Rory Power takes the well-known and well-loved boarding school trope and marries it with a survival story and then turns it all on its head. Wilder Girls is a wild ride, indeed. We find ourselves in a hellish world where a mysterious illness named the Tox either kills or deforms all those remaining at the Raxter School for Girls. It’s jam-packed with diversity and luscious, stylistic writing.

I'm pretty confident that we can all agree the cover is absolutely stunning. I wish I had a physical copy to photograph because I know bookstagram would be all about this one.

"Feminist horror" -- for those of you that are fans, I really need not say more. The gore will not disappoint. For those of you that are skeptical still, this certainly has creepy, skin-crawly elements. At times, I had to squeeze my eyes shut because the imagery was so vivid and horrific. I have to give an extra star just for uniqueness alone, as there are few books that I have read in the young adult genre that have similar storylines.

The first few chapters felt bland to me. It wasn't until we first get Byatt's POV that I was gripped. The way that Powers writes for Byatt is nothing short of poetic. I wanted more Byatt and less Hetty. The ending felt rushed and abrupt. An extra 50 pages, maybe more, were really needed to give some necessary backstory and a less hurried ending. That being said, I would be interested in a sequel. Power's writing style is unique, gripping and nothing short of exquisite.

The entire time I was reading, all I could do was compare this to an M. Night Shyamalan movie. It is that type of "wtf just happened". 3.5 stars, rounded up. The rushing at the end coupled with underdeveloped characters had me wanting more. But brava for a first novel.

Power does give us a list of content warnings, which I would advise you read before reading or gifting this to someone else.

I think I should start this review by saying I normally don't like zombie or pandemics books—and that's kinda what this is—so I was probably not the target reader for this to begin with. Nevertheless, I'm a pretty adaptable reader so I wanted to give it a go.

But here's what happened:

1. I STRUGGLED with the prose. I love me a good, witty fragment to really amp up the atmosphere or emotion on a page. But there were just. So. Many. On one page I counted and 60% of it was written in fragments v. full sentences. Some pages were 100% fragments. It gave the story a very choppy, incomplete feel and made it difficult to connect to the characters.

2. A lot of the decisions near the end felt unrealistic or (and I don't know how to say this without sounding sassy) incongruent with logic <spoiler> Wouldn't one of the girls at least THINK that the moment they escaped quarantine and got on the mainland they would be shot automatically? Because logically, that's what would happen. And no one ever stopped to contemplate that MAYBE it might be a good idea just to die on the island versus sneaking on land and infecting the rest of the world???? These thoughts should have AT LEAST been explored, if not impacted the character's decisions. Also, while we're here—how did Byatt and her caretaker NOT know that kissing/touching would spread the infection...? The fact that neither of them thought about it is completely unbelievable to me </spoiler>.

That all being said, I didn't hate the book! There was so much potential with the creepy atmosphere, suspense, and mystery subplot that I kept flipping the pages no matter what. And I really enjoyed how natural queerness appears in the characters. So there was some true merit to the story, which I why I gave it the three stars I did.

Give it a go yourself and see!

*e-arc provided by netgalley. All opinions are my own*

I'll be honest, I didn't even read the synopsis of the book. This was all abut the cover and it appears I'm not the only one who loved the cover!

Ok so on to the book....there is going to be a part 2 right, more info on what happened in the past has to be provided. There will be a prequel right??

Hetty, Byatt and Reese all live at Raxter School for Girls, which is on an island, There is a wicked virus that claims the life of teachers and students , but somehow supply boxes are dropped and some of the girls have to go an retrieve these boxes. Mind you this wild island has pretty much every type of animal living there. There isn't much backstory to the virus and why these girls are all on a remote island.

Thank you NetGalley for the Arc!

So, I kind of read this one blind. I picked it up because a) I loved the cover and b) the quote “feminist Lord of the Flies”.

This book is kind of amazing.

You’ve got a pandemic here, but it’s unlike any you’ve read before. And our girls are so very fierce and even when faced with horrors beyond belief, remain true and bold. I loved them.

The book definitely has an edge and the author doesn’t pull punches. Fair warning for those who like things soft and pretty.

Such and unusual and compelling book. I can’t wait to see what the author does next!

“We don’t get to choose what hurts us.”

