Hetty, Reese and Byatt live on an island off the coast of Maine where they were sent to boarding school, and are now trapped thanks to a mysterious illness they call The Toxthat turns animals wild with viciousness and hunger, and gives the girls strange deformities like skin over an eye, a second spine, weird bruises and blisters etc. When something happens to her friend, Hetty begins asking questions and that combined with a new job with more responsibility, makes Hetty become aware of questions she needs to ask about the illness and how they will ever survive it.

This is a great book full of some strong female characters who know how to fight, bite, scratch and shoot without a moment's hesitation. Hetty was a great character to follow - full of fight but also full of love for her friends - her best friend Byatt, and her love interest Reese. I enjoyed the journey to figuring out what was going on, and I feel like we didn't get to know too much, but also just enough to keep a reader really intrigued about where the story would go.

The story felt a little bit wild in all of the best ways due to the violent, strong comes first society the girls now live in with only two teachers to really exert any control or order over them. It's always fun, and a little scary, to think how quickly society can adapt and change to crazy things.

I enjoyed the romance in this book. It's subtle and doesn't take over the actual need to survive and fight but also has all the gentle tendencies and self-doubt that young love brings and it was nice to see this side of the girls too.

An intriguing concept that is gripping from the beginning. Whilst the title and cover don’t really match with the content of the book, this is an enjoyable, modern YA novel with interesting voices

The obvious comparison would be the 1954 novel by William Golding, 'Lord of the Flies'. An attempt to maintain order, 'at first', before human nature, fear and the uncontrollable slide into chaos. But this works in concept only. A slightly more contemporary comparison could be made for The Maze Runner, and 'The Flare' plague which kills millions and the young men and women experimented in on aid of a cure. 

But Wilder Girls is a horror. It's a monster all its own. 

The opening chapter may fool you into thinking the fast-paced drama is where the tension will build, but it's the quiet moments of discomfort that are really powerful. Hetty, for me anyway, has the quietest way of describing horrific scenes of blood, and pain, and 'Tox' as mere facts. It's hard to read, because imagining it is unavoidable. There isn't a single character I don't empathize with, even though they're wildly different, and dying/grieving in their own way. 

Maybe it's the Maine setting, the creepy Navy who seem to micromanage every part of the situation - except the one that matters, getting the girls a cure- or maybe it's just I just don't read a lot of stand-alone horror, but Wilder Girls has some Stephen King tang to it. It's supernatural, and creepy. Dark, mysterious and dangerous. 

I really enjoyed the way 'time passing' is shown in little motifs. Little 'talismans'. The idea that the Tox isn't one wave of pain and suffering, but a cyclical plague which follows the 'seasons'. That girls fall 'headlong into puberty' before the Tox comes for them. That their symptoms are similar, but cruelly different. That the only two adults, Welch and Headmistress, suffer too, with the implicit further suffering of having to keep order amongst the girls who can become 'feral' or try to kill themselves. 

Wilder Girls is compelling and thought-provoking. Cold, cruel and powerful. A Must-Read for 2020.

This was already one of my most anticipated releases of 2019, it sounded like my perfect book and the early reviews were coming in great, that also got me worried that I was hyping this book up too much with too many expectations, and what if I eventually was about to read it and felt that it didn’t live up to the hype? I didn’t need to worry because it was bloody brilliant and it is easily one of my favourite books of all time.

But why did I like it so much? I’m a big fan of messed up stuff in general in books and movies and this book has quite a lot of messed up stuff in the forms of body horror, gore and pretty much the underlying plot in general. The 3 main girls we follow are all very different but very relatable and lovable in their own ways, and the best thing of all for me was their relationships with each other.

Especially Hetty + Byatt for me, having a very close bond myself with my best friend I felt I could really relate to how they felt about each other and boy did I cry about it.

Even the sub characters in this book you find yourself easily getting attached too, and not knowing the outcome of this book had me on edge constantly from halfway through right until the very end. I’m highly anticipating what Rory Power brings out in the future.

