This book took me a while to get into as the writing style is very different to what I usually read but I pushed on and it did end up totally working for me in the end. I loved the atmospheric setting, the angsty and intense friendship between the girls, the slight blossoming romance and I personally loved the sudden ending, although I know that won't be for everyone. This made me think of a YA all-female, less intense and far less gory version of The Troop (one of my favourite books!!).

Rory Power is a brutal storyteller. I wasn't expecting this book to be so dark, but I really enjoyed it. The strength of the friendships between the main characters was empowering and I was happy to see the beginning of a romantic relationship forming too. The way the tox affects people and nature alike was fascinating, although by the end of the book I was still not sure exactly why the tox affected each person so differently. I would love to read a sequel (or even a prequel) to this story, and it would have been interesting to have a few chapters from the perspective of Taylor or Welch.

I liked this, and the premise, but I felt there was an undercurrent of disability being a punishment for something, which I didn't like. I felt like the ending wasn't explanatory enough, I think there's probably a follow up book.

After hearing others from different countries talking about this book I was excited to read it. The synopsis of a collection of girls quarantined due to a mysterious illness had me intrigued.

This was a fun story. I loved the friendship between the girls. I am not a fan of body horror and this has some gruesome descriptions but I managed to get through.

Personally, I enjoyed it but just not a new favourite.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for my review copy. All opinions are my own.


This book follows Hetty as she and other girls in her school are quarantined as they have a dangerous disease. It has been 18 month since the quarantine and we follow Hetty as Byatt goes missing.


This book was a very fast read for me and it kept me captivated as I wanted to know more! I finished this in a few hours and I couldn't put it down.


I enjoyed this book as it was very interesting concept.I  liked that the disease is already known but I would have liked to know a bit more about the origin of the disease. I don't know if this is a series or standalone but if it is a standalone, I'm left very unsatisfied with not knowing much about the history of the disease. I feel like there is much that is not told.I would have loved to know more about the history of the disease as we're just thrown into the story and by the end we don't really know much more. We learn some things as to where it came from but I would have liked to know how it mutated and got into humans. The disease basically mutates the body so it is a bit dark and gory so I would watch out for that if you can't read that.


I liked how it explored what it was like to be isolated on an Island for 18 months and how people would behave. It was interesting to see how they survived.I also liked the mystery aspect of this book as I tried to put clues together but ultimately got it wrong. I liked guessing where the disease came from and where Byatt went and what was up with the teachers. 


I liked the writing style as it was easy to read but I didn't like that we have two POVs but one was barely there. I would have preferred it not to be there at all or explored more.We didn't really get anything new from the character and it only made me dislike the character.


In terms of characters, I liked Hetty as she was willing to do anything for her friends. I didn't like Byatt much as she seemed like a cruel character who only looked out for herself. I really liked Reese. She was a very great character and has gone through a lot like all the girls but I think it was especially hard on her.


I liked the romance and how it started. I would have liked it to be explored a bit more.  It wasn't in the spotlight and when I thought it was going well one or the other would do or say something and they'd be a step back.


I would like to talk a bit about the ending. I was enjoying the story but the ending kind of ruined it for me. I didn't like it at all. I thought it was very counter productive with everything that was going on and kind of out of character of Hetty? I thought it could have gone in a different direction than it did. I also don't know if it has a sequel but I couldn't find anything about it so I don't think it has one. I think if there is going to be one,a lot is left to explore.


I would have liked the book a lot more if it had a bit more detailed as I felt it was vague in a lot of places. I would have liked to see more about the start of the disease but all I got was a few lines.


All in all, I did enjoy the book as it was a fast and interesting read and would recommend it if you want a dark horror book. I will definitely be reading more books by this author.


3-3.5/5

I heard so much about this book, and I was very curious. I really liked the premise, and Lord of Flies is one of my favourite books.
I think the idea behind the book was really good. The body horror was executed really well. For someone who has a soft stomach, it didn't make me feel bad. It was well written with a purpose.
Apart from it, the pace of the book wasn't the same all over. It started in a way that didn't grab me immediately. It's a bit vague for my taste all over, and I wish it was sharper.
Overall, good book that could be great.
Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

Having heard so much about this book from my US and Canadian counterparts I was so excited to read it! I immensely enjoyed the mutations which the girls endured (you know what I mean!), the beautiful friendships and the f/f relationship which is always great to see done well in fiction. It did seem to go out not with a bang, but with a whimper, but I may re-read it in the future and see if it's just my opinion on that one. A good book.

