Whew. This book was INTENSE.
I'm not sure how to expound on the book without giving too much away. It's a simple premise and has been likened to a female "Lord of the Flies", but that's not entirely accurate. The girls focus on survival more than anything; relationships are formed as life preservers as they battle their own bodies.
I did enjoy that details were presented sparingly, we don't learn too much about what the Tox is or why the Raxter girls were the guinea pigs, or even how much the Navy knew about the Tox. It is a gripping read, and I recommend it highly.

4,5*
Pros: God, I missed dystopians. Dark, rough, heart-wrenching. Twisty and a complete nail-biter. Grim and enthralling world-building and narrative style. Complex yet mysterious characters. LGBT female leads. Unpredictable, full of hidden turns. Refreshing take on plagues and viruses. Focuses in survival, resilience, friendship and love.
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Cons: The ending was uncharacteristic of the leading character.
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Trigger warning: Violent and gruesome, affecting children.

Thank you to Netgalley & Delacorte Press for providing me with an e-ARC of Wilder Girls by Rory Power in exchange for an honest review.

2.5, rounded up!

Wilder Girls by Rory Power is a pretty difficult book to review; I let my thoughts resonate for the night & still haven’t fully figured out how I feel about this read. Wilder Girls was advertised as a ‘feminist twist on Lord of the Flies' & that concept quickly sold me on this book. However, I can’t help but feel slightly disappointed after reading Wilder Girls.

Rory Power has her MA in Prose Fiction & that’s evident when reading Wilder Girls. Her words are very elegant & it did take awhile for me to adjust to her writing style & truly appreciate it. However, this is at no fault to her. Some people eat up the fancy words, whereas others would prefer their writing with a little less lace. Personally, my opinion lays smack down in the middle.

Wilder Girls felt grey — which, for some reason, this statement makes complete sense to me. Power created such a gloomy & grey world; the aesthetic is just.. so on-point. Her words made the Raxter School for Girls come to life & I was able to actually visualize everything as it was happening.

Throughout reading this, I questioned how can this possibly end? There’s no way it could end well for the girls at Raxter & it’s this that helped me not DNF Wilder Girls. I needed to know what was happening & how Hetty was going to make it out.

I really enjoyed the F/F relationship in Wilder Girls, because I am a sucker for angst & that’s exactly what their relationship was. In general, this entire read was riddled with angst. So, bonus points there.

At about 60%, I questioned why I wasn’t fully engaged with Wilder Girls. I mean, the aesthetic was very pleasing & the writing was pretty; it had a LGBT component, plus there was a lot of violence & horror — sounds perfect, yeah?

It’s at this 60% mark where I realized that even though I wanted to know how it would end, I didn’t actually care. I didn’t care if Hetty lived or died, or if she would ever see her friend again. I had zero connection with anyone in this book, and that’s what really dragged the story down for me.

This book has been described as a feminist retelling of Lord of the Flies and as a sapphic horror novel. Both of those things wildly compelled me to pick up this novel, but I did not feel that either description was accurate.

My main frustration as I read was that I never really understood what the Tox actually was. Throughout the story, we are given descriptions of the Tox's effects on the girls -- disfigured bodies and changes that came out of nowhere, but the way it started was never explained. Because we weren't given enough backstory and information on the Tox, I became much more invested in what the Tox was than what was going on in the actual plot of the novel. 

That being said, I felt more connected to the plot than to any of the characters -- they felt paper-thin to me and there was nothing about them that made me care if they lived or died. None of them was memorable to me in the slightest.

I was interested enough in the Tox to continue reading, but was ultimately left more confused than satisfied. The ending happened very abruptly and could have used an additional 100 pages of explanation, in my opinion. While I am glad I read this book, I feel that it would have benefited from additional details and length.

I do want to mention that while this book is technically sapphic, its certainly not a romance. Hype and early reviews led me to believe that there would be more of a focus on a f/f relationship in this book than there actually is.

Wilder Girls made my skin crawl! It's been awhile since a book made me shiver. The editor's note at the beginning said, "Dig deep, though, and this novel is a brilliant feminist twist on Lord of the Flies," and I can totally see it. I vaguely remembered Lord of Flies from school, but this book made the story come rushing back.

