3.5, would have been a 4, but felt a little let down by the ending...I wanted more answers.

I liked the premise of the book and found it very interesting. Similar to Annihilation (the movie at least, book it on my tbr list).

I liken this book to The X-Files meets Lord of the Flies. I would definitely recommend to older teens as this novel is bleak. There are no happy endings here.

I really enjoyed this book but I did think it was a bit short. I would have loved to see the characters developed a bit more and the plot concluded in a more satisfying way. But yay for meaningful rep!

Wonderful debut novel written in a genre that if written well is one of my favorites - Horror!! The author develops a great story of a contagious virus that is constantly mutating in its host. A story of survival and hope with an ending that leaves you wanting to read more.

I am all here for some feminist horror! I was so excited for this book, and did end up loving a lot about it. Unfortunately, I ended up feeling slightly let down by all the hype. Just because this kind of story is what many of us are craving, doesn't mean it itself is a home run. I found the writing distracting, mainly the constant lack of contractions. I get the effect that's intended to create, and were it used more sparingly it probably would have been more effective, but it was pretty ubiquitous. I read that in an earlier draft of this, Byatt was the main (only?) POV, and that Hetty was newer - I almost wonder if the Byatt chapters that were kept were ones the author couldn't let go of. They were good, but if Byatt was going to be a POV I wanted to have her be one throughout - a few chapters of her here and there felt more a cheat way to give the reader information Hetty didn't have. The ending was also a super confusing let down. I'm picking on the negatives here but there was still so much to love and admire about this book, its strange story, and its characters. I'll definitely read whatever is next from Power, but the hype for this one gave me expectations the book just didn't quite meet.

What made me pick this book up:
That cover! Seriously the cover is absolutely stunning. That combined with the title. Insta love!

What did I like about the cover:
Everything. The colors, the girl, how creepy it is. It's gorgeous.

What made me read this book:
It sounds like a good apocalyptic thriller mystery action type of book.

What did I like the most:
Okay well there wasn't much I liked in general about this book.

The idea of it is really interesting. That there's a "tox" that physically changes them. It mutates them. I feel like there's so much potential and creep factor that could have happened here.
I thought it was pretty interesting hearing about the different ways they were changed.

I did like the idea of them being stuck on an island and starving. As weird as that sounds. It adds to the scary part of it.

But that's really all that I liked.

No wait, I liked what Hetty was willing to do to get Byatt back. It really shows their friendship.

I also like the names in the book, they're very unique.

What didn't I like:
Yeah...

The romance fell flat. It felt awkward and forced.
The characters weren't written well and I honestly didn't give two craps what happened to them.
There wasn't anything particularly "scary" about the book except what I mentioned.
I couldn't picture the characters, the place they were, or anything about it. I just couldn't place myself there and therefore couldn't picture anything that was happening in my mind.
There was a big "twist" and it wasn't at all surprising.

I just honestly feel like this one fell so flat it hurt. It had SO MUCH POTENTIAL. There was SO MUCH THAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED. I'm not trying to knock the author, because I feel like she really tried. But man I'm just 10000% disappointed in this book! I was so excited and it just... Meh. Just meh.

Would I read the rest of the series/more from this author?
I would definitely give this author another shot! Just because this one fell flat for me doesn't mean another book would.




I am so disappointed. This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2019 and blah.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Wilder Girls.

Unfortunately this is a DNF for me. I just could not get myself to latch on to the characters or plot. It seemed a bit too scattered and what I felt like too much drama for the kind of story that it was.

I really enjoyed this book. It's hard to make a dystopian feel fresh, but this one does a great job. It leans more towards the horror side: blood, gore, a disease which creates some extremely grotesque deformities. I really loved the fact that the all female characters were so determined, sometimes unlikable, and independent. Oh, and this book is also very queer and it was lovely. Lovely is a weird word to choose to describe it, but there it is. The writing is actually very lovely as well. It has a sort of poetic flow to it, especially the Byatt sections. So, lovely, but twisted.

This book is an absolute tour de force of body horror, complicated characters, and the lengths people will go to survive. After a strange illness sweeps across their small island off the coast of Maine, the Raxter School for Girls goes under quarantine, forcing the young women inside to fight for survival against the disease mutating their bodies, the bizarre animals outside the school's fence, and each other. The story is broken into multiple POVs, which works wonderfully to escalate the tension after Byatt vanishes and Hetty and Reese have to figure out what's happened to her. I also loved the relationship between Hetty and Reese--while it certainly isn't the focus of the story, the inclusion of complex, flawed queer women in a horror narrative like this one delighted me. Power isn't afraid to show the dark sides of her characters and to let them make plenty of mistakes, but I always understood why they made the choices they did. I was a little unsatisfied with the ending, and it took me a while to settle into the writing style (it's a lot more literary than a lot of the YA I've read), but I adored this book overall and would absolutely recommend it to any horror reader, especially those who liked Jeff Vandermeer's Annihilation.

I was highly anticipating Wilder Girls and although I enjoyed the beginning, I did not enjoy the end. Still looking forward to more pieces by this author though!

I went into this book thinking that I would love it as the concept truly intrigued me and I did end up enjoying the idea of the book but not the book itself. It was intriguing to read a female twist on the classic Lord of the Flies however the aspect that makes Lord of the Flies what it is was missing in this book, character development. We are given girls who have devolved into animals in someway but this book lacks the complexity that makes you root for the girls in spite of this. I feel as though the characters could easily be interchanged with one another as they were given one key characteristic and that was the only distinction between them. When reading, I fall in love with characters and that is what sticks out to me but almost every single character in this book was two dimensional. I could not see them outside of their one defining characteristic. Additionally, the book moved very slowly at some points but very rapidly at others and I found it hard to stay interested in the plot because of this.