I'm really not sure how I felt about this one. On the one hand, there were loads of thing to really love about it - that cover! So beautiful! The lyrical, evocative writing inside it! And the lovely Sapphic relationships, to be expected really, when a bunch of girls are trapped on an island together for years, with nobody else. But there was something missing from this, which stopped me from really enjoying it as much as I might have.
Wilder Girls feels like a book that doesn't really know what it wants to be. It's a horror, with very real, visceral elements of the reality of being trapped on an island for years, as well as the deprivations and hardships the girls endure. There's also a really great depiction of the hierarchical way the girls worked out their arrangement, and the elements which were arranged to ensure fairness - from fights over the choicest food to rotating who goes first in order of age, as once they're trapped, the eldest will never change. But there was something missing from this. It wasn't just a bleak horror, but it didn't really feel like a dystopia, either. It had feminist elements, but not really enough to make this a truly feminist book - how feminist can it be when there's no men in there anyways? I don't really know what this was. Plotwise it was lacking something, particularly in the last 50 pages. I felt for the last third like there wasn't enough time left to resolve all the issues that were still up in the air, and really, the ending of the book felt unfinished.
There's loads of great stuff in here, with some fabulous imagery and complex, layered friendships and relationships between the girls. But it's lacking something vital, something structural, which left me feeling somewhat underwhelmed by a book that's been seriously hyped up. This is a debut, and it reads like a debut. This isn't necessarily a criticism, just an observation. It's uneven in tone at times, but promises great things to come in future.

On an isolated island off the coast from a naval base, lies a private school for girls. It's been eighteen months since the Tox hit this school and the island was quarantined, leaving only a handful of girls remaining and meaning it's no longer safe for them to venture outside of the school gates. The disease has left it's mark on all of the girls. Hetty has lost an eye, Reece's hand is now covered in scales, and Byatt has grown a second spine. The groundskeeper, Reece's father, was recruited into the confines of the school, until he was so affected by the Tox that he left and now roams the forest of the island. Boat squad - a select group of three students and one of only two remaining teachers risk everything to trek across the island for the supplies left by the navy on the pier. This is their only way of survival. Until one day Byatt has a flare up and disappears, Hetty joins Boat Squad, and Reece has to face what has become of her father.

This hype for this book was wild (geddit?), and so I was thrilled to get my hands on a copy thanks to NetGalley. Unfortunately, I did not love it. 

My main issue was the pacing. I was well over 40% of the way through when it felt like things started picking up. It wasn't that there was too much exposition at the begining, and it wasn't like nothing at all was happening. It just wasn't happening fast enough. I got to around 90% and was so stressed because there was no way we were near the end, and as I kept reading I could see no way of this wrapping up nicely.

Which brings us to the ending. No spoilers, but I'm left with so many questions. It felt rushed and unfinished in so many ways, and just???? I need a sequel just to wrap up all the loose ends. And I can't find anything online about there being a sequel in the works which sucks - please correct me if I'm wrong.

Most of the time I enjoyed reading Wilder Girls. Rory Power uses some very vivid language and the way she protrays the characters thoughts, especially when confused or in a flare up, is so perfect. I absolutely love the world building, and the clues to the outside world we got, what started the disease and how it affects this school. 

But, as I said, it wasn't built upon properly. There was no satisfying pay off of learning anything that we were made to question for the whole book.

And that is my overwhelming takeaway of the book. Disappointment, really, at the end more than anything. It's unfortunate, as the premise of Wilder Girls was so promising. 

Rory Power has a second book out later this year, Burn Our Bodies Down, and I will be checking that out, as her writing proved she has promise. I just hope that one doesn't go down the same path as this one.

A quick read, it was passable but I wasn’t wowed exactly. It’s not my kind of read unfortunately and based on the synopsis I was really looking forward to it, so I was disappointed to be honest as I was expecting so much. The characters I found completely unrepeatable and unsympathetic, couldn’t connect at all and they seemed to lack any depth. The writing itself was easy to read and descriptive, I think it was largely the characterisation that let it down. Just not one for me.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I thought that the premise of this book was really good and interesting. I was very quickly hooked in by the mysterious illness/disease that was affecting this girls' school students and the teachers.
Why were they quartined?
Why was there no one there to see to them? Doctors, nurse, volunteers in hasmat suits? Someone, anyone. But no, just them. Alone on an island, in their school, their numbers dwindling and no one activtely trying to cure them.
So, I enjoyed this book to start off with but about half way through I grew bored with the story. I felt like it was a bit predictable a lot of the time.
I enjoyed body horror elements to this story. The messed up ways in which the characters' bodies could become disfigured and mutilated through this disease. I liked that it seemed to come in cycles, that it would affect them every few weeks, months or so. And each time it might kill them. Plus how it's more likely to kill them each time. I thought that was very interesting to read about. And I liked that there was parts of the story where that was very clearly shown.
I wasn't that keen on the narration. I felt like it was a little bit slow at times. Obviously, she doesn't know everything that's going on, with her being a teen, but I do wish that she could have discovered/learned some things quicker. Overall, I would have liked it if the story had been a bit faster paced. I also didn't particularly like the writing style that much either. As much as I wished this book was for me it simply wasn't.