I've been struggling with this review (and my rating), because I really loved the story, but not its conclusion. The private school (Raxter), the Tox, the mutations (humans, animals, plants), and the relationships were all amazing. It kept me on the edge of my seat, and I never wanted to stop turning the pages. However, the story kept building until my mind felt like it was going to explode from the anticipation... and then it ended. There's no resolution and very few questions are answered. A few aspects are hinted at, but nothing is really confirmed or validated. I needed so much more after all that suspense and buildup. The anxiety alone was brutal.

Think about it this way... you're on the verge of an orgasm, and then your partner suddenly stops, or your vibrator decides to die. You're left feeling extremely frustrated, and probably a little angry. I loved everything that led to the story's climax, but ultimately I was left feeling unsatisfied.

There were a few inconsistencies throughout the book, but this was a review copy, so some errors are to be expected. I was mostly confused about the gate... at one point it needs a key to be opened from the inside, and then other times it only needs a key to be opened from the outside. There's also a bit at the end with the keys that felt off. If you've read a finished copy, let me know if you experienced any confusion regarding how it works.

I loved the relationships between the characters in this book, and how their dynamics shifted after the Tox. Their situation seemed to make them feel everything more strongly, and my emotions were directly tied to theirs. I disliked the "adult" presence we see throughout the book, because they're mostly dishonest and manipulative. I never knew what their intentions were, and I hated that the girls suffered because of their decisions.

The end of Wilder Girls progressed a little too quickly. I wanted more from Byatt's perspective, because even though it was choppy and disorganized, it provided a lot of clues. Additionally, the characters really struggled for most of the book, and then things conveniently clicked into place at the very end. There were no explanations, and their last encounter with the Headmistress felt weird. I almost want to re-read the last few chapters to see if I missed a major turning point. It all happened so fast!

Hetty and Reese were both really impressive characters, and they did what they had to do to survive. Their friendship felt realistic, and we see them have their ups and downs. Being quarantined on an island didn't change the fact that they were teenagers. There were fights and arguments, but even those felt intense and like lives depended on the outcome. (Side note: Hooray for some wonderful f/f representation!)

I really enjoyed the world Power created, and think it's very original and unique. I wish we had learned more about the island and how the Tox originated, but information is hard to come by. It seemed like everyone had secrets they were willing to die for, and it was interesting to see people working together but also for themselves. They needed each other to survive, but in the end people only cared about themselves and those closest to them. Lives lose their value when you get used to death, and it was heartbreaking to see what these girls had gotten used to.

I hope there's a sequel planned, because I am still fuming about the lack of an ending!

Originally posted at Do You Dog-ear? on July 14, 2019.

T His one was hard for me because the premise was so intriguing, but i just couldn't finish it. Maybe if i had kept going i would have liked it better, but i just don't think it's for me. I could not get past all the violence, which was hard, because as a feminist, I think that we should be able to have books where girls are violent, where girls act more like boys are expected to, and yet i just really did not like it. It was big turn off for me. I guess i'm also not a fan of violence anyways, so all of that right away just kind of turned me off from the beginning.

A fascinating Lord of the Flies-inspired story, fast-paced and thrilling. The characters were well-developed and the plot gripped me until the very end. I will definitely be recommending this to my teen patrons.

Hetty has been sent to the Raxter School for Girls. A toxic illness has ravaged the school and the outdoors. Tress are black and distorted. The wildlife isn’t afraid of humans—in fact they have turned into beasts that will chase and eat humans. The island has been quarantined with promises of help. Only help never comes. Food is scarce. The students and teachers have gotten the disease and many of the teachers have died first. Some students have resisted this disease and others have had it though survived it with strange changes in their bodies. What were these changes? Will they survived? When Hetty’s friend Bryant becomes ill and disappears from the infirmary, Hetty doesn’t believe it when they told her she died. She is determined to find her. Will she find her? Will they survive?

The writing is excellent in this book. There are twists and turns with occasional unpleasantness. Yet it haunted me with the thoughts of why weren’t doctors and nurses to help at the school. I thought Hetty was a brave and loyal friend. This story while being about survival is much more than that. It is about friendship, courage and being true to oneself. Do read this awesome novel. It’s one that shouldn’t be missed!