The plot was a neat idea: there is a sickness going around infecting an all girls school on an island off the coast of Maine. It has two POVs. It’s queer. The book is dark, the writing style dry and eerie. And the heart of this story is mystery. Lots of mystery: What caused this illness? What is lurking in the woods? (I LOVE spooky woods stories.) And other things that I’m pretty sure would head until spoiler categories.

BUT it was super boring. A lot of people are comparing this to LORD OF THE FLIES (which I have never read so idk if that was a boring book too) so I guess if you liked that then maybe you’d like this too...?

I thought a book as dark as this would be more enjoyable.

Goodreads isn’t showing this book as a sequel. WILDER GIRLS can work as a stand-alone or a series. And I quite enjoyed that aspect.

The book throws you right into the middle of the story with no real set-up or closed ending. While this might annoy people I actually really enjoyed that aspect. This is a campfire read.

The book as a concept I liked. And it was a quick read but overall I was bored 90% of the time.

Content Warnings: Rory listed all the content warnings on her site

Ok, before I begin with this review let me go ahead and state the obvious. That freaking cover is beyond gorgeous! Definitely one of my favorite covers of 2019 so far. Ok, now to the review portion.
This book is described as a feminist “Lord of the Flies”( one of my favorites) and while I do get that sentiment, it is also had a few elements that reminded me of Michael Grant’s “ Gone” series which I absolutely loved as well. Here’s the blurb:
“It's been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty's life out from under her.
It started slow. First the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island home, the girls don't dare wander outside the school's fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure they were promised as the Tox seeps into everything.
But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie beyond the fence. And when she does, Hetty learns that there's more to their story, to their life at Raxter, than she could have ever thought true.”
Rory Power has a wonderful way with words. I was transported to the island almost as soon as I began reading . Great worldbuilding.This book was creepy. Definitely made my skin crawl and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I won’t say anything about the actual story itself, but I will tell you that it is told in two alternating views. Hetty and Byatt. I loved the friendship theme that was evident throughout the story. I found myself rooting for a certain pairing. There was such a strong message within the three hundred and sixty-eight pages of this story.
This would have been a five-star read however, I did have a few issues with it. The first was the ending. It kind of left me hanging in the balance. I’m curious to see if there will be a sequel but I would have loved a few more chapters to wrap things up a bit more. I also felt like the backstory of it all could have been more detailed. Lastly, I believe that we have only just begun to scratch the surface of the three main characters. There’s so much more I need to know! *hint, hint for that sequel*
Overall, I absolutely enjoyed this read and look forward to reading more from Rory Power in the future. She’s in a lane all by herself and really adds a freshness to the YA genre.
Trigger warnings include talk of suicide, suicide, animal killings, violence, gore, body mutilation, starvation and more. An extensive list of the trigger warnings can be found on the author’s website, https://itsrorypower.com/wilder-girls/.

* I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

Wilder Girls is gorgeously grotesque while also highlighting the strength and resilience of girls and women, both metaphorically and physically, considering how often the healthcare system falls short. This book is a dystopian representation of all of that, and that's precisely what makes it stand out, what makes it special. The suspense kept me glued to it, kept this story on my mind even when I had to rip myself from it. Wilder Girls is a vital, important tale.

First of all, this cover is one of my all time favorites. Absolutely stunning. I thought this book was really good and well written. I love the boarding school aspect. I wish we had gotten to know the girls a little bit more before all the action was taking place, I kind of had a hard time really feeling with the characters. Overall though, I enjoyed it. It was captivating and creepy and kept me guessing. The ending was a little underwhelming and anticlimactic in my opinion. Everything leading up to the end was really exciting and kept me on the edge of my seat and then the end end was a bit too open-ended for me and left me with a lot of questions. Which I’m sure a lot of people love that and will really love this book. I personally like a little more to be answered at the end. Along with everything being exciting and having really good descriptions, once we got to the end it felt really rushed. All of a sudden they found Byatt and got her and it was over. It took so much just to get to her that once they found her it felt anticlimactic. The atmosphere this book gave off was amazing--really creepy, and suspenseful with good descriptions, I felt I was able to picture everything really well and almost feel like I was in this story with them.

I was really looking forward to this book, unfortunately it was for me. The plot was super intriguing, but I never fully grasped how this whole illness came to be, I wish there would have been more backstory. With all that being said, I’m sure this book will be widely loved, it just didn’t work for me personally.

