swollen shut, something moving behind it, another girl develops a second spine, a third has a silver, scaled, pointed arm/hand), and they kill some girls, leaving others to fight for limited food and resources. They're quarantined by the Navy, and everything on the island is trying to kill them--animals turned vicious and grown out of control/rotting from the inside out. Of course, whatever's changing them might kill them first--many girls don't survive their flare ups. Will the Navy finally find a cure before it's too late?

I mean, it's creepy AF. The girls are ruthless, and there's lots of blood, gore, death. There are conspiracies and secrets. It's super queer, and effortlessly so. And like, SO GROSS. Lots of body horror. I was both horrified and deeply impressed. It reminded me of Annihilation in that sense--I was fascinated by all the bonkers sci-fi body bending and melding of animal & human... if it had been a movie I probably would have closed my eyes during some of the pure body horror scenes, but reading it, I just read super fast, gasping all the way ha. If you're squeamish, there are a few passages (at least three) where it just gets REAL GROSS. Of course, horror readers (and sci-fi horror readers) will LOVE IT.

There were some fun twists, as ultimately it is a suspense thriller. Once I hit the mid-point, I had trouble putting it down! Up until that point, reading Wilder Girls was like a warm bath--I wanted to just swim in the gorgeous prose/haunting imagery as I got to know the girls. And I shouldn't give that short shrift: the prose is hauntingly beautiful. It's a stylistic choice some YA readers may not like, but I devoured. It had a literary bend without being too pretentious. I wanted to drink down some of the sentences. I can really see this sparking with adult sci-fi horror readers, and being a crossover favorite.

Also THAT COVER.

This story was absolutely captivating. Rory did a fantastic job of creating such a horrifying story of these girls, and their teachers stuck in quarantine on their school island. No knowledge of what is eating at them. Everyone is just trying to survive, and it is barely. This mysterious toxic has infected everyone on the island, and it does horrifying things to the people it touches.
This rag tag trio of girls, Hetty, Byatt, and Reese have this different dynamic. What they go through shapes them into these harder beings. I love that they have this fierceness about them. It was also so disturbing because you could absolutely see something like this unfold in reality.
TRIGGER WARNING: It is very graphic, and gory. There is a full list of all the possible triggers on the author's website.

I honestly tired so hard to finish this book, but I could not force myself to read another chapter. The premise sounded intriguing: a girls school quarantined on an island in Maine after a deadly virus. When her best friend goes missing, Hetty must risk breaking quarantine to find her. Other readers described the transformations caused by The Tox as horrifying and compared the story to Lord of the Flies. However, I found it all just too strange. The disease didn't make any sense. The girls weren't on their own a la Lord of the Flies, but organized by adults. Add in a poorly done teenage romantic plot (albeit between two girls), and I had to give up. If you love YA horror, maybe you'll love it like all the other reviews I've read. Else I suggest skipping this one.

I was completely drawn in and held fast by this book. How do you take Annihilation and make it better? By making it YA, gay AF, and almost entirely female on both the "goodie" and "baddie" sides. It was brutal, but the writing holds you through out every dizzying, brutal, disoriented moment.

There were parts I wish were further explored, characters I wish I better understood, but overall, I loved the Wilder Girls. I'd recommend this to anyone who likes feminist horror in the veing of Sawkill Girls.

"See how a body will change, to give you the best chance it can."

I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at Delacorte Press. Trigger warnings: death, body horror, bug horror, violence, severe injury, severe illness, blood, bruises, hospitals, needles, poison, starvation, animal death.

It's been nearly two years since the Tox hit Raxter School for Girls, remaking their little island into its own image. Most of the adults and some of the girls died, but the ones who lived are different. Just as the woods are wilder and overgrown, the girls, too, have been ravaged by nature. Some of them grow scales or spines down their backs; some of them bloom with constant bruises or drip blood from wounds that never close. While they wait for a promised cure, they receive food from the nearby Navy base, but it's never enough. The girls are forced to fight for everything they have, as monstrous inside as they are on the outside. When Hetty's best friend, Byatt, goes missing, Hetty will risk anything to get her back, even breaking the long-held quarantine and discovering the secrets buried deep within Raxter.

This book has a wonderful, eerie concept, and in that respect, it's an unequivocal success. Power captures the spooky, overgrown wildness of the island and its inhabitants with graceful ease. The island is practically a character of its own and, if it is, so is the Tox that's turning it feral. I loved all the descriptions of nature growing itself to destruction and monstrous girls who aren't afraid to be monstrous. She has an eye for detail and the bone-shiveringly creepy, and if anything is going to stick with me from this book, it's the haunting imagery.

Unfortunately, the rest isn't as strong. I never felt attached to the characters, and even though Hetty is the main character, we don't know her very well. Her defining feature seems to be her platonic love for Byatt, which is mixed in with her loyalty to her and her crush, Reece. Byatt is one of my favorite, unapologetic mean girl tropes, and I wish we'd gotten to see more of her. Reece is equally fierce and vulnerable. A strong girl-friendship group (with a minor wlw romance) should have been one of my favorite things about this book, but it never really came through for me. I didn't feel anything for the girls, and it seemed like the novel always held them at a distance.

Plot-wise, it's interesting but not groundbreaking past the Tox itself, which is full of fun twists. There are the usual untrustworthy authority figures and fairly typical secrets that come with most plague/outbreak narratives, and I wished the novel had spent less time on those and more on the island life and living with the Tox. The characters are hemmed in by the nonsensical quarantine, and it keeps most of the interesting stuff out for most of the book. Pacing-wise, it's slow to take off while Hetty tries to uncover secrets. It isn't until the last third of the novel that the plot really takes off and then leaves things rather open-ended. Wilder Girls doesn't quite live up to its potential, but I'd be interested to read a sequel or more of Powers's writing. First novels don't always pan out, but there's a lot of potential there.

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
Thanks NetGalley!

I just have to say that i was SOO excited for this book, and was extremely happy to be picked for the arc. The girls at Raxter Academy are quartined on an island since they were infected with Tox. The book is more of a survival thriller, BUT it also touches down on the struggles of being a teenage girl, falling for your (female) friend...... the details of the emotional pain and physical pain are intense and vivid.

read this book. i promise you'll enjoy it.