Wowza! I was not expecting this book to be as brutal as it was. I'd heard how this was a feminist version of Lord of the Flies, and I guess I was expecting the usual YA fare. Wilder Girls was so much more than that. It was crazy, brutal, and really addictive. I couldn't believe the things that were happening as I was flipping through the pages. I'm glad that this book, with such a gorgeous cover, delivered on the story inside.
I love shocking and brutal stories and Wilder Girls really delivered that. It was crazy from page one. The reader is dropped into the situation at Raxter School For Girls about a year and change after the Tox hit. We're kind of dropped into the middle of an ongoing thing. I won't lie, most times I want to see the whole journey. I want to see when everything starts going downhill. I would have loved to see Raxter School in the very beginning stages of the Tox. When the girls started to realize what was happening and the chaos that ensued. I'm okay that Wilder Girls started in the middle of the Tox, but I would have loved to witness the whole thing.
This book was so fast-paced. I loved that about it. I just couldn't seem to stop reading it. The writing style was really good too. It reminded me in aspects of Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer and the Video Game The Last of Us. It had that weird, depressing kind of vibe to it, which I'm a fan of.
The Tox was so brutal. The images it conjured were so vivid, so disturbing, and so right. The Island was such a great, strange setting. These girls were cut off from everyone, going through unspeakable things. The whole thing was just crazy.
I wasn't blown away really by the reveal of what caused the Tox in the first place. It was covered so briefly and quickly, that it almost felt like an afterthought. I'm not going to say what it was, I just think it could have been done better.
This next thing might make me unpopular, but so what. I don't think the little romantic relationship that was included needed to be there. It was also one of those things that just felt like it was added as an afterthought. Like that little box that needed to be ticked off so the diversity quota would be met. It did nothing for me. I think the friendship bond was stronger than any romantic thing that tried to take off.
My last little thing was that I wanted more closure from the ending. I mean, I didn't hate it, but I don't feel like it concluded anything. Their final situation was just as hopeless as everything else. I would have been okay with a brutal ending, because at least that would have felt believable.
Wilder Girls was an awesome read overall. It had so many shocks, so much gore, and so much crazy, I was hooked. I'm really interested to see what Rory Power comes out with next. Wilder Girls wasn't a perfect read for me, but it was such a crazy ride. I'd definitely recommend giving it a read.

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 4.2/5
Intense

I received an ARC of Wilder Girls from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. It was just released on July 9th.

Wilder Girls had so much promise, but sadly it didn't live up to the hype for me. At first I was really into the story and I couldn't put it down. I was so invested in finding out what was happening to all of these girls and finding out what the Tox really was. So many crazy and disturbing things were happening to them. They were cut off from the world and had to survive on limited supplies and while battling the Tox and sometimes each other. It was pretty intense, especially at the beginning.

Eventually I started to get a little bored with what was going on around the halfway point, because nothing really did happen after awhile. Some of the girls started to really annoy me and some things started to get a little too weird or confusing. I felt like there were some unanswered questions and the ending was really underwhelming. I felt like it wasn't a complete ending. I don't know if there is plans for a book two (I didn't see anything about it), but I felt like book just all of a sudden ended and that was that. There was no resolution or anything. I was really confused by that.

Overall, I did like Wilder Girls and thought it was hard to put down at times. It was pretty creepy and disturbing. I just wish there were more to it, especially the ending. It felt like so much information was missing and that nothing really got resolved. Maybe it was setup that way in case there is a sequel one day? Who knows...that just really bugged me though. I will forever have all of these unanswered questions. I don't want to go into what they are though, because it'll be spoilerish. I just wanted more and wasn't happy with how things just all of a sudden ended.

thank you to netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

3 stars

this book was probably my most anticipated novel on 2019, and sadly I was a little disappointed.

the writing was beautiful and I will definitely be reading more of the author’s stuff based on the way she writes unapologetic characters and setting. it was probably my favorite thing about this book besides the sapphicness of it all!!

the setting of the novel gripped me tight and never let me go.... until the end. I am not a big fan of cliffhangers but I must say this one was pretty well developed. nevertheless, it is a personal preference of mine that cliffhangers are a No Go.

now the characters weren’t as fleshed out as I wanted them to be, which is a big deal for my preference since I am a character driven person. If I can’t connect to the characters, it won’t do well with me.

