I received an ARC of this book from the publisher for an honest review.
This might not be a very happy book, but it is a good one and I can see it going up for several Youth Media Awards in January.
The story takes place on an island where the students at an all girls school have been trying to survive on their own ever since a disease known as the Tox began ravaging the island. Several students and most of the teachers have already died because of it, and the story begins 18 months into the school’s quarantine. At this point, the girls at the school are just trying to survive until a cure is developed.
The characters are complex and raw. Hetty, Byatt, and Reese are the three main characters and the story switches between Hetty and Byatt’s point of view. Byatt disappears from the school and her POV shows the reader where she is and what the government is doing in regards to finding a cure for the Tox. There are two separate romances in the story, but both are subtle and don’t overwhelm the story. The main focus is still trying to survive the Tox.
I loved the originality of the story. I know it’s being marketed as a feminist Lord of the Flies, but the world building of the Tox and how it is evolving in its victims was fascinating. That’s what actually kept me turning the pages. I just wanted to learn more about the Tox and you discover something new about it at every point in the story. It’s also a horror story, but it’s more of the creepy kind, as opposed to the jump-out-at-you kind. I would also put this in the science fiction category because of the Tox.
Also, can we talk about how amazing the cover of the book is? It really captures how the girls’ bodies are basically unraveling as the Tox rages through them. The flowers represent what is at the heart of the Tox, while the hair covering Hetty’s eye reflects what the Tox has done to her.
There were a few things that bothered me about the story. The ending doesn’t let the reader know what happens to the three girls, and I’m pretty sure there is not going to be a sequel. It would just be interesting to see what the girls will do. Will they go back to the mainland? Will they be lost at sea? What exactly is going to happen?
I’m also really bothered by the way Hetty just left the rest of the girls at the school to fend off the bear. Hetty injures herself to save the girls from the gas, goes on and on about how the teachers kept things from them and tried to kill them, goes after the headmistress for giving up on them, etc. And then just leaves the other girls to be killed by the bear! It just didn’t make sense for her character. Because she spent the entire book trying to save other people, but then is like “oh look, there’s a boat. Come on Reese let’s get blow this popsicle stand. That bear will just finish off the rest of the girls and give us a chance to get away.”
I do think that you need to go into this book with an open mind, but the complex characters and excellent writing make it a wonderful read.
This might not be a very happy book, but it is a good one and I can see it going up for several Youth Media Awards in January.
The story takes place on an island where the students at an all girls school have been trying to survive on their own ever since a disease known as the Tox began ravaging the island. Several students and most of the teachers have already died because of it, and the story begins 18 months into the school’s quarantine. At this point, the girls at the school are just trying to survive until a cure is developed.
The characters are complex and raw. Hetty, Byatt, and Reese are the three main characters and the story switches between Hetty and Byatt’s point of view. Byatt disappears from the school and her POV shows the reader where she is and what the government is doing in regards to finding a cure for the Tox. There are two separate romances in the story, but both are subtle and don’t overwhelm the story. The main focus is still trying to survive the Tox.
I loved the originality of the story. I know it’s being marketed as a feminist Lord of the Flies, but the world building of the Tox and how it is evolving in its victims was fascinating. That’s what actually kept me turning the pages. I just wanted to learn more about the Tox and you discover something new about it at every point in the story. It’s also a horror story, but it’s more of the creepy kind, as opposed to the jump-out-at-you kind. I would also put this in the science fiction category because of the Tox.
Also, can we talk about how amazing the cover of the book is? It really captures how the girls’ bodies are basically unraveling as the Tox rages through them. The flowers represent what is at the heart of the Tox, while the hair covering Hetty’s eye reflects what the Tox has done to her.
There were a few things that bothered me about the story. The ending doesn’t let the reader know what happens to the three girls, and I’m pretty sure there is not going to be a sequel. It would just be interesting to see what the girls will do. Will they go back to the mainland? Will they be lost at sea? What exactly is going to happen?
I’m also really bothered by the way Hetty just left the rest of the girls at the school to fend off the bear. Hetty injures herself to save the girls from the gas, goes on and on about how the teachers kept things from them and tried to kill them, goes after the headmistress for giving up on them, etc. And then just leaves the other girls to be killed by the bear! It just didn’t make sense for her character. Because she spent the entire book trying to save other people, but then is like “oh look, there’s a boat. Come on Reese let’s get blow this popsicle stand. That bear will just finish off the rest of the girls and give us a chance to get away.”
I do think that you need to go into this book with an open mind, but the complex characters and excellent writing make it a wonderful read.