A strange and unsettling story about the impact of a strange disease, known only as the Tox, that hits a remote girls' school on an island. In an effort to maintain the outbreak, the school is cut off from the mainland and increasingly dwindling supplies are sent over on a ship. The novel opens 18 months after the intial outbreak, when life on Raxter island has changed unrecognisably. Those girls who haven't been killed by the virus have undergone strange physical changes, from spiny second backbones erupting from their skin to shiny metallic scales covering whole limbs. Hetty, the book's narrator, is trying to find out what has happened to her friend Byatt, taken away after being hit by a bad 'flare' of the Tox. As she begins to dig, she finds that there is something even more sinister than she had imagined going on.

It might be an unusual move to combine a coming-of-age/sexual awakening story with mutating limbs and conspiracy theories, but I can dig it. It ends quite abruptly, leaving me wondering if there'd be more to the story, but it's well imagined and creatively portrayed.

Hetty and her friends struggle to survive the mysterious illness plaguing their isolated school.

Eighteen months. That's how long it's been since the Tox first attacked the pupils at the Raxter school, isolated on their own island. The girls have spent the time since waiting for the cure they were promised, hiding behind the school fence as the Tox mutates the animal and plant life. Only two of their teachers are left. The others have died or lost themselves to the forest.

There's more going on in this book, but to be honest it's taken me two hours to write that much. This novel has gotten a lot of praise, but I didn't enjoy it. I forced myself back to it, over and over, sure that I had to be missing something. So many people raved about it! I must be just missing the point, right?

This novel doesn't have a point, that I could find. It's a bunch of extremely poetic descriptions interrupted occasionally for some gore. It's unremittingly dark. Byatt seems to have deliberately spread the infection to the only person who was genuinely nice to her. Headmistress's big shocking revelation is completely obvious. The book doesn't end so much as stop dead.

But damn if it isn't an absolutely amazing cover.

Wilder Girls is one of those books that reminds you just why YA dystopian fiction can be so great. It centres on the power of friendships in the worst possible circumstances, as well as providing some hope for the future. It is, in short, pretty fucking great.

The story is set in an island school, following the outbreak of a disease called the Tox, a disease which alternately drives its victims mad or causes strange things to burst out of their bodies. The school is under quarantine, and no one is allowed outside of the quarantine zone except those lucky few who go to collect the supplies the Navy sends.

I don’t think it would be that amiss to say not a whole lot happens in this book. It’s definitely more of your character-driven sort of science fiction/horror novel. And that’s great here, because the characters Rory Power creates are amazing and what drives the book for me is their relationships, particularly the one between Hetty, Byatt and Reese. It was definitely the relationship between the three of them that kept me reading the book (I mean, not that I was ever in danger of stopping).

And then there’s the writing. It’s one of those great styles that’s easy and quick to read, while also being very evocative and tense where needed. And there are definitely moments of tension (and sadness, like, the whole of Byatt’s arc). There were parts where my heart was distinctly beating faster because of the tension.

I will say though, at the end, I sort of could guess where the plot was going. Actually, I could guess from the moment Byatt was first given a POV. It’s not really hard to see it, but it’s also not a book where that matters because it’s about the characters rather than the plot, really. It’s also not quite as gory as I was expecting, given the reviews, though that might say less about the book and more about the fact I was reading a history book on the Plantagenets beforehand. Puts everything into perspective.

So yeah. In case, for whatever reason, you hadn’t read the book (though why you wouldn’t have when I’m obviously the one lightyears behind on it), I’m telling you now to read it.

Interesting read, with different twists and turns in some young school boarder's lives... It made me think about biodiversity and genetic engineering, and how disturbing errors in these fields could be.. An unexpected ending

4.5/5

I thought this was a fantastic read, I don't know that I would say it was another version of Lord of the Flies, but I would say that it had elements of it but this has thriller in its blood. It's amazingly chilling to read and holy cow that ending!! Power's writing style is unique and may not be for everybody but I truly enjoyed the creepy 'Tox' and the mysteries of Raxter. There is what you might call a lack of humanity in this story, it's not about that, though there are glimpses of it, it's about the wildness that is slipping through the girls and the island they're on.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC of this in exchange for my honest review.