I adored the first half of this book! I think that the author did a fantastic job at describing the school and the impact the tox had on the girls throughout the years. I think those were my favourite moments. The kind of "survivalist" they all inevitably had to become in order to make it through. I also liked that I was entirely wrong in my suspicions for the first half. It was nice to read about same-sex love, although a lot of it was very hot and cold and the characters seemed to go from love to hate to love again. This may just be teenage romance though, so I won't judge this too harshly at all.

My issue with this book was the second half of it. The potential was huge! I absolutely love any sort of dystopian type of settings and this book could have gone that way as well. I would have loved to know more about the tox itself. What happened when it first arrived? How did the girls deal with it? What exactly IS it? I realise that a lot of these are questions that there aren't any answers for, but I found this a little lazy and frustrating to deal with. I found the main character unsympathetic throughout most of the book. The final few chapters is where this book really felt rushed and I found myself feeling quite a bit let down and annoyed by the end.

I had high expectations for Wilder Girls. The synopsis sounded promising and I’ve heard a lot about this book being great, plus I wanted to know about The Tox!

Unfortunately I found myself let down quickly. First I wasn’t impressed with the writing style. Then I realised I didn't like the characters. I think this book would be better if the characters were heterosexual, the LGBT themes felt like an afterthought added to make more sales.

Overall plot idea was okay but not what I was expecting from the blurb.

Absolutely loved this book, I had heard so much about it - but it was still so much better than I expected, a unique, fascinating and fantastically written story. 5 stars, I can't wait to see what Rory writes next.

Honestly, I had high hopes for Wilder Girls. But, with the way that 2020 is already going, I should have known better. That is because, whilst the premise of Wilder Girls is probably one of the best of white!YA of 2019, its execution left me with an entire stack of questions. Its dialogue was implausible, its relationships even more so. People screamed "SAPPHIC" from the rooftops and all I saw was the one of the most awkward, weirdly navigated kisses, I have ever experienced in literature. It was weird, flat, empty. And, probably most importantly, its characterisation was nonexistent; more dancing with cardboard-cutouts than any real attempt at crafting human beings.
It has been consistently showing up on the Best-Books-of-the-Year lists of the constantly-smiling teen booktubers and, even though evidence normally points otherwise, they have not always steered me wrong. A lot of the time, yes, but not all of it. But, within pages, those futile hopes came crashing to the ground and, not even a supposed-connection to Lord of the Flies, could keep them up.

I have been meaning to read this for ages and I really enjoyed it. I do love a good epidemic story.

The setting of the book is at a school on an island where everything is infected with an unknown infection. I did like the setting and the worldbuilding. I think it sometimes went into too much detail about the Tox infection and what it did to the girls. The reveal about what the Tox is was really disturbing and I honestly wish I didn't know what it was and that the book left it as an unknown.

Another problem I had with the book was that there wasn't a lot of backstory which left me a little confused at the beginning as it throws you straight in to the Tox and doesn't explain much. I also had a little trouble with the pacing towards the end as the reveals are all in the last couple of chapters which leaves the ending feeling a little rushed.

The book mainly follows the friendship between three girls. They have a strong friendship which I liked and they stick together during the epidemic and they have share with each other as the girls have to fight for food.

Hetty - the main characters and POV. She is loyal and makes some questionable choices. She is blind in one eye because of the Tox. I thought she was an okay character, not my favourite but not the worst.

Reese - She was my favourite character. The Tox gave her a scaly hand and her father is missing. She is in love with Hetty but doesn't think it's reciprocated.

Bryatt - She is Hetty's best friend and she gets taken to a medical facility. I didn't really like her character. We get to see Bryatts POV when she gets taken to the medical facility.

I loved the lgbtq+ representation in the book and I actually enjoyed the romance. I wasn't expecting a romance and I found it to be adorable. I enjoyed the little interactions and how it was a little awkward at the beginning.

Overall it had the opportunity to be a really good story but there were places it just fell a little short for me.

Trigger warning - Graphic violence and body horror. Character death. Suicide scene and reference to self harm. Food scarcity and starvation. A scene depicting chemical gassing.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 Stars

Everyone loses something to the Tox; Hetty lost her eye, Reese's hand has changed, and Byatt just disappeared completely.

I LOVED THIS BOOK 10/10 ❤🌈

From flowery prose to gory body horror Rory Power does it all in this feminist queer young adult novel.