I do love the relationships between these characters and the intensity that is the setting which tightened those bonds!! I absolutely live for that.

But all in all, there was something lacking in this novel which I don’t really know what it is which frustrates me. It is not a bad book by far! but it’s not something I would consider a favorite.

despite this maybe negative review, I would definitely recommend it to others who would love to see the journey of these sapphic girls. I did enjoy that much <3

Marketed as a female Lord of the Flies, Wilder Girls doesn’t disappoint. From the beginning, you are dropped in the middle of the story and the need to understand Raxter, the Tox, and the Girls keeps you turning the pages.

I’ve seen this called feminist horror and I can’t think of a better description. It’s entirely female characters (except 2 male side characters) and each one is dynamic and fully-fledged.

With beautiful writing and descriptions (even when tinged with some horrific body horror), this is a story about female friendship, female perseverance, and the fight to stay alive.

**I received an e-ARC from Netgalley**

This book was a YA Annihilation that did not flinch on visceral details and the tough choices young girls have to make under impossible circumstances. A strange infection called The Tox had taken over the island of Raxter school. Hetty teams up with classmate Reese to find out what happened to their best friend, Byatt, when she suddenly goes missing.

I really enjoyed the visceral details of the body horror taking over. Power does not flinch whatsoever and you're forced to watch and feel the body transformations and injuries as they take place. I also really liked the rule-breaking with regards to sentence structure in Byatt's POV section. It makes for a really good form meets function that makes the details all the more squirmy.

The ending, for me, could have been a bit longer. We get the reveal of the truth of their dire circumstances and then the plot drives forward. I'm still left wondering where exactly the Tox came from and why it only affects teenage girls. There were some bread crumbs, but not enough to really bring the plot full circle.

That being said, come for the eco-horror, stay for f/f love and the power of female friendship.

Hetty has not left the Raxter School for Girls in over eighteen months. They have been under a quarantine that started with the teachers dying first. When the students became infected, it didn’t seem to kill them, but turn them. These girls have been cut off from all communications with the outside world and they can’t even go outside of the fence because the Tox has infected the local wildlife. Hetty was a rule follower until Byatt went missing. Now she is questioning everything about the quarantine, including what lies on the other side of the fence. What will Hetty learn about this mysterious disease?

Wilder Girls is a stand-alone science fiction story that was a fun escape read with just a little bit of science fiction thrown in. Even if readers are not very familiar with quarantines and diseases, most will be able to enjoy the bigger story that is included here. Power has created a few different characters for readers to explore and overall the ending was satisfactory. With that being said, it was not a drop everything and finish the book experience. I’m glad I read it and recommend others who like this type of book to add it to their TBR list.

If you break down pretty much every single element of this book - feminist Lord of the Flies retelling, queer girls, body horror, girls exploring their monstrous side - it should be literally the PERFECT book for me, but I found the actual book to be a little bit disappointing. First - and I know it's not really the 'point' of the book but still - I didn't like that we weren't given any real information on the origin of the Tox or why it behaved the way it did. I spent so much of the book being like 'ok but WHAT is going on' that I feel like it was hard for me to concentrate on the characters and what they were doing.

Despite the book being of a decent length, I just felt like the author didn't really explore any of the concepts in what I would consider an in-depth manner. I really wanted her to lean into why this was only affecting young girls in this specific way and tie that back into women exploring their 'wild' side, but it felt like the whole thing just meandered along until it ended rather abruptly. I'm still giving it three stars because it was such an interesting idea, but I was a bit disappointed.

I'm trying to reflect on the reading experience separately from my feelings about the ending, so here goes: <em>Wilder Girls</em> has a terrific, terrifying premise: On an island off the coast of Maine, the student at a girls' boarding school are starving, fierce, and desperate after eighteen months of isolation and quarantine. They're all infected by the Tox, experiencing flare-ups in which their bodies are modified and distorted and changed -- scales here, spiny growths there, gills, and spikes and other random mutations taking over their bodies. Once it's bad enough to go to the infirmary, the girls never return.

For most of the book, the plot delivers. Conditions worsen. The girls don't know if they're being fed lies. The wild parts of the island seem to be closing in. We also get brief chapters from Byatt's perspective, as outsiders attempt to treat her, maybe cure her, although her condition becomes more and more extreme, and the treatments seem cruel and painful.