4 stars

So horror books aren't my usual reads but I won't lie - the cover alone pulled me in with this one.

I was pleasently surprised to find myself enjoying this book. It wasn't my favourite but it was definitely a refreshing and different take on a survivalist/dystopianish story. It explored so many aspects of girlhood - resilience, friendship, romance, identity, loyalty and trust being just a few. I would say I struggled to connect with the characters at points which is why I didn't give the book a full 5 stars but honestly was a great read and worth picking up!

I was kindly provided a free ebook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Very unique prose & a spine-chilling setting made this a gripping read. I admit, the cover was what first drew me to this book, but the premise & writing really delivered!

Wilder Girls is a strange and atmospheric book that features a group of girls living on a remote island in their former school while undergoing changes from the mysterious ‘Tox’, which alters their body in weird and wonderful ways.

Unfortunately I really didn’t get on with this. Told in two perspectives, Hetty and Byatt, I just couldn’t connect with either of them. The writing seems to skim any kind of depth in character development, preferring to focus on confusing the reader with increasingly bizarre horror oddities. As a result, I just didn’t care about what happened to the girls, and I found Byatt in particular severely lacking in personality and used only as a plot device.

The plot also feels incohesive and unstructured, jumping from one idea to another without pausing to really examine anything to depth. This meant for the majority of the story I was left confused at the lack of direction, with a large information dump near the end that I didn’t find in the least bit satisfying. And that ending. I’m all for open endings, but this just felt unfinished - as though the author just ran out of steam with what to do with her characters.

I will say that I found the writing style easy enough to get through, and this was a quick read that managed to create a well described atmosphere brimming with danger and wilderness. It’s just a shame the characters and plot couldn’t match this setting. Not for me.

I recently received an arc copy of this book for my independent honest review. Thank you.
May I start by pointing out I am Not from the target audience and therefore will have different views as an adult reading YA. In my opinion this does not translate well for an older audience and somewhat over Gory for the younger YA age group.
I was hearing so much about this book that I was excited to get it. The premise of a girl's school on an island under quarantine, an inside look at their behaviour as they struggle to survive wow, gave me Lord of the Flies vibes.!
However did I feel this debut horror thriller gave me that? Sadly no.
The school is infected with something that causes the girls bodies to mutate with horrific changes taking place. Very zombie esq.
Whilst I feel this author can write well and has some brilliant plot ideas, sadly I felt it lacked overall editorial advice to someone with a debut book. I couldn't emotionally relate to the three main protagonists either. Sorry guys.
The plot felt disjointed at times and in my opinion would have benefited from the old adage 'less is more' there were so many great tropes however did they really all need to be packed into one book.
There is certainly more to come from this author and I expect great things in the future.
Sorry this wasn't for me and parents please read for yourselves and judge whether you feel it suitable for your young teen.

This was kind of underwhelming given how many positive things i'd heard about this book. I thought it would have been more of a true horror but this felt like a mystery from start to finish. I did like the characters of Hetty and Byatt but felt some of the other girls were just under developed and could have been fleshed out more. This did have some good moments but it seemed to have a bit too much going on in it for it to be a successful novel for me.

