4.5 ⭐’s
“Because I think I’d been looking for it all my life - a storm in my body to match the one in my head.”
I don’t think I’ve ever been so disturbed by or in awe of a book. It sounds crazy, but that’s pretty much how I felt the entire time I was reading. This book is something special. I have never read anything like this, and I doubt I ever will. This book is dark, twisted, gory, and beautiful.
“A knife in my belt, and the shotgun in my hands. A year and a half of empty sky, of not enough medicine, of bodies burning behind the school. We have to help ourselves.”
The premise of this book hooked me immediately. When I received this in the mail, I was thrilled to tear into this book ASAP. I heard so many good things and went into this book with a lot of high expectations, and let me just say: Wilder Girls is as amazing as everyone says it is. There were times I gasped so loudly people were concerned about me, there were times I cried (and, again, people were concerned about me), yet there were also some beautiful moments that show the beauty of female friendship and love.
“I don’t need the truth anymore. I just want to live.”
Wilder Girls makes you question everything you think you know. Good, bad, otherwise, and in-between. It makes you realize people are complex and you may never really know someone and their true motives. People are more complex than we often give them credit for.
Another thing I really appreciated about this book was its representation of LGBTQ+ characters. So many of the girls on the island are not straight, but it is not a defining characteristic. This is not a romance novel or a book about being LGBTQ+. This is a horror book with lots of LGBTQ+ characters. Dropped in all throughout the novel are sentences about girlfriends, about queerness, about having crushes on girls and boys. Now, the small romance that takes place within the novel barely is even a romance, but it’s there. I wish it could have been fleshed out some more, but I also realize that this was not the novel for that.
Now, almost the entire reason this is not a 5-star rating is because of the ending. It doesn’t feel finished to me, and parts just felt unrealistic (I say about a book where girls grow second spines and have gills, but my point still stands). [BEGINNING OF SPOILER]⚠️⚠️⚠️ Byatt coming back to life felt wrong. It sounds terrible, but I wish she had stayed dead. It didn’t really feel like it stayed on theme with the general heartbreak and darkness of the book. I also have so many questions as to how she is still alive, what happened to her, etc., and none of them really get answered. ⚠️⚠️⚠️[END OF SPOILER] There are too many loose ends, too many questions unanswered. I hope there will be a sequel because I don’t feel any sense of closure by that ending.
Another thing: I totally recommend listening to the author’s Spotify playlist while reading, because this book has a very specific aesthetic, mood, and theme and the playlist perfectly encapsulates that.
In sum: Please read this book. Please buy this book. Please love this book the way it deserves to be loved.
“Because I think I’d been looking for it all my life - a storm in my body to match the one in my head.”
I don’t think I’ve ever been so disturbed by or in awe of a book. It sounds crazy, but that’s pretty much how I felt the entire time I was reading. This book is something special. I have never read anything like this, and I doubt I ever will. This book is dark, twisted, gory, and beautiful.
“A knife in my belt, and the shotgun in my hands. A year and a half of empty sky, of not enough medicine, of bodies burning behind the school. We have to help ourselves.”
The premise of this book hooked me immediately. When I received this in the mail, I was thrilled to tear into this book ASAP. I heard so many good things and went into this book with a lot of high expectations, and let me just say: Wilder Girls is as amazing as everyone says it is. There were times I gasped so loudly people were concerned about me, there were times I cried (and, again, people were concerned about me), yet there were also some beautiful moments that show the beauty of female friendship and love.
“I don’t need the truth anymore. I just want to live.”
Wilder Girls makes you question everything you think you know. Good, bad, otherwise, and in-between. It makes you realize people are complex and you may never really know someone and their true motives. People are more complex than we often give them credit for.
Another thing I really appreciated about this book was its representation of LGBTQ+ characters. So many of the girls on the island are not straight, but it is not a defining characteristic. This is not a romance novel or a book about being LGBTQ+. This is a horror book with lots of LGBTQ+ characters. Dropped in all throughout the novel are sentences about girlfriends, about queerness, about having crushes on girls and boys. Now, the small romance that takes place within the novel barely is even a romance, but it’s there. I wish it could have been fleshed out some more, but I also realize that this was not the novel for that.
Now, almost the entire reason this is not a 5-star rating is because of the ending. It doesn’t feel finished to me, and parts just felt unrealistic (I say about a book where girls grow second spines and have gills, but my point still stands). [BEGINNING OF SPOILER]⚠️⚠️⚠️ Byatt coming back to life felt wrong. It sounds terrible, but I wish she had stayed dead. It didn’t really feel like it stayed on theme with the general heartbreak and darkness of the book. I also have so many questions as to how she is still alive, what happened to her, etc., and none of them really get answered. ⚠️⚠️⚠️[END OF SPOILER] There are too many loose ends, too many questions unanswered. I hope there will be a sequel because I don’t feel any sense of closure by that ending.
Another thing: I totally recommend listening to the author’s Spotify playlist while reading, because this book has a very specific aesthetic, mood, and theme and the playlist perfectly encapsulates that.
In sum: Please read this book. Please buy this book. Please love this book the way it deserves to be loved.