OMG what an intense book. This book was incredibly creepy, but yet I couldn't stop reading! The Tox is a disease that is infecting both the teachers and girls of the Raxter School, which makes Ebola look tame. This book was definitely dark, but I was utterly addicted.

Will edit for full review closer to pub date.

Ok, I kind of loved this book! There was action, adventure, and a mysterious disease that's just demolishing the girls at Raxter. I loved the imagery that Rory Power was able to get across and it really just added to the flow of the story. Also, I'd be lying if I said the gorgeous cover didn't play a part in my wanting to read this.

It's a little mature for my K-6 students in my elementary library but I would absolutely recommend to any YA lovers out there - especially if you love a good Sci-Fi with some hardcore females taking the lead.

Wilder Girls is for readers looking for a female driven Lord of the Flies. Readers will be hooked with the poetic writing and creepy setting. The story follows girls living on an island 18 months after their boarding school was put under quarantine due to a strange and mysterious disease. If you enjoy YA survival thrillers, I highly recommend you check out Wilder Girls on July 9th!

Holy shit.
I was provided this e-arc at no cost to myself via Netgalley in return for an honest review.


*spoilerish*



This would be a 5 star read if it hadn't ended on a goddamn cliffhanger for a *STAND ALONE BOOK.

*pet peeve alert*
But man it was so well written. Beautiful and super disturbing imagery. Pro-tip, don't read this while eating.
Wilder Girls takes place at an all girls school situated on it's own island. During a school year, everyone begins to get sick. Different stages of illness/mutations. The question is where did it come from, can it be cured, and is anyone going to save them? I can absolutely see the comparison to Lord of the Flies. There is also a light underlying queer girls storyline, which I absolutely LOVED.

Wilder Girls had me hooked by the grit and horror of the girls surviving with the Tox.

QUOTE: My first flare-up blinded my right eye and fused it shut, and I thought that was all, until something started to grow underneath.

The cover drew me but the story is one I’ll remember. Every day the quarantined girls of Raxter School stare down death by starvation, the animals in the forest, each other, and even scarier—themselves. We see things through the eyes, raw emotions, and actions of Hetty, Byatt and Reese, a trio of friends, who are loyal to each other despite the secrets they each keep. At first the girls have settled into a comfortable routine of dealing with their circumstances until a conspiracy is uncovered and they become desperate for answers. The last part of the book picks up as they take new risks, discover new and even more horrible information, and the ending…I loved and hated it at the same time (no spoilers). #WilderGirls #NetGalley

Thanks to Random House Children’s Delacorte Press and NetGalley for this arc.
Content Warnings (mostly referenced by the author herself) and is a bit SPOILERY:
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Graphic Violence, Body Horror, Gore, Character/Parental/Animal Death (animals are not pets), Behavior/Descriptive Language in the form of Cussing/Self-Harm/Sensuality, Chemical Gassing, Suicide, and Non-Consensual Medical Treatment.

First of all, I want to say that this was probably one of the most original stories I've read in a long time. I was struck from the beginning by how different the story was, and also now having finished it, how well it was executed.

So what's it about?

Best friends Hetty, Byatt, and Reese live at Raxter school on an island, where they've been quarantined after the entire school came down with a mysterious disease called the Tox, which has already ravaged all of the rest of the life on the island. The girls of the school are desperately trying to survive on extremely limited food and despite the mutated monsters of the island while they wait for the Navy and the CDC to find a cure.

That's only the premise, but I'm not actually going to get into the plot at all because I absolutely refuse to spoil anything. But let me just tell you, shit hits the fan.

What did I think?

The writing style is a tad unusual, but it reminded me a lot of my favorites of my own writing (which I can never really maintain for more than a few paragraphs and somehow Rory Power made happen for a whole book). I can see that it might put some readers off, but I absolutely loved it.

We're thrown into the action from the beginning, which is odd for a story about an infection. The disease has already come, it's already infected everyone at Raxter before the book even begins, which is another thing I loved. It might be more obvious to begin when the disease first arrives, but Wilder Girls takes the road less traveled and it's excellent. We have to decipher relationships between characters that have years of trauma-laden history, which is another thing that could have gone wrong, could have been too confusing, but was AMAZING. I just...I'm blown away by this book, honestly.

The main thing you should know about this book is that it's hella queer, and features many flawed but wonderful female characters and friendships.