Every single character was written with such emotional depth that they felt like real people. Powers visceral writing meant I was so invested in Hetty, Byatt and Reece's story- I felt what they felt in every heartbreaking moment. The character dynamics and relationships were complicated and frustrating to read as goals changed and alliances shifted every chapter.

The shifting perspectives meant that I really got to understand the setting in a way I couldn't from a first-person story. Raxter School is a character of its own, it nurtures the girls until it can’t protect them anymore. Details about the Tox and its effects are fed to you piece by piece until the full extent of the suffering that these girls go through is revealed to you.

This book will keep you up at night.

You Should Read This Book if you Like 💕:
+Queer girls with complicated feelings 👩🏻‍🤝‍👩🏻
+Body Horror 👁
+Isolation 👧
+Retellings 🧾
+The movie 'Annihilation' 💀
+Queer Stories with actual Plots. 🖋

Find a full list of Trigger Warnings ⚠: HERE

BUY this book now for only £7.99 to get your copy when it is released on the 9th of February 2020

I received an advance review copy for free via NetGalley in alliance with MacMillan Children’s Books. I am leaving this review voluntarily 📚.

I was really intrigued about the plot of this book. It sounded very different to anything else I had heard of. The comparison to Lord of the Flies also made me want to check it out. Unfortunately, this book fell flat for me. Nothing much seemed to happen and I didn't feel attached to the characters at all.

Nope. Sorry, not my cup of tea I guess…. I can see so many good reviews out there but… this book or the characters did not appeal me at all.
Also, the Byatt’s POV parts reminded me too much of Juliette at the beginning of Shatter Me and I don’t know, I just did not find the plot or the characters interesting enough.
In general, it was quire repetitive and I was scheming through because I just wanted to understand the big Tox mystery but, I could not connect at all with the story.

I absolutely devoured this action packed and suspenseful read, the reader is thrown from one climactic moment to another, making it incredibly engaging.
Considering it's all female cast (a hard sell to teen boys in my line of work) the stark violence and abject horror make it appealing to anyone and everyone, apart from those with weak stomachs of course.
I really felt the girls suffering and desperation but also the strange strength and camaraderie forged whilst they were struck down with the 'Tox'. This added a lovely layer of complexity to their actions which I think made it a much more thought provoking read.
I think some more development in areas not integral to the plot could have added some fantastic depth to the text. E.g Byatt in the research centre, the relationships between the different factions of girls, the disappearance of Mr Harker, Hetty's find in the woods. There are many unanswered questions that I think demand a sequel, which I would very happily read!
I recommend for fans of thrillers, adventures and suspenseful horrors it won't disappoint.

It's not jump-scare horror, more the more insidious building horror. If you're squeamish, this is not a book for you. I almost had to put it down because the descriptions are pretty graphic and I was gagging at some of the more gross body horror bits. Not just how the Tox changes bodies, but the violence later on in the book is detailed too.

The girls are sharp and broken and flawed. I liked how the story doesn't try to apologise for this at all, lets them be flawed. They're children put into a horrible situation, forced to survive. if they were optimistic and good and kind - all the things female heroines are often expected to be - then I'd have smelt a rat.

They're complicated, both individually and as a unit. They were probably the highlight of the book, and I loved watching them interact and scrape against one another.

The blurb feels a little misleading. It implies, to me, that Hetty is going to travel, not go on one small excursion in the middle of the book. I was expecting her to leave the school, not spend most of the time there, wondering what's happening.

The fact that the girls are being lied to and used is pretty obvious from the blurb alone, not to mention the first few pages. But the story still tries to play it off as a bit of a shock. This is YA, authority figures are always evil, always experimenting on kids.

The secondary POV - Byatt's - was... weird. I don't know if the writing was supposed to feel that jumbled and frantic or if it was solely because all the punctuation was missing from her chapters. Every time her POV came up I groaned. It was hard to follow and the style... experimental, but not in a good way. It could have felt so fragmented because there wasn't punctuation so I had to work out where sentences ended.

I’ve been longing to read this book since May 2019, so I am extremely grateful for Net Galley for giving me the chance to read the ARC early.

