The Wilderness of Girls by Madeline Claire Franklin is her debut novel and it’s so good!! This book YA but make sure you check your trigger warnings before you get started.

Rhi's has had a rough life, her mother has passed, her father gets arrested and her awful stepmom vanished not too long after her father’s arrest. She is happy to learn that she is being sent to live with her uncle Jimmy, who soon becomes her guardian.

While working at her new job at Happy Valley Wildlife Preserve she finds four feral girls who were raised in the wild with wolves and by their “Mother.” The feral girls are scared but are told by the wolves that they can trust Rhi and have a feeling she is their missing sister. Overnight the girls are thrust into the spotlight while adjusting to a new world they no longer know. Rhi becomes their source of guidance and a safe space while navigating all these new changes.

Madeline wrote such a heartbreaking yet beautiful story. This world she created is fascinating, heartbreaking, captivating, and intriguing. This is a page turning story with an edge of darkness, realism, trauma, grief, with a hint of a fairytale that will tug at your heart string or just break it. These girls including Rhi always had to keep up the appearance of being strong to not let on how scared they were feeling inside. Thank you to NetGalley and Zando Young Readers for letting me read this ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts and opinions. I want to add that Rebecca Soler did an amazing job narrating this book. I was very impressed and hope I get to hear her narrate again.

There is so much wrapped up in The Wilderness Girls by Madeline Claire Franklin that I don't even know where to start.

First of the all, the main character, Rhi, is a teenager that I wanted to wrap my arms around each day of her story. Then she comes across four feral teenage girls in the middle of the woods. I mean, who DOESN'T want to read that story? Admittedly, I think about it each time I am walking through a forested area now. What would I do if I came across these girls? When they bring the four girls into society, it reminded me of Crocodile Dundee. The girls believe they are part of some magical world, but society thinks they were part of a sinister kidnapping. I kept hoping for the magic part to be true.

I also loved the character of Rhi's uncle, who takes her in under his wing. For some reason, I pictured him like John Stamos in Full House. He was so loving toward Rhi, and I like how their relationship developed.

The four teenage girls are also well-developed characters in their own right. Franklin does a wonderful job of building up each of their personalities and challenges, while showing what's it's like to live in foster homes.

Although this is listed as a YA book, I think it's more of an adult book because of the issues involved in the story. I wouldn't share this with my middle school students. There are strong content warnings for this book listed on Goodreads. Don't let the YA genre stop you from reading it, though.

I first gave this book four stars. But I can't get it off my mind, so I switched it to five stars. It's a great clash of fantasy meets real world, and it's beautifully written.

Thank you to NetGalley, Zando Young Readers, and Madeline Claire Franklin for my free copy of this book. This is based on my honest review.

Super interesting and super heartbreaking. This is gonna do some damage (good damage, probably) to some teenagers

It took me an embarrassingly long time, even given the not so subtle clue of the name situation, to realize this was at least somewhat allegorical. That said, even my overheated little brain recognized it as lyrical, occasionally touching, and quietly inspiring in a way I can't quite put my finger on.

An absolutely incredible experience - carve out a large chunk of time because you won't be able to put this down. There's an incredible pull between the sisters, a tie that binds them - are they princesses stepped out of the pages of folklore, victims of trafficking/kidnapping, crazy, or right? Perhaps the girls see the world as we've always been meant to see - what an incredible read - highly, highly recommend.

The format of this book made it so weird on my Kindle that I had a really hard time reading it. But I loved the writing style.

I'm sort of smitten with this novel. The story is captivating, the character development is amazing, and the plot is compelling. I loved Rhi and her finding the Wild Girls of Happy Valley. All of them were amazing. The complexity of the story was very intriguing and I appreciated how each one of them grew and built themselves up as individuals.

There are some tough parts in this book, but I think that it's all paid off by the end. Several times I caught myself tearing up with the story and the development of the characters. The balance between magic realism and realism is pretty awesome and I found myself pulling for the former all the way through.

I can't recommend this book any more than to say, if you are looking for a novel that will have you riveted to the end this is the one. Many may find it daunting, but I loved it. There are many different ways of the story being told through narrative and text messages and television shows and whatnot it keeps you on your toes. This is the one, my people. This is my book of the year right now (June 2024).

I had a really hard time finishing this book. The first 50% or so was good and engaging. But the struggle really started in the second half. I think the premise is good. But I didn't love the execution. The underlying message about girls and their treatment and expectations in society was good. I just may not have been the target audience.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I am so sad to say that I could not finish this due to my own annoying pet peeves.
I really love the set up, the feral girls, the wolves! And as a foster kid myself, I was looking forward to being deeply touched by this story. I'm sure at some point I will finish it [I have purchased a copy and it's sitting on my coffee table lol].
But I have the hardest time reading in present tense, which yes I know is an obnoxious pet peeve. Because the pacing in just the first chunk of this book is lightening speed, I feel like it would have made much more sense for this to be in past tense [again, just for my preferences which are absolutely not in the majority so I understand!]. To me, it felt as if the author couldn't wait to get the character to her new town to witness these majestic girls [swoon], and so info dumped/present tense skipped through the events that would get her there. Which just doesn't make sense in present tense because time is very much literal in those scenerios. I just couldn't take the pacing seriously, and it really irritated me [I hate writing that, I'M SORRY!]
The word choices and quotes were absolutely piercing me through the heart though. So because of that and the themes/topics that I was so excited for, I'm going to return at some point, but not now. I'm going to give it a three rating because of how much I connected with just the synopsis [that's powerful lol]! And because I know this is definitely a me issue.

