Wilder Girls
It's been eighteen months since the Tox hit and put the Raxter School for Girls under quarantine. First the teachers died, then the Tox began to infect the girls, turning their bodies strange and foreign. The survivors have been cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on the island. But as they wait for a promised cure, Hetty’s best friend Byatt goes mission and Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine.
Rory Power’s Wilder Girls is a fantastic debut novel that piqued my interest as soon as I read the synopsis several months ago. When I saw the cover, I couldn’t resist picking it up. I love seeing creative, illustrated covers for Young Adult novels. I hope the trend continues, especially if it keeps producing covers like this one.
The initial concept for this book is an all-girls retelling of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, but Power takes it further than just a mere retelling. She dives deep into how the Tox impacts the girls’ relationship with their bodies, their social structure, their relationships with each other, and their morals. Just how far are they willing to go to maintain some kind of order? And how long will that order last?
For Hetty, it’s clear that she is conflicted when she learns how much food is being tossed into the ocean. She and her friends are starving, but bins of food are being thrown away. It isn’t until later that she understands just how dangerous that unsealed food could have been to the Raxter girls.
I really liked how Power revealed it wasn’t the island that had turned on the girls, creating the Tox and infecting them, but experimental procedures that seeped into the island, poisoning it and changing all who stayed there. The headmistress thought she was doing what was best for the girls and she claimed she tried to protect them, but Hetty and Reese discover the truth and it changes what they thought they knew about their life on the island. The realization that no cure is coming, that they have been abandoned, is devastating.
The relationship between Hetty and Reese is complicated in the beginning, but I like how Power developed it as the story progressed. To learn Reese’s aloof behaviour wasn’t because she didn’t like Hetty, but in fact because she loved Hetty, was sweet to see, especially in a book that has a lot of horrific elements to it. One does wonder, though, if these two would have gotten closer if they were never isolated on the island in the first place.
Power ends this book on a cliff hanger with Hetty, Reese and Byatt reunited and sailing towards the mainland. But what will they find when they land? Their families think they’re dead, the CDC has abandoned them – what kind of life awaits them? Who knows. I like to think the girls find a way to stick together, but life is more complicated than that.
Wilder Girls is a feminist horror story that forces the reader to ask what they would do if they were put in the same position as Hetty and her friends. I hope I never have to answer that question.
Wilder Girls Rating: ★★★★
Goodreads Link
Buy on Indigo
Buy on Amazon
Rory Power’s Wilder Girls is a fantastic debut novel that piqued my interest as soon as I read the synopsis several months ago. When I saw the cover, I couldn’t resist picking it up. I love seeing creative, illustrated covers for Young Adult novels. I hope the trend continues, especially if it keeps producing covers like this one.
The initial concept for this book is an all-girls retelling of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, but Power takes it further than just a mere retelling. She dives deep into how the Tox impacts the girls’ relationship with their bodies, their social structure, their relationships with each other, and their morals. Just how far are they willing to go to maintain some kind of order? And how long will that order last?
For Hetty, it’s clear that she is conflicted when she learns how much food is being tossed into the ocean. She and her friends are starving, but bins of food are being thrown away. It isn’t until later that she understands just how dangerous that unsealed food could have been to the Raxter girls.
I really liked how Power revealed it wasn’t the island that had turned on the girls, creating the Tox and infecting them, but experimental procedures that seeped into the island, poisoning it and changing all who stayed there. The headmistress thought she was doing what was best for the girls and she claimed she tried to protect them, but Hetty and Reese discover the truth and it changes what they thought they knew about their life on the island. The realization that no cure is coming, that they have been abandoned, is devastating.
The relationship between Hetty and Reese is complicated in the beginning, but I like how Power developed it as the story progressed. To learn Reese’s aloof behaviour wasn’t because she didn’t like Hetty, but in fact because she loved Hetty, was sweet to see, especially in a book that has a lot of horrific elements to it. One does wonder, though, if these two would have gotten closer if they were never isolated on the island in the first place.
Power ends this book on a cliff hanger with Hetty, Reese and Byatt reunited and sailing towards the mainland. But what will they find when they land? Their families think they’re dead, the CDC has abandoned them – what kind of life awaits them? Who knows. I like to think the girls find a way to stick together, but life is more complicated than that.
Wilder Girls is a feminist horror story that forces the reader to ask what they would do if they were put in the same position as Hetty and her friends. I hope I never have to answer that question.
Wilder Girls Rating: ★★★★
Goodreads Link
Buy on Indigo
Buy on Amazon