I read this on my terrible Kindle App so I understand that I didn’t get the true reading experience, but I was disappointed with this book. Maybe it’s because I built it up in my head so much, reading the Amazon free extract multiple times, and considering spending £20 on shipping to get the book from America.

I found that actually, not much happened in the book? I read it at work, and was physically upset when I found out that I was 75% through, and yet I felt no plot had actually developed. I wanted to know more about The Tox, and see all the creepy things it had done to people, and yet it was mainly Hetty walking around the forest and thinking about Byatt.

Also, the chapters with Byatt were the most uninteresting (probably because my kindle completely messed up the formatting) but I found I didn’t care about her character. Knowing that any information she found out would never be relayed to Hetty made her chapters obsolete. Her kissing of a random boy, Teddy, also fell flat because Wilder Girls is so sapphic in nature.

Overall, I wasn’t satisfied by this book, but I think that’s my own fault. I would suggest to go into the book blind so that you don’t have expectations of what’s going to happen in the narrative. I am really looking forward to Rory Power’s next book however, and she seems like a really funny and creative person, so I will definitely be interested in her career progression.

I've heard lots about Wilder Girls and the cover is absolute perfection so I was really excited to read this. The book is really dark, gritty YA with some LGBT themes. This is the type of YA that you read without even really considering whether it's YA or not or which genre it fits in because it's just so so good. All round excellent.

Wilder Girls is a dark YA novel that combines a kind of lockdown tension with body horror and female relationships. It is a year and a half since Raxter School for Girls was put into quarantine after everyone there was slowly turned by the Tox, become wild and strange and having their bodies morphed in different ways. Trapped in the school's boundaries on an island off Maine, they wait for a cure and live under the new rules forged by those remaining. When Hetty's best friend Byatt disappears, she's determined to find her, but the horrors of their situation don't just seem to be the feral animals outside the fence also taken by the Tox.

Rory Power takes the mysterious outbreak trope and uses it to explore the bonds between teenage girls—friendships, romance, power struggles—whilst implying a lot about the darkness not only within people, but that might come from the outside when disaster strikes. This is a different kind of book set at a girls' school, and it is not one for the squeamish, with much of the horror being around what happens to their bodies and the violence of what they must do. The tension is gripping, and the narrative is more focused on the here and now than on explanations or deep exploration of characters' pasts; it is easy to see from this how it could be adapted into an (admittedly pretty dark) film. The romantic subplot and the depiction of Hetty and Byatt's friendship are two elements that make it more than just a kind of shock horror story, and though some people might not like the ambiguity of the ending, it suits the outbreak narrative to not have a neat conclusion.

This is visceral YA fiction, real in its character relationships and bloody and dark in its content. It combines some of the best thing about young adult novels with cleverly used body horror, and though it will make some readers wish there was more explanation, it is a thrilling read.

The last book review I wrote was a little different. It was an excuse to reference my favourite movie, one I love deeply and felt could portray my love for the book too.

So today I’m going to continue trying something a little different too. I’m going to tell a small story, and in return, I hope you understand my love for Wilder Girls.

I had a craving, a need, to find more books to sit alongside Other Words for Smoke. To blur fantasy and horror. To feel very “Me”.

Which is when Wilder Girls by Rory Power caught my eye. It seemed like it could fill that hole, take a seat by OWFS in my heart. I pre-ordered it from B&N to get it early (as it’s not out in the UK yet). But that wasn’t soon enough, so I traded to get a US ARC to have it even earlier. And then I got anxious that it wouldn’t be the book I needed.

By this point I had read Smoke three times to try and escape from it’s grip, but it only sank deeper into my bones. Ink into my skin. This book was my book… and what if I could never feel as passionately about another again?

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

Why bother mentioning another book so much? It’s simple. Because I do feel as strongly about Wilder Girls. And it happened very quickly too! Only two chapters in I could feel my insides SCREAMING and how very ME this book is. It’s so perfectly what I needed.

Much like the Tox blossomed within these girls, my love bloomed too.

I had to keep reading to get to know these wilder girls better, to know their disfigurations, wants and needs. To understand how they survived on their quarantined island.

