I was ecstatic to receive an ARC of Wilder Girls by Rory Power. The description of a female Lord of the Flies hooked me, even though other reviews called it a horror novel and I'm not ordinarily drawn to horror (certainly not with movies!).
PLOT
To sum up the plot, a private school on an island in northern Maine has been quarantined for 18 months due to a disease that killed most adults in the short term but that causes painful, physical changes to the students once they hit puberty. The main character, Hetty, faces a change in her chores that forces a relationship change with one of her two close friends. Then her other friend goes missing, and in searching for her friend, Hetty finds out more about their situation.
CHARACTERS
Not only is Hetty insecure with her place in the school pecking order, but also within her triangle of friends. When she's chosen for her new position, however, it boosts her confidence, and we can see with her decisions stemming from that first new task how she grows. She matures as she's able to see new elements in her friend Reese and accept the friend as she is.
The other characters are less developed, even Byatt, whose perspective interlaces with Hetty's by section. She alludes to lies she's told and psychiatrists her mother has made her see, but we don't get a full picture of her, and by the end of the novel, it seems to be too late (even though SPOILER the novel sets itself up as a series in the final third).
STYLE
I loved the premise and enjoyed Powers' writing style. When one of the characters goes through flashes of consciousness, the author makes use of extra spaces and fractured lines to mimic the character's state in the reader.
SPOILER
Offering this spoiler so I can mention my one concern.
Toward the end of the novel, the school is in danger. Hetty is instrumental in saving the girls from one perilous situation, only to find another immediate danger; she puts her own life more at risk to save the youngest among them, Emmy.
Then, however, she and Reese quietly sneak away from everyone to escape. They take out the Headmistress, who's trying to "humanely" end the girls' danger, but after that the two girls take an escape route they don't tell anyone else about and leave their peers -- who have no idea what's about to hit them -- to certain death.
In this section, Hetty seems inconsistent. Why face down a bear for someone else rather than staying in safety if she's only going to leave that same potential victim three pages later? This inconsistency is the only reason I didn't give the novel 5 stars. I'm excited to read the next in the series!
PLOT
To sum up the plot, a private school on an island in northern Maine has been quarantined for 18 months due to a disease that killed most adults in the short term but that causes painful, physical changes to the students once they hit puberty. The main character, Hetty, faces a change in her chores that forces a relationship change with one of her two close friends. Then her other friend goes missing, and in searching for her friend, Hetty finds out more about their situation.
CHARACTERS
Not only is Hetty insecure with her place in the school pecking order, but also within her triangle of friends. When she's chosen for her new position, however, it boosts her confidence, and we can see with her decisions stemming from that first new task how she grows. She matures as she's able to see new elements in her friend Reese and accept the friend as she is.
The other characters are less developed, even Byatt, whose perspective interlaces with Hetty's by section. She alludes to lies she's told and psychiatrists her mother has made her see, but we don't get a full picture of her, and by the end of the novel, it seems to be too late (even though SPOILER the novel sets itself up as a series in the final third).
STYLE
I loved the premise and enjoyed Powers' writing style. When one of the characters goes through flashes of consciousness, the author makes use of extra spaces and fractured lines to mimic the character's state in the reader.
SPOILER
Offering this spoiler so I can mention my one concern.
Toward the end of the novel, the school is in danger. Hetty is instrumental in saving the girls from one perilous situation, only to find another immediate danger; she puts her own life more at risk to save the youngest among them, Emmy.
Then, however, she and Reese quietly sneak away from everyone to escape. They take out the Headmistress, who's trying to "humanely" end the girls' danger, but after that the two girls take an escape route they don't tell anyone else about and leave their peers -- who have no idea what's about to hit them -- to certain death.
In this section, Hetty seems inconsistent. Why face down a bear for someone else rather than staying in safety if she's only going to leave that same potential victim three pages later? This inconsistency is the only reason I didn't give the novel 5 stars. I'm excited to read the next in the series!