Rory Power

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.

Wilder Girls

Scarly

Usually, it was an accident. A lie I never set out to tell. A trick I never meant to play. I’d open my mouth, and something strange would come out, new and not mine. Like there was someone else inside.

I think of the grounds, the way the pines have gotten taller, the way they seem nothing like what I’ve seen from the roof. In the woods the Tox is still wild. No girls for it to pick apart, so it got into everything else. Out there it blossoms and spreads with a kind of joy. Unbridled and vicious and free.

She does that everywhere. On the bunk, on her desk in every class we had, on the trees in the grove by the water. Marking Raxter as hers, and sometimes I think if she asked, I’d let her do the same to me.

And it’s fine, Byatt and me, and she’s staring at me like I’m staring at her, and I’m safe, safe because she’s here, until she digs the needle in too deep and I buckle, my whole body folding in.

Riley 🫶

Our laughter alls away as the curve of her body fits to mine. She's still smiling when she kisses me. So am I.

And in the meantime she's lucky to have you looking for her" It runs through me like a current. "Looking for her?" Like she's missing, like she's gone, and I heard Headmistress right, I know I did.

"No, thanks," Reese says. "I think we'll keep them." She looks at me, and my heart feels too big for my chest. So this is what it's like to have Reese go to bat for you. 

"Are you sure?" She tries for a smile. "Because you look terrible. Like, that's a Beth in Little Women face." "Oh no," I say flatly. "Do you think I might be sick?" "At Raxter?" She raises her eyebrows, face stamped with fake surprise. "Never."

"I’ll save you some food," Byatt calls. “Whether you like it or not." I wave over my shoulder. "Thanks, Mom."

"Get some sleep. I'l be right here." And I did what I did, and I saw what I saw, but Byatt is here, and I fall asleep like it's the easiest thing in the world.

She's never liked us much, not since she complained that there were no boys on the island, and Reese gave her the blankest look I've ever seen and said, “Plenty of girls, though."

To my mother, and to me, and to the versions of us who never thought we would arrive here together

Natalie Baye

Jessica

Wilder girls

I normally HATE open-ended books but for this book, it felt right. I did really want Paretta to die, though.

dezzy

Kiran Aftab

tell me why i keep reading books about viruses and shit in a pandemic when i'm already stuck in quarantine? anyways this was good. it was different from what i normally read but i enjoyed it. i feel like it's hard to fall in love with the characters because they're put in a situation that's kinda wild and and they're numb for understandable reasons so i enjoyed this book more for the plot.

Wes Michaud

nice easy intro to thriller books. loved the characters and the story it was so engrossing and i couldn't stop listening

tori 👻

I was interested in this one ever since a friend recommended it to me last year. 
This was the first book I picked up in 2020 and I did so a few days after I started my self-isolation. Needless to say, it was an experience alright, reading about quarantine while the world is going through one. I truly wish I had enjoyed it more, but I felt no connection to any of the characters and was rather bored while going through the final pages.

The first half of the story was nice and intrigued me to know more about the Tox. Unfortunately, the feeling didn't last and I just wanted to finish reading for once so I could put it down.

With that being said, I can definitely see why this is not a book for everyone, as it wasn't for me. I can absolutely see why it is and will be adored by other readers.

kelsey

Sarah Sammis

Wilder Girls by Rory Power is set at an all girls school on an island in Maine in the aftermath of a plague that has done horrible things to the students and staff. The survivors are disfigured by the Tox and the island remains quarantined by the CDC as the forest around them grows more wild and more dangerous.

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2019/comm...

"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?"
--
I know it is a little bit too on the nose to be reading about a terrible virus taking over bodies at this particular moment. But hear me out.
What a great debut! Rory Powers has created a merciless world choking on wilderness, where a sickness is scarring, slashing, and even killing girls from the inside out.
The blood-chilling premise is well executed, and it left me turning page after page wondering what would happen next. It is dark. It is broody. And it is bloody.
Also, have you seen how beautiful this cover is?????

Francesca Starecheski

Many of us are only briefly familiar with pain, for it is rarely at our ends. But when we are consumed, we come to know ourselves anew, and sometimes we remain unchanged. The words in this book have some power such that parts of me I had forgotten were reflected.

'Your new favourite book' Cosmopolitan An instant New York Times bestseller, Wilder Girls is Rory Power's visceral and unputdownable YA debut. The Power meets We Were Liars in this compelling story of survival and the power of female friendships, perfect for fans of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. Everyone loses something to the Tox; Hetty lost her eye, Reese's hand has changed, and Byatt just disappeared completely. It’s been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put in quarantine. The Tox turned the students strange and savage, the teachers died off one by one. Cut off from the mainland, the girls don’t dare wander past the school’s fence where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure as the Tox takes; their bodies becoming sick and foreign, things bursting out of them, bits missing. But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her best friend, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie in the wilderness past the fence. As she digs deeper, she learns disturbing truths about her school and what else is living on Raxter Island. And that the cure might not be a cure at all . . . 'Wholly original and compelling' Observer 'A staggering gut punch of a book' Kirkus 'Body horror meets boarding school in a moving, terrifying thriller' Guardian

Leticia Leal

I am not one for long reviews , but damn this was so disappointing. I feel like I was really looking forward to it, and the premise had so much potential but it was underwhelming as heck, and that ending ppppppptttth

I ended up absolutely loving this book! 