ALSO IT IS VERY GAY, which honestly is a plus for any book. Sexuality is so fluid, open to explore, and seeing more queer YA books now really makes me happy. It makes me appreciate there will be less teens out there who will find themselves hurrying to say “No I’m straight, I just have a good taste in women”. Instead they can welcome the fact that actually being straight doesn’t have to be the default or “norm”. It’s okay to like girls, to be enamoured by them. But also a little scared.

If you didn’t already know, consider this my coming out post. My one of many. Girls are so breathtaking! (Other people are pretty too)

[ related note: if you need a gay pop playlist, my 2019 wrapped up is pretty handy ]

However, Ive reached the end of the notes I had scribbled on a piece of paper. The end of the small story I had crafted to gush about Wilder Girls (and Other Words for Smoke and just girls in general).

But I don’t feel ready to end this review, even though I do feel ready for bed.

So instead, I’ll give a little run down on some reasons why I think you should read Wilder Girls:

beautiful body horror
nature taking over
a love letter to encourage us to save our world
it’s very gay
strong and compelling character dynamics – I’m so ready to protect these girls!
an open ending – so good for thinking about the future of this world
dual narrative: flawed and realistic characters
it reads as beautifully as the movie Annihilation was filmed
the atmosphere of this book fits perfectly with the terror they’re experiencing

Lastly, if you know of any books that’ll fill me with love like these two have please let me know. I’m ready to give myself to the Owl and the Tox.

I was expecting to get turned down for this arc (for which I am nevertheless very grateful) after waiting a long time so I’d already bought the book. I love the concept. The world building was rich and immersive. The characters were compelling and I enjoyed how this played up to its Lord of the Flies roots (although if you want a subversive LotF retelling with a female cast I recommend Libba Bray’s Beauty Queens). This is a great dystopian novel, but the style got in the way for me a little. I can see how it’s very Marmite for readers. Intrigued to see what the author does next.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Theme: Horror, Gore, Dystopia, F/F, Girls, Change, LGBTQ, Virus,

Summary: Raxter School for Girls have been under quarantine for more then a year. It seems no help is coming and The Tox isn't just changing their surroundings - it is changing the girls - pushing them through 'Flares,' leaving them different in ways no one could have imagined, hardened, lost, added to, yet missing pieces.
But the promise of a cure keeps the girls from the Forest where the changed animals and the woods itself will kill them if it can.
Hetty's life is small enough behind the barrier - but when her friend Byatt goes missing she will risk everything to get her back. Even break the one rule that is meant to keep them safe.

Thoughts: First off, there is no apology in this book. No holding back, no softness, and the kindness there exists is still sharp enough to cute. And we will need to talk about this cover because it is literally giving me life.
Second! I knew this book had some polarising views - some people thought it was too much - too much gore, too much horror, too much terrible circumstances. Some not quite enough living up to the intense hype. Some thought it brilliant - though the ending much too short. And I felt all of those feelings while devouring this book - BUT overshadowing all of those voices, my overwhelming thought was: oh my god where has this Sappic intensely grotesque love story been all my life!
Honestly I felt like these characters looked through me, grabbed me by the heart, making it hard to breathe, and didn't let go - not even now.

The book is told from two points of view - Hetty and Byatt, thought mainly Hetty - and I loved the intense look into their psyche this gave us. Their flaws and their needs, as well as their drive for survival. And then, hidden behind intense emotions - the tiny piece of them that tried hard to cling to their humanity - something seemingly impossible in the world Power has build around them. All told in writing that is gripping and gritty and yet sometimes almost lyrical. The violence is swift and almost surprising, even if the characters aren't disturbed by it in the least.
The ending had me wanting to chuck my phone across the room (thank you kindle) but mainly just because I couldn't believe the suddenness of it... but the longer I have had to process, the more it makes complete sense. Everything in this book is written with cutting precision, without mercy, with no sugarcoating. And it is fitting that the book ends in a similar way.

Pros: The characters are hard and beautiful and queer as hell. The feelings intense and sudden and human and the writing like nothing I have read in a long time.
Cons: There are some underlying currents between the main characters (Byatt and our third almost main Reese) and it is like Power wants to tell us something about Byatt. But I couldnt quite find out what?