When I read the description for The Wilderness of Girls, I knew immediately that this book was going to be excellent. I loved the story. It was well written and the characters were captivating. The book was a little darker than I originally expected, but it works with the story's message.

I loved the premise of the book. Overall, the Wild Girls overlapped, and the only one with a distinct personality was Sunder. The magical realism did not add anything to the novel. I would have liked more of an explanation about where the girls came from. I found it in plausible that of the four girls only one would be reunited with family. Nonetheless, I did enjoy the journey of the girls from the wilderness into the modern Day world along with Rhi’s own journey of healing.

Very enjoyable tale. I felt kinship with the girls and enjoyed the writing style. Girls raised by an unknown man called ‘Mother’ in a fairy story life. They were wild and had magic. After Mothers passing their life became more difficult and the magic was fading. The struggle to blend into the real world was difficult and deadly..

This was such an amazing read. The smart, skillfully constructed story was completely captivating and tantalizingly intriguing. A wicked sharp edge of darkness is woven throughout, and it easily keeps you hanging on the edge as this gripping tale that's a potent combo of fairytale and raw realism.

. A dark story of a group of girls found in the woods and the girl who found them. If you like everything wrapped up in the end, this may not be the book for you. The story ended with a positive outlook. I think it provided good insight into complex PTSD.

I really loved the cover of the book

Addicting right from the start. Well written, fantastic story line, gut wrenching. This is a captivating exploration of adolescence, friendship, and the complexities of growing up in a small town.

I. Am. SPEECHLESS. This book was spellbinding. I was riveted from the very beginning. Be sure to read the synopsis for trigger warnings as there are many. The novel is very character-focused. The narrator is third person omniscient, so the reader can understand what all the main characters of the story are feeling/thinking. We see their bonds strengthen, weaken, become tangled with frustration and confusion, all for different reasons such as abuse, what it means to be family, media, societal expectations, and toxic masculinity. I loved everything this book had to say about being a girl in todays world and all the rage and grief that comes along with that.

This is great read. The characters were engaging and I couldn't put the book down. I would recommend this book for a book club or a friend.

I wish that the descriptions of books would match the reality of books. I was looking for something with magic. What I got was yet another reminder that girls are treated very badly by people all around them. I wasn't in a good place to read this and definitely would have put off reading it.

The Wilderness of Girls by Madeline Claire Franklin is an intense story dealing with many traumatic themes. This book is still YA but I think it's best suited for older teens.
Eden's family life isn't great and when her father is arrested and her step mom bail she goes to live with her uncle. Right away I noticed her struggling with trauma and depression though it's not expressly stated what she's so upset about until later in the story. She is trying to start over in Happy Valley, where she changed her name to Rhi. While on a hike she discovers four teenage girls half-naked with wolves.
There are times when like the four girls the reader isn't sure if the magic they were told was real existed or if they just fell into the delusions of a madman. Each girl struggles to find their way in the real world compared with how they were raised as they come to terms with things that may not have ever been real.
There are a lot of triggers in this book including SA, child abuse, domestic abuse, death, cannibalism, and suicide.
This book made my heart hurt because so many children have to go through these things. I enjoyed the relationships and how the girls all lean on their bonds as sisters to make it through hard situations.
Thank you to Netgalley and Zando for this arc. I am writing this review voluntarily and all opinions expressed are my own.

The Wilderness of Girls
By: Madeline Claire Franklin


After Eden moves in with her uncle she is able to reinvent herself to leave her past, and the parts of herself she doesn’t like, behind. Introducing herself as Rhi she starts high school and struggles to fit in, but gets a job working with her uncle in a nature reserve. As she is working early one day she stumbles upon a group of wild girls- one of which has her foot caught in a trap, and is very injured. Surrounded by wolves and her protective sisters, Rhi is able to get the girls to a hospital to get them help- but that is just the start of their story unfolding. The girls are fearful and develop a trusting relationship with Rhi where they tell her about ‘mother,’ a prophet who was helping to prepare them, the princesses, to go back to their world… As the rest of the story unfolds, we try to untangle the girls’ story… Who are they? Is magic real? Will they go back? What is true? As the take unfolds we learn not only about girls, but Rhi has to come to grips with her own past.

TW: Sexual Assault, kidnapping?