If you like morally grey characters, mystery, and girls doing their best to survive then you will enjoy this book. 

There is no closure in the ending of this book, so if you need a concrete end - you probably won't enjoy it. 

Also the cover? incredible. 10/10.

Denaiir

Every time I'm thinking that I might stop reading YA, a book like this one pulls me back in. 

It was delicate, atmospheric, eerie and smart. It didn't treat the readers like delicate flowers, it was gruesome for a YA book, but that fit the story perfectly. It was realistic in all the reactions, the relationships, the struggles and I was rooting for the characters to make it.

I know that a lot of readers did not enjoy the ending but to me it was perfection. There were a few things during the book that were frustrating or confusing, that I might not have understood the way the author intended the readers to, and the last quarter felt a tad too long so it only gets a 4 from me, but altogether it was refreshing to have such an original and ballsy book in the YA world.

The dust jacket is good, the writing itself is good, but the story and characters are lacking. The characters feel copy paste with different mutations. The main 3 girls have very few differences, and it feels like as soon as Hetty and the other girl with the lizard hand have a heart to heart, suddenly her whole personality is just changed. 

There were so many different elements at play that made the story too confusing and hard to understand. I feel like if the book took place at the beginning of the tox, and this was maybe a book two, it would have been better. It just felt so confusing and like i had started a bad zombie movie in the middle of it. The explanation of the shifts, what happened to the teachers, the decline of the school, THAT would have made a good story. Seeing the grounds change or actually experiencing the tox as they did would have been better, but this just felt like we were randomly super far into a world without any explanation of anything, and what explanation we got was through quick flashbacks or words that didn’t make a lot of sense. 

I had tried to read this book twice before, and this was the third attempt, and it was just such a poor and confusing story that i had to force myself to get to this point. 

Marleigh Toenyes

This book is just- disappointing. 

The dust jacket is good, the writing itself is good, but the story and characters are lacking. The characters feel copy paste with different mutations. The main 3 girls have very few differences, and it feels like as soon as Hetty and the other girl with the lizard hand have a heart to heart, suddenly her whole personality is just changed. 

There were so many different elements at play that made the story too confusing and hard to understand. I feel like if the book took place at the beginning of the tox, and this was maybe a book two, it would have been better. It just felt so confusing and like i had started a bad zombie movie in the middle of it. The explanation of the shifts, what happened to the teachers, the decline of the school, THAT would have made a good story. Seeing the grounds change or actually experiencing the tox as they did would have been better, but this just felt like we were randomly super far into a world without any explanation of anything, and what explanation we got was through quick flashbacks or words that didn’t make a lot of sense. 

I had tried to read this book twice before, and this was the third attempt, and it was just such a poor and confusing story that i had to force myself to get to this point. 

as a big body horror fan, i wish there was more of it. the ending isn’t great, but i enjoyed all of the world building up to the end. wish it just had a better ending because then i could actually recommend it to people. 

Clara Gauthier

i could not have prepared for the whirlwind this book put me through even if i had tried. it was so jarring, horrific, and excellent. i started it at 5pm today and it’s now 10pm. i couldn’t put it down for more than a minute or two. 

samantha lias

Nessa Luna

This book was honestly a bit odd. Not much was explained and though I loved the spooky setting, I was a bit bored halfway through. The writing was really nice, though, and I did love Hetty as a character. However, I was not satisfied with the ending and I kind of wish there had been more.

CAWPILE: 8 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 (Avg: 7.00)

abbie j

i’m so sad that i didn’t love this book!! i really thought it was gonna be a new favourite for the first 70ish% but then it just lost me and the ending was SO unsatisfying for me :( but i really loved the writing so i’m still giving it 4 stars

This was a quick and easy read, concept was decent but it failed. I enjoyed the book at first but slowly it started to lack for me. 

Nothing really happened for almost 100 pages and when it did it was predictable and felt out of context. Like the author didn't know how to throw dome high tension moments and it didn't work.

The story lacked when it could have been good, the ending was the biggest dissapoiment of all. 

The character no better or lacking individuality and personality. They could easily blend into one character. 

A book I will easily forget. Like I saod concept decent but failed massively 

Samantha King

This was a quick and easy read, concept was decent but it failed. I enjoyed the book at first but slowly it started to lack for me. 

Nothing really happened for almost 100 pages and when it did it was predictable and felt out of context. Like the author didn't know how to throw dome high tension moments and it didn't work.

The story lacked when it could have been good, the ending was the biggest dissapoiment of all. 

The character no better or lacking individuality and personality. They could easily blend into one character. 

A book I will easily forget. Like I saod concept decent but failed massively 

Kimberly Burgess 

I don't know how something can be so eerie and so heartwarming at the same time, but it was. So good 💔

Jenelle andersen

Really only chose it because I liked the cover, no regrets.

Kate Perrin

Alexa M

4.5 !! This was really gooood. Docked off .5 because I wasn’t as satisfied w the ending as I wanted to be!

grace richards

Carah Gedeon

Maybe a 3.5? Idk. Solid book. Ending was eh.

Wilder Girls

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