This was a good read, and I definitely didn't feel unsatisfied by it. However, it just wasn't memorable and I'm pretty sure in a months time I will remember very little of this book. Ultimately, it was a unique book but just didn't make me feel much.
This book follows our main character, Hetty, who is in quarantine in her all girls school on a remote island. The Tox has mutated all of their bodies for a year and a half, and no cure seems to be on its way. As the numbers dwindle and someone close to Hetty disappears, she has to make more and more dangerous decisions to try and save herself and those around her. Because everything is not as it seems.
What I Liked:
-The plot was really exciting. The worst thing for me to feel in books is bored, and I didn't feel that at all reading Wilder Girls. The plot was well paced, and discoveries scattered at the perfect intervals. There were twists I didn't guess which is always a nice surprise, because I'm usually pretty accurate at guessing the majority of the "twists". It was just a really well crafted plot, in my opinion, especially for a debut author.
-The girls. I really liked the environment these girls were in. There are around 60 girls left, all fighting for food and supplies, just trying to keep themselves alive. Then there is a juxtaposition by the love some of these girls have for each other, and the lengths Hetty was willing to go to for 'her girls' was beautiful. I just loved how we could go from a scene where girls are tackling each other for a box of crackers, to putting their lives on the line to get one another to safety.
What I Didn't Like:
-My main problem was the style of writing. I'm not someone who enjoys descriptive, flowery language but this book was just the complete, polar opposite. It felt too dry, too detached, and too abrupt. I think some of that was choice, but I don't think all of it was, and it just really kept me from connecting to the characters. There just wasn't much feeling in the writing, and it kind of took me out of the story at points.
-I didn't connect with Hetty, the main character, because a lot of the time it didn't even feel like we were seeing the story through a characters eyes, it felt like we were just viewing it from a camera or something. None of her personality bled through and I struggled to care about what was going to happen to her. I cared more about the main side characters because at least they were given some personality and life.
Overall, this was a thrilling and exciting read that satisfied me plot wise, but wasn't satisfactory in the writing or character department. If the plot sounds interesting to you, I think it's definitely worth the read, but it just won't be something that sticks in my brain for long.

This was a really interesting and compelling exploration of humanity, friendship and our relationship to the land...with random extra spines and other delightful body horror elements. It tells the story of the Raxter School girls, kept in quarantine for 18 months following the tox - an unknown disease causing mutation and wildness in those infected.

The Positives: I thought that the relationship between our three protagonists, Hetty, Byatt and Reese, was really well done and felt authentic. Each girl is given depth and nuance, but Rory Power's real skill lies in ambiguity and diffusion, so we are left with more questions than answers about the connections between the girls, which I really enjoyed. The horror aspects of the novel are very much based in body horror, which readers should be aware of going in. For me, I loved the depictions of the ways in which the tox had changed the girls, but it is not for the squeamish. I also thought that Power's prose was exquisite at times and that her dream-like sentences worked really well for the overall atmosphere.

The Negatives: I could have done with some more concrete explanation around the tox and where it had come from. The ending is very open and, although I think it works well, I do think that there are those who will probably be frustrated by how little we actually know, by the end.

Overall I thought this was a really enjoyable and deliciously unpleasant book that will appeal to those who appreciate ambiguity in their stories and don't always need things neatly tied up.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This novel is no doubt one of a new type of dystopic novel set in the environment of the climate change emergency, like Margaret Atwood's Maddam trilogy. Hetty and her friends are forced to survive in their abandoned school after everyone on Raxter Island succumbs to a mystery illness called the Tox. The book tells the story of their struggles to live in this world and still live their lives.

I thought the characters of Hetty and Reese were particularly well drawn, though I could have done with some more characterisation of Byatt. I'm not sure if this is the start of a series as the conclusion was left quite openended, but I would be intrigued to see where the story went next.

I saw this book a lot when it first came out and was very much on the fence on whether this book would be for me or not.

I am so glad that I decided to take the plunge and request this book when it came up on NetGalley.

These characters are unapologetically human with their own complex emotions but throughout it all there is a strong sense of friendship and comradery between all the girls who are trapped on this island. These girls have had to adapt to their situation and learn how to defend themselves. I love a good survival book and this one hit the nail on the head.

Rory Power has an amazing talent of creating this unique atmosphere with extremely graphic horror scenes that I was not expecting but loved nonetheless. I found Power’s writing style captivating and I really struggled to put this book down!