I was wrapped up in the story and really intrigued by the overall plot. So what was my problem with this book? Either the ending is unsatisfyingly incomplete, or this is a set-up for a continuation. I don't know which, and that's part of the problem! We're left hanging at the end, with only the most partial of explanations about what the Tox really is, what caused it, and what it means for the surviving girls. I really needed more from the ending -- so while I was caught up in the story and enjoyed the book overall, when I finished reading the final pages, I felt frustrated and annoyed.

This was super weird but in a good way! The plot and writing are super unique and keep you flipping the pages. I personally wanted a bit more closure at the end as it is left way open. The characters were dynamic and interesting.

TW: suicide, self harm, violence

Rory Power’s Wilder Girls is an atmospheric read that takes a hard and disturbing look at what happens when a mysterious plague-like disease called the Tox infects the entire population of an all-girls boarding school. When Wilder Girls opens, many are already dead, both teachers and students, and the entire island has been in quarantine for eighteen months. Boats periodically come and drop off supplies for the quarantined survivors, but aside from that and the occasional promise that the CDC is doing everything they can to find a cure, there is no contact with the outside world.

The whole idea of the Tox drew me in right away. Powers does a wonderful job of creating an eerie and terrifying atmosphere by plunging her readers right into the action and showing us what the Tox has done to the girls. Even with our first glance around the school, we see a girl whose arm has suddenly grown reptilian-like scales on it, another girl whose eye has sealed shut and now appears to be growing something beneath the seal, and even a girl who appears to have grown a second spine that protrudes out of her back. And that’s just scratching the surface of ways this disease is manifesting itself. The mood is dark and desperate, there aren’t nearly enough supplies being sent, and most social conventions have flown out the window as the name of the game is survival. I read somewhere that this book is considered a feminist retelling of Lord of the Flies, and from those first moments, I definitely felt a similar vibe between the two books.

I also liked that the opening scenes really got my wheels turning with question after question and even got my inner conspiracy theorist humming. What the heck is the Tox? Why are everyone’s physical symptoms so different? Why the total isolation, without even radio contact? Is the government responsible for the tox? If not, is it something alien? And on and on, you get the idea. This is a book that will definitely make you think and it’s also a quick read because you’ll find yourself just dying to get all of your questions answered.

In addition to being fascinated by the deadly Tox, I also really enjoyed the friendship of the three main characters, Hetty, Byatt, and Reese. These three girls are very loyal to each other and do everything they can to make sure all three of them have the best chance of survival. When Byatt unexpectedly disappears. Hetty and Reese make it their mission to find out what has happened to her. What they find as they search for her is every bit as disturbing as the Tox itself and adds tremendous tension and suspense to what is already a book that you won’t want to put down.

*****

So why only 3.5 stars if this book has so many great things going for it? Well, I did have a few issues with it. The first is that I didn’t find the explanation for the Tox to be thorough enough for my liking. As interesting as it was, I felt like it was explained in a very vague way. Also, even though I liked the dynamic of their friendship, I didn’t feel emotionally invested in the three main characters. I don’t want to say that I didn’t care about what happened to them because that’s not true, but I just felt like they were at arm’s length and would have preferred getting to know a little more about each of them. One final issue I had was the ending, which was just way too open-ended for my liking.

Wilder Girls really is an entertaining read, especially for horror fans and if you don’t mind an open-ended read. I wanted more from it since it was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, but it’s still a good read overall. Be forewarned though that it is violent and gory, there are many deaths, as well as mentions of self-harm and suicide. It’s not a read for the faint of heart.

“My other eye’s dead, gone dark in a flare-up. Lid fused shut, something growing underneath.

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.”

This book will make your skin shift,

your toes coil,

and your breath hurt.

With every page it slowly peels away layers of your heart while simultaneously sewing those pieces back together; until you’re left with nothing, but this mismatched, lumpy, irregular beating organ lost inside your chest that you aren’t even sure is yours anymore.

There is a rawness and truth hidden in these beautifully writhing words.

So make sure you’re listening.

“…and I miss the way the wind steals your breath like it never belonged to you in the first place.”