This is a survival story set in an all-girls boarding school under quarantine after the girls are infected with something call the Tox. Their bodies change; gills grow, extra bones emerge, skin turns into scales. The transformations are painful and gruesome! I really loved the portrayal of female friendship especially between the three main characters. The book does a great job showing how their words sometimes don’t reflect the depth of their feelings for each other. There’s a f/f pairing too which is refreshing to see. But I thought the story fizzles into a predictable ending and I was left kind of unsatisfied. Still, this is a brutal, beautiful body horror with memorable characters.

This book was nothing like I expected. I'll admit, it took a while to get accustomed to how gory this book was and I'm not a big fan of books that introduce 5+ character names at the beginning. But I think 'Wilder Girls' took me by surprised because of all the plot twists and action scenes. There were some gripping moments in this that left me pulling faces and wanting to read more. It was creepy, horrify and shocking but all in a good way.

Overall, I enjoyed 'Wilder Girls'. It was a different read from what I'm used to and definitely creeped me out (but in a good way!)

t has been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was placed into quarantine. Eighteen months since they’ve had a proper meal. Eighteen months since the first girl came down with The Tox. The Tox, a strange and parasitic disease that changes their bodies in unusual and sometimes deadly ways – their bodies become toxic, things begin to grow from them, or they lose bits of themselves. It mutates them. It isn’t just the people that it effects as The Tox has made the island, the woods and the wildlife dangerous and wild. Inside the school fence, they wait for a cure.

trigger warnings: violence, gore, body horror, self harm, suicide

“I think I’d been looking for it all my life-a storm in my body to match the one in my head.”

Wilder Girls has been on my tbr list for so long and when the opportunity came up to review on NetGalley I was so happy. I’ve heard nothing but good things about Wilder Girls with people calling it a feminist horror and modern-day Lord of the Flies. It was a… strange read but it was my kind of strange. It’s feral, it’s brutal, it’s atmospheric, and it’s queer.

I wasn’t a big fan of how it ended because it seems as though nothing was answered and nothing was resolved BUT I also feel like it wasn’t necessarily a book about The Tox, a horrible and wild disease, but a book about these girls – Hetty, Byatt, and Reese – and about their relationship and their survival. Sometimes, I think the unknown made it a more eerie read.

One of my favourite parts of Wilder Girls was the subtle horror. It isn’t a type of horror that will make you jump, but it is creepy and it is eerie and it makes your skin crawl. It’s bloody and it’s gory but I think the scariest things about Wilder Girls was the isolation and how it affected them and what it drove them to do.

“Some days it’s fine. Others it nearly breaks me. The emptiness of the horizon, and the hunger in my body, and how will we ever survive this if we can’t survive each other?

The characters were a highlight of Wilder Girls. Brutal, vicious, unapologetic, determined, angry, wild, and just powerful. I loved Byatt and Hetty’s friendship and I loved Hetty and Reese’s romance.

Wilder Girls was a brutal and feral book that left me with a lot of unanswered questions but it was a book that I really enjoyed. Rory Power is a gifted writer and I look forward to her next novel, Burn Our Bodies Down.

Wilder Girls is a twisted tale of female friendship, love and survival. Ever since the Tox first appeared, Raxtor School for Girls has been quarantined, cut off from mainland and barely surviving. The Tox struck in different ways: killing off the teachers, mutating the students and twisting them beyond recognition. Only the thought of a cure keeps everyone fighting from one day to the next. Hetty is one of these girls, blinded in one eye by the disease, and when her best friend goes missing, Hetty is determined to find out the truth, no matter the cost.

From the start, I was engrossed. I kept turning the pages, getting pulled further and further into Raxtor and the girls’ lives, or what little life there was left. The writing suited the world it was depicting, and so building on the atmosphere and tension as one read. It was easy to see the reality that the girls were living in and get to know the key characters. Hetty and her best friend, Byatt, each have PoVs, each written in a completely different style to suit the character and their situation. I enjoyed the friendships between them and how they tackled the struggles throughout, even as those struggles became more complex and out of their control.

There were two main issues which brought this book down from a 5 start to a 4 star. The first was that the core relationship struggled to find any grounding and was mostly under-developed. The background relationships mentioned were a lot stronger. The second reason, and the main reason for the drop in rating, is that the ending does not work at all for me. The concept and story were so strong throughout the book and then the ending was just lukewarm, I didn’t understand the characters’ actions and it just left me feeling flat. After everything I had gone through with the characters, I wanted more.