Also, the author has posted trigger warnings on her website, they're linked in the summary of this book. But hell, i'll link them here too... https://itsrorypower.com/wilder-girls/. The main ones I remember: lots of gore, animal and human death, suicide, and self harm. Please check out her site as well, for any I forgot!

This book was so INTENSE! I feel like it's one of those books I could read 20 times and get something new out of it every time. I absolutely loved Hetty and how badass she was. Byatt was super flawed, and she knew it, and honestly I would love to know more about her past, but that's just because I'm nosy! Reese is the only other main character that we don't get a POV from and man, I really want one! She's just a very interesting character!

I don't really want to get too much into the plot because I think this is a book you should go into knowing as little as possible. But it's intense, and it's nonstop, and you will ask A LOT of questions while reading it!

My only complaint is maybe a spoiler so LOOK AWAY! [ It's left very open ended at the end and I don't think we get nearly as many answers as I would have liked. That being said, I'm also okay with how it ended. (hide spoiler)]

Anyway, I highly recommend this book for fans of mysteries, horror, and paranormal books. Interestingly enough, I'm not big on any of those genres and I still really loved it. Also, if you can read it with a friend, you should! Because you're gonna want someone to talk to about it!

Gorgeous cover. But, a cover does not make a story and I should learn to consider that when I read books. (I read this book in eleven days. ELEVEN!)

Unfortunately, I did not connect as I hoped I would, especially with the main character, Hetty. I did enjoy Bhatty's chapters, though. They moved fast and heart definitely illustrated themselves through each of them. Sadly, Hetty's chapters came off as confusing. (I read an ARC so hopefully it'll fix itself before publication). Some of hers moved incredibly slow with confusing and overwritten prose.

Along with its cover and Bhatty's chapters, I did like seeing a bisexual character, Hetty, who actually said she was bi.

However, those three things could not inspire any more than two stars. It was okay, just not great, in my opinion. Covers do fool.

Wow! This novel was an unexpected find. If you are into horror novels, Wilder Girls is right up your alley. The characters remain a tad mysterious, but the primary focus is the "Tox" that has spread across their island. Raxter is dark and spooky, with creepy crawlies throughout. I could imagine the spooky setting - a great read for a rainy day. I hope there is a sequel!

Lord of the Flies meets Annihilation meets a teen boarding school drama (forgive me, the name of one doesn't immediately come to mind...). Featuring extra creepy woods, a mysterious disease, and queer young girls.

The writing was a particular favorite aspect of this book - Rory Power really knows how to write poetic and dark descriptions of nature. I'm not a local to the Northeast or any part of any country that has those creepy, foreboding woods haunting in the background, but Power makes me feel like I am. As much as I want to avoid sounding like a junior-year English teacher, the forest really is its own character in this book, as alive as any of the protagonists.

The characters were a little bit on the weak side for my taste - I just couldn't connect to any of them. The central tie of the story is really how they connect with each other - how they, especially Hetty, will fight to save the lives of those she loves. The solidarity of their friendships was admirable.

Overall, if you're into YA survival thrillers with strong female characters at the center, you'll love Wilder Girls.

I’ve been excited for this book since I heard about it. Getting the chance to read it and find out it’s so close to home to me made it even better.
This story really lived up to the hype and perfectly captured what living in Maine is like unlike many books that try to capture just how the state is, a mix of spooky and sad tourists destination that doesn’t leave much for those living here. The story follows a school of Girls who have been infected with a strange illness. A sort of setting you can only ever expect to happen in Maine.
The characters are full of depth and growth. Byatt is sort of a mystery for most of the story only to find out she’s not exactly a great person, but Hetty makes her better. Reese fell close to home for me, the outsider of the group who seems cold and uncaring but actually is big hearted and cares too much. And Hetty is the person who brings them together. She’s loyal to a fault and loves her friends. She will do anything for them. She grows a lot but still keeps the basics of the characteristics. She’s fierce and wild. They all are.
The story itself is timely. The Tox being a parasite that was locked away in glaciers and ice that’s melting due to climate change, starting on Raxter, giving to the fact the state was carved out by them. It’s exactly as haunting as it sounds and something that could occur to us in a sense. It leaves the reader chilled to the core.
All in all the story is great with only minor flaws. Is inclusive and written well with the queer characters. I read it near obsessively as soon as I was approved for it.