Not a fan, this book dragged for me a lot and I had trouble connecting to the characters or what they were going through. That being said Rory Power has some beautiful and descriptive writing and I'm still interested in checking out future books based on that alone. The ending felt like a rushed cop out, and the romance angle felt forced.

Read to 45% before skipping to 80% and reading the rest. I liked Hetty and Byatt and Reese well enough. Plot wise, it was boring and intriguing at the same time. The writing was confusing to read at times as well. Oh well.

Well damn.
This book was not really one I planned to read, but all the hype got to me and I gave in to book peer pressure. Yeah, I'm kind of glad I did as I was instantly hooked. This book has so many elements that I like. And I am seriously liking the fact that the readers really have no clue what the hell is going on-what is the Tox? How did the Tox arrive? Why is it only on their island? So yeah, loved it. And with each discovery brings new questions which brings new discoveries, etc etc until the end.

I liked the end, even though it did not end the way I expected/wanted, but that's okay.

Really liked this one. Gave me similar vibes the Nowhere Girls, with its gripping plot and amazing element of feminism. A read I'm sure I won't forget!

An interesting take on the "dystopian" plot Wilder Girls shoudn't be seen a "just" a YA read. The mysterious tox has changed life for the Raxter girls; making them foreigners in their own bodies, infecting the woods and animals on the island and cutting them off from the rest of the world. After Byatt goes missing Hetty will do anything to find her discovering that life as they had come to understand it post tox might be very different than she anticipated.

It honestly started a little slow for me, but soon I was into it. I loved the characters and their personalities were really well developed. It was easy for me to understand and follow the world Rory Power had created but not because it simplistic, rather she does an amazing job setting the scene for you. While this was a summer debut I actually think curling up with this by the fire is perfect. Enter a dark world filled with unknowns but illuminated with the warmth and potential of the girls who are surviving the tox. It wouldn't' surprise me at all if this eventually makes it way to the big screen!

Strong start, but ultimately didn't feel satisfying. But I would still check out what the author puts out next.

This is such a good book. I wasn't sure if I would like but I really did. You are thrown into the world immediately which is confusing at first but that works because even the characters are confused. The POV switch was strange at first but I am glad it was there. The book is dark and graphic but that is the world now for them.

Hello Again,

Oh boy! So I finished Wilder Girls super recently (like a day or so ago) and I wanted to write this while things were fresh in my mind. I was so in love with this book's cover and I wanted this book so badly and I ended up purchasing it pretty much right away however I kind of wish I had waited a little bit and asked some of my reading group friends what their thoughts were. So without further ado let's talk about Wilder Girls!

SPOILERS AHEAD

This book centers around an island and a group of girls who once attended the school on the island. See not that long ago the island was taken over by a Tox. It infected the girls, the teachers, the staff, the animals, the plants, everything on the island. The CDC sent word that the girls should stay in the containment and no one should leave the school area unless they were part of the group of girls getting the packages that were being delivered from the CDC. If this rule was followed the CDC and the government would continue to deliver the food and other items the girls needed to survive and they would work on a cure.

However, things change rapidly as our group of three ladies (Hetty, Byatt, and Reese) find themselves in some trouble on the island. First, Hetty is put on the work detail group that gets to go retrieve the package from the CDC with two other girls. Reese wanted this spot more than anything as she has lived on this island her whole life and her home and father are out there somewhere. When the tox started her father left the school grounds and went back to the house and Reese has not seen him since and she is desperate to see him and see if he is okay. After this things quickly spiral as Hetty learns and sees things she maybe shouldn't when she is out on the pickup crew. From there Byatt has a spell and gets sicker and is taken by one of the remaining professors (usually girls who are getting sicker are taken upstairs to the infirmary) however, Reese and Hetty discover that Byatt is not in the infirmary and they overhear the teacher talking to someone! From here our three girls go on the fight for survival, for answers, and for a cure.

I do not want to spoil too much for the plot and the ending however, I will say I was really not happy with how things ended. We had a lot of rising action towards the end and I thought it was going to build to some big dramatic ending but it felt like it just kind of let me down. I know what the Tox is, but I do not know what happens to our group of ladies, and there are so many questions surrounding Byatt when things end. Overall, I thought the plot and concept of this story was an interesting idea and that combined with the cover is what made me want to pick up this book, however, the ending fell a bit flat for me. I wanted so much more and I truly feel like it could have been so much more. Additionally, after talking with my spouse a bit about this book (I tend to share what I am reading with him) he pointed out to me that a lot of the things in here are similar to one of the Residental Evil games so I will definitely be trying that out soon! I am giving this book three stars on Goodreads.


***In addition to buying this book I was given a copy on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was hyped. Like, next level hype. So I was happy to get an ARC. Then I forgot to read said ARC in a timely fashion. Perhaps this was my subconscious trying to keep me from being underwhelmed and disappointed.

Because I am both underwhelmed and disappointed.

I read it fast because I wasn't connected to the characters. They weren't... deep and complicated enough. And then there was a random love triangle... amongst a trio of a girls who had mutations while living on a doomed island? It was just too much.

I read it fast because I wasn't connected to the plot. I'm not entirely sure what the plot was. Except mutations. And girls being generally awful to each other. A better plot would have been the inner workings of an ordinary all-girls boarding school.

The thing just before the end was way too close to what the Nazis did... just insanely inappropriate.

And the end was abrupt and unsatisfying and vaguely... vague.

But two stars because I finished it? Yep.

(I received a copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest and original review. All thoughts are my own.)