The reason this book didn’t get 5 stars is because I really didn’t like the way it ended. I felt like it left a lot of unanswered questions and was a little bit slow at the start. I would have liked to have more of an introduction to the tox and how it they all dealt with the first symptoms.

Overall, this was an enjoyable, gritty read which I recommend to those who enjoy survival stories with friendship at its forefront. I’m really looking forward to seeing what Rory Power writes next!

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very well-rendered novel. The characters were engaging from the beginning, the story keeps you on the edge constantly. The writing is beautiful and the descriptions help bring the world to life. Definitely worth the hype.

I’ve heard so many amazing things about this book so I couldn’t wait to read it for myself.

Wilder Girls began in a quarantined school in the middle of Raxter island. Some form of virus called the Tox had swept through and made all the girls sick. They had basically been left to fend for themselves - the only contact with the outside world is a boat that drops off supplies every so often. There’s an air of mystery surrounding the school - I got that feeling like when you’re walking down a dark alley and something doesn’t feel quite right.

I loved Hetty but thought Reese acted like a brat at the beginning and she did my head in. I couldn’t understand why she sometimes acted like a completely different person, it was like she had a spilt personality or something.

Byatt was the star of the show for me. It was interesting trying to figure out where she had disappeared to. I loved reading from her perspective - it gave me such amazing insight into working out what was going on and I loved putting all the pieces together.

It was interesting to see how the school had adjusted to the virus and how everyone just seemed to know their place. The school could easily have descended into chaos, but they managed to keep everyone in line and made everyone feel like they had a purpose.

I loved the setting. I loved the mysterious island and the Tox that had infected it. It was fun to speculate why it had appeared and where it had come from and if the rest of the world had been affected.

The only reason I marked this as 4 instead of 5 was the ending. It was a great ending don’t get me wrong, but it left me with an annoying sense that the story was left too much to the imagination. I was desperate to find out what happened next and I had so many questions that I wanted answering. Overall, I’m excited to see what this author writes next, their writing is phenomenal and they know just how to craft an addictive story.

What a stunning cover. What tricky content. Wilder Girls isn't a clear one thing or another story for me - the pacing was great, the story telling was really enjoyable. But I've come away from it with the feeling that I've lost my peripheral vision - I was so focused on powering through the story, that I lost sight of the plot itself.

The Tox has kept Raxter Island under quarantine for the past eighteen months. Told that they cannot pass the fence, the girls from the boarding school become as increasingly feral, as the island grows wild around them. Their bodies mutate - some might grow gills, or pustules, or lose an eye, but everyone is affected in one way or another. And those bodies keep on mutating until some can't take it any more. The authorities are searching for a cure, but it's a long time coming ...

There were so many things I had questions about - why didn't the girls miss home? Why didn't they care that they hadn't spoken to their parents in a year? Why did no one try and pass the fence? Or swim off the island? Or escape? Whose blood is in the box? No one saw Mr Harker? Not to mention all the questions around the Tox itself - questions that I can't ask without spoiling what little the book tells.

The writing is actually incredible, and part of that is my biggest criticism of it - how it's able to give such an intense picture, yet hide so many details. Take the proclaimed LGBT relationships, for example - there was so much intensity of feeling but very little explicitly told. It made it hard for me to tell whether this was intensity of friendship in a dreadful situation, or actually Queer.

What this book needs, is a Book Club. There are so many points for discussion: about hormones, periods, puberty and change and how this book presents these as physical and extreme (but whilst skirting round the issue of puberty itself).
About boarding school - making your home somewhere else and giving yourself to it completely.
Mental health and implied self harm - the struggle for control in a situation where your body is out of control.
Of nature and adaptation...

I could go on - the point is that there are so many things to discuss, because very little is laid out for you. That can make a great book, or it can pull you apart, as other reviews show...

For those that have read it, I'm actually fine with the ending - I don't need it all resolved, because how can you ever fix all of that in the right way??

That cover is still so beautiful though, I can't take my eyes off it.

I was so happy to get the chance to read and review this book. It is amazingly written, creepy, and, well, a little bit weird! I loved it!