That being said, I did enjoy this novel and I will likely enjoy it more on a reread, knowing what to expect from the ending. It is dark and gruesome, but the writing and characters help keep the reader from getting too bogged down in the gore. However, it is not a book for anyone sensitive to body horror as the depiction are graphic, especially in scenes which describe the Tox taking hold (further trigger/content warnings can be found here). For anyone else who likes a good thriller, this book kept me reading with ease. It is a fantastic debut and I am really looking forward to seeing more from this author.

Before I start my review of this brilliant book I just want to say "Look at that freaking amazing cover!!" It's intriguing, freaky, and beautiful all in one. Which I guess summarises the story as well so.... job done!
Just kidding! Wilder Girls has often been dubbed a feminist modern remake of Lord of the Flies and I totally agree. The girls are all pupils at a secluded boarding school set in a large wooded area and have been quarantined due to an outbreak of a virus called Tox. The situation then turns in to an all out survival scenario. With minimal supplies being shipped in from the outside world and the girls all having bizarre mutagenic reactions to the Tox they can only depend on their own skills and bonds to survive. Things descend rapidly into chaos when one of the girls goes missing following a 'flare up' of her symptoms/reaction and other girls head out to search for her, finding that the Tox has also drastically changed the island's plants and animals in dangerous ways.
The main characters have such a beautiful yet complicated relationship that drew me in completely. I adored each one of the girls in different ways. And the natural way that a queer relationship was interwoven in the story was perfect. But as a horror fan what made this book right up my alley was the blood, guts, and weirdness. It reminded me a bit of how snippets of horror are thrown in to The Troop by Nick Cutter (another FAB book by the way). And these snippets enhance the story rather than become the story which is a hard thing to get right.
There was just one teeny, tiny bit that brought the book down from an all out 5 star to a 4 star read for me and that was the ending. It felt rushed and inconclusive. As if the author just ran out of ideas and gave up. It was so disappointing. It would be good to have a sequel to finish the story off.

This was probably the most hyped book I heard about in 2019 and I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. It's part dystopian and part horror and I loved it. It was so atmospheric but had real character development. I usually prefer to have a good idea what a book is about before I start reading it, but in this case I enjoyed that all of the reviews I had were vague. It follows a group of girls who have been quarantined on an island after a mysterious disease ravages them. Every girl has different symptoms but they're all horrific! It's a battle of survival as food and clothing runs out but amongst that is a friendship so strong and pure.

The only thing I wish is that it delved deeper into the disease itself, as I found it fascinating!

A quick read that was enjoyable. Set in a dystopian future, girls are quarantined at their school, unable to leave because of the pox that has caused harm to them. The story was enjoyable, if a little predictable. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an ARC egalley.

As dystopian novels go, Wilder Girls ticks a lot of boxes. Set in an all girls boarding school during an outbreak of a mysterious 'Tox' the story follows Hetty and her best friends Reese and Byatt as they attempt to navigate the new normal they've found themselves in. Part Mean Girls, part X-Men, part The Stand there's a whole lot going on here in what is a relatively short book and I feel like that's why this fell a little flat for me.
It's a decent read, don't get me wrong, but too much is given over to descriptions of the island and the effects of the Tox rather than comprehensive explanations of what's going on. Sometimes I like vague, where a lot is left up to interpretation, but here I just found it frustrating.
More time could have been given to the plot and story to provide more of a balance. That said, I did enjoy Power's style and I'll check out more of her books in the future.

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Macmillan Children's Books in exchange for an honest review.

This book was entirely different from what I was expecting. I'd heard that it was a horror book about a group of girls in a boarding school who start developing terrifying mutations as part of an infection-type thing they call 'the Tox'. And yes, that technically is the plot! But it doesn't give you a lot to work with in terms of genre or tone. Even after reading this, I'm still struggling to classify it a little but I think sci-fi is the label that fits it best.

So, many people in the Booktube community have raved about Wilder Girls and I do think that's a bit of a shame really because, after reading it, I'm struggling to see why. Don't get me wrong, there were some really cool things about this book. The characters were fairly decent, the plot once it kicked in was really absorbing and I had no idea how things were going to pan out. But at the same time, there were definitely things that were lacking. With the horror aspect being played up in the way this book is marketed (or at least, classified) I expected more of a focus on what the Tox actually does to these girls' bodies. In actuality there is almost no detail given. At first I assumed this was to build suspense but this is not followed up by any payoff and so it all fell a bit flat for me. It was hard to visualise the true nature of the Tox when we had so little to go on.

Overall, I think I wanted to like this book more than I did. I went in very blind beyond the basic description and, while I tried so hard not to let rave reviews influence me, I was sadly left wondering what all the fuss was about. The climax felt rushed and messy, once again vague on details. I did like the ending paragraphs and parts of the plot were done really well. I just wish there'd been a little bit more of everything.

Overall Rating: 3.5/5 stars