Wilder Girls

Honestly, I am not completely sure how I feel about this book. My first impression of it was a beautiful cover, and while the writing at times feels lyrical, this book is anything but beautiful. In an almost twisted retelling of The Lord of The Flies, Powers delivers a story of a group of girls doing anything to survive a deadly "Tox" while under quarantine at their boarding school. I absolutely loved the writing in this book and it would have felt magical had the contents not been so horrific, which is undoubtedly the point. I adored how complex and yet simple the characters were. While they were distinctly different from each other, they were also all young girls trying to survive. I will say I wish some things got more backstory. For example, we get hints of Byatt's life before the Tox but we never actually see it. I understand how this plays into Hetty's almost idealized version of Byatt, however, I would have loved to see this fleshed out a bit more. I think the ending of the book was abrupt, but I also feel like it would have been impossible to wrap up such horrific events in a matter of a few pages. The trauma that the girls have endured and the lies that they have been told will affect them for the rest of their lives. I just wish we could have learned more about the Tox and the after-effects of physically cutting it out of you. Overall, I found the story interesting and dark, but also real and raw. While you can see the inspiration pulled from other texts, this still feels original and new.

I had heard many good things about this book, so I decided to give it a try. It wasn't that I didn't like the story or the characters, but I honestly just thought that this book was OK. I thought it was slow, and the characters were quite flat. I still think, however, that this book got the hype for a reason, and many people have liked it so you should definitely give it a try if you are into dystopian reads.

If I didn't have to read and review this book, I honestly wouldn't have finished it. Needless to say, "Wilder Girls" started out interesting. I thought I was going to like it especially when I liked the relationships between certain characters (more than the characters themselves). Unfortunately, "Wilder Girls" just wasn't a book for me. I think "Wilder Girls" would've been a book I might have enjoyed if we were still in the "Maze Runner" era or the era where dystopia YA was still pretty popular. Right now, I am just not feeling it. I didn't feel like I enjoyed reading this book despite the author's beautiful writing. Now, don't get me wrong, this book was pretty awesome for a debut YA novel. However, I'd say the writing "saved" this book but the story did not. Now that I'm a bit older, I'm more conscious about the books I'm reading. I like to think about the "where," "why," and the "how's" of what I'm reading. I like to think deep or beyond what was being portrayed/showed in the story. In "Wilder Girls," the reader does not get all the answers, or the answers were wrapped up in a convoluted way. In fact, it was pretty messy to the point that I'm actually doubting these characters or whether they know or understand what was going on. There had also been a point where some characters knew what was happening but it just made ZERO sense to me on how they arrived to that conclusion. It just didn't make sense how they would understand the science behind the Tox just by looking at diagrams and scientific information. I can't even recall a time the girls in the boarding school were actually studying. They were just hunting, trying to survive, etc. There really wasn't enough backstory or substantial backstory for me to even understand what was happening. At the same time, I don't know what the meaning is behind this story. This book seemed to be purely plot based just to show a horror and queer story. I couldn't find anything substantial in the book besides the relationships. All I'm saying is that while I'm reading this book, I can't help but think: "what's the point?" All in all, this was a slow and less cohesive story with a pretty cover but ultimately it just wasn't for me.

This was quite the chilling story with the virus called the Tox changing and killing the girls of Raxter and their fight for survival, not only against the virus, but also against those on the outside of their small island. It was fascinating to me to read about the changes that the virus was making to the girls and the wildlife and the woods on the island. I wish there had been more explanation about how the virus came to be, rather than the quick blurb at the end. I hope that there is another book written too because this book was good but kind of leaves you hanging and I want to know more about what happens to Hetty, Reese, and Byatt. They lived in a harsh world and I hope that things turn out better for them sooner or later.