I can't remember the last time I've been so on-the-fence about a book. Wilder Girls had been sitting on my wishlist for months before I suddenly got approved for a Netgalley ARC- 6 months after publication?

Needless to say I was beyond excited and began reading immediately. It's taken me one afternoon to finish it, so clearly the book did grip me no matter my overall opinion.

Positives? Rory Power can write some damn good body horror! There are some truly repulsive scenes in Wilder Girls that gave the story an edge it definitely needed.
The atmosphere is beautifully done, I adored the bleak setting and the writing style during Byatt's manic moments although unconventional was really effective.

Whilst I loved the premise, the book was a little slow moving to start. There isn't an explanation of the origin of the Tox; there are plenty of half assed ideas but to be honest I'd rather there were none if Power never intended on a reveal.

I can't explain without spoilers but I found several gaping plot holes in this book, in the manner of problems/conflicts that could be easily solved with common sense. Including a massive flaw in the ending of the book that rendered the whole story pretty pointless.

However, I enjoyed the survivalism, the feral behaviour of the girls in such hopeless circumstances and the relationships built between the three main characters.

So as you see. Solidly on the fence.
Have to say though, very pleased to find another LGBTQ YA horror novel. If you read and enjoyed this may I highly recommend The Girl In Red by Christina Henry next?

An all-girls boarding school set on its own private island surrounded by woodland, what could go wrong?
Quite a lot it turns out.

Wilder Girls has been on my radar for a while now firstly because DAT COVER amirite? Second cos it keeps appearing on my fave’s reading list. So, when I had one of those very welcome emails from NetGalley offering me a chance to read it, you bet I clicked that link. My main reasoning being that I kept seeing this being described as an all-girl, slightly sapphic version of the Lord of the Flies and the last book I read that was described such a way was Libba Bray’s Beauty Queens which was an incredible book. To an extent, I agree with that, only this has a little more intrigue, a lot more gore, and a creepy, weird plague-like disease.



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.

Ok, so things you need to know:

This book is very graphic in places, particularly when it talks about what the Tox does to the girls, there is a lot of blood, death and violence, so you know if any of that stuff is a problem for you, keep that in mind.
This book is hella gay. I love it.
HOWEVER, while many people categorise this as a horror… It is more cringe at the gore kind of horror than screaming and not being able to sleep kind of horror. Basically, this is the kind of horror novel for people who don’t particularly like horror. It’s creepy and atmospheric rather than downright terrifying.
If you’ve read Lord of the Flies, you’ll know the basic premise, a group of young people abandoned on an island and left to fend for themselves. For me, that’s the extent of the similarity. These girls have created their own society and they do look out for their clique and their own survival above anything else, but the narration is much more poetic and the setting a lot less beach-like.

The narration is what makes this book, it is atmospheric, and the flowery writing style is so juxtaposed to what is unraveling on the page – it’s really quite special. As is the relationship between our three main girls, Hetty is unendingly loyal to her best friend Byatt and the two of them have the most intense friendship, it transcends most usual friendships, bordering on familial love and protection. And then there is Reese, taciturn Reese who has had to deal with the fact that her dad is somewhere on this island, consumed by the Tox, her former home is now off limits in the overgrown forest and all she has is Hetty and Byatt. Hetty who is is madly in love with, but knows will never put her before Byatt, no matter whether she reciprocates or not. The narration is split between Hetty’s as everything she has known for the past two years starts to fall apart as she learns more about the Tox and searches for Byatt and Byatt after her disappearance.

A lot of the story regarding the Tox and the reasons the girls have been quarantined on the island is left up to the reader, you get snippets and you get to put the truth together yourself – it allows you to feel like you are in on the secret. The ending also leaves room for a follow up – though part of me hopes it is just left as it is. I love being able to make up my own mind about what happens to these girls.

Anyway, this book is great – give it a read and let’s discuss our own theories on the Tox, the ending and everything else!