A year and a half ago, the Tox infiltrated their island. It crept its way through the trees and animals, tickled the locks on the gates and doors. It sighed through the ventilation like a whisper after lights out, and it took a hold of every girl with a beating heart and a smile. The Navy said they were looking for a cure. That there is still hope, they just needed more time. But the girls at Raxter don’t have time. The Tox is ripping them apart one by one, making them turn on one another, or worse, making them turn on themselves. But Hetty, Byatt and Resse have each other. And as long as they stick together, they can survive anything.

Unless the next flare-up shreds them from the inside and turns their bodies black.

“About three months into the Tox, they came back from the woods with their names torn out of their heads. The Tox took what they were, took everything except how to hold a knife. It made them stick each other in the main hall during dinner, made them watch themselves bleed dry.”

This book took my body through a mess of psychological and physical torment. My stomach is still writhing around and trying to jump out of my throat, and I’m honestly more than a little concerned that something might be crawling around inside me now. Wilder Girls…is wild. Rory Power has taken the typical “virus outbreak” story and dipped it in a drum barrel of mental terrorism to give you a tale of graceful misery and unorthodox beauty.

Because that is exactly what this toxic storm of starvation, terror, and savagery is.

It’s beauty.

“His skin peels off like strips of paper, gathering under my nails, soft and pulpy.”

These sweet, innocent and delicate young girls are trapped in an asylum that keeps them cut-off from the rest of existence. Their once normal lives have been drowned; washed away by an outbreak that leaves behind unpredictable flare-ups that leave the girls in a state of physical insanity. Bruising from the inside out, second spines and hearts, a silver scaled hand, skin lesions and bubbles. Each girl is a walking nightmare. A grotesque and brutal version of their former selves. But what makes these girls truly breathtaking and beautiful, is that they look at one another without judgement.

Each girl is wild, untamed and ferocious. They are monstrous creatures with brave hearts and convictions. They go to physical blows over scraps of food, but protect one another with a passion and savagery that is…enviable. These girls push through their bleak existence to find love and comfort in one another. It’s a story of strength and iron-will. Of yearning and love that doesn’t need to be explained. These girls aren’t pushed into categories and stigmas, they just ARE.

“Reese and Byatt, they’re mine and I’m theirs.”

The three main girls are Hetty, Byatt and Reese. The story mainly unfolds by the voice of Hetty, but flips over to Byatt’s viewpoint occasionally as it progresses. Hetty and Byatt are extremely close, to the point of near obsession for Hetty. She wants to be everything that Byatt needs, and credits Byatt for being the one to show her who she really is. But somehow, this obsession doesn’t feel poisonous or harmful. It feels loving, respectful and protective.

“Byatt was the one who put the bones in my body.”

The romance in this story is slight, but it is absolutely heartfelt and soft. It isn’t lustful or forced, and it doesn’t take away from the plot. To be honest, it’s one of the only truly good feeling moments in Wilder Girls. The sweetness of it is quick and will be gone before you know it, so enjoy that moment while it lasts. Because this book isn’t going to lull you into blissful dreams.

“My back arches, eyes slamming open. Thrashing against the straps pinning me, throwing my weight from side to side. Paretta, at the foot of my gurney, saying my name, but she’s the one who did this to me. I scream. “
This is a horror story, and it is indeed horrific. It is eerie, creepy and doused in a gloom so thick you can barely focus your eyes. It made me cringe. It made me disgusted. It made me keep the lights an hour after I finished the book. But most of all, it created a pit in my stomach that I still can’t seem to shake. And honestly, that is all I ever want from a book.

For it to leave my body in a state of confusion.

“…I start to know what the rope is for. But I don’t do anything. I sit so my legs are tucked under me. I watch the Tox go to work. On his knees. A rope into a noose. His eyes never close. His grip never changes. He is pulling right until the end.”

I found this book horrifying, intriguing, sad, and entertaining. This is a unsolved mystery as much as it is a horror story. It's a story of loss and bizarre circumstances, as much as it is a coming of age novel.

Because of the nature of the story this book is a little hard to assign stars accurately. As a stand alone I'd give this book 4 stars. If it is the first in a series, I'd give it 5 stars. This book would be stronger if there are future books, because too many unanswered questions are left at the end. Honestly, I don't think that Hetty's story and the stories of her friends could be told completely in a single book and I really hope there are more books coming.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys strong girl characters.