Thank you to Bookish First and Delacorte Press for providing me a copy to review.
TW: suicide, chemical gassing, gore, dead bodies, death of parental figure,
My Thoughts:
When Wilder Girls first popped up on Bookish First, I knew that I had to get it. I had heard so many rave reviews about it and everyone talking about it. Rightly so because it sounded fabulous; a sapphic horror novel with a strange disease! Be still my microbiologist's heart, sign me up!
Alas, my excitement for the book slowly wanned as I was reading it. I was getting into it and I really did want to DNF. I pushed through because I had gotten it from Bookish First thus felt a duty to fulfill my agreement to provide a review. It did get a bit better towards the middle. I was getting answers and the plot was flowing. Then there waa maybe 100-pages left and my desire to DNF was back again. When I finally finished it, I was pissed. The ending just stops. There was really no closure.
So where did this book go wrong?
The Mood
Wilder Girls is set on Raxter Island and it seems to be winter there. The girls are bundled up in coats and destroying furniture to stay warm. Though I was reading it, I never felt the cold. I never felt like I was at Raxter with them: feeling the cold, the pain of losing people that you care about. I wanted to feel that. I enjoy emphasizing with characters and I never did that here. I felt from them yes, but it was more like when someone you don't know tells you that there loved one who you don't know passed away. You feel from them but you don't mourn with them.
The Disease
Fair warning, I am a Microbiologist and my mother is an Infection Control Nurse, so we have many discussions in my house on how to deal with infectious disease (yes the dinner conversations are quite lively). I was talking (well more like ranting) with her last night about Wilder Girls and we were discussing how unlikely it would be for the CDC and the Navy to just leave the girls on the island. I can understand the quartine as it would be ridiculous for these girls to spread this disease especially since it is highly contagious. I tried to remind myself that this is a horror novel and them being left alone on the island is part of that and subsequent trying to irradicate them. Powers could have incorporated the health care workers into the lives of the girls fully by having a character who are trying to care for the girls in Raxter. They could have still gotten the disease. They could still be affected. The government could still cover it up and try to irradicate them.
Now for the disease itself, I have some questions. *spoilers for the rest of the paragraph* The Tox seems to be from the ending of the book a worm-like parasite that takes over the body and causes the horrific side effects. It evolved from the Raxter Irises to the Raxter Blue crabs to the Raxter Girls and the rest of the living things on the island. It seems to be transmitted through air or saliva because an unfortunate character kissed one of the girls and they then died shortly after due to the Tox. How does this work??? From what I know about transmission of diseases, they don't jump between killing plants and then killing animals. I can suspend my knowledge for this parasite because I can see a very thin argument on the fact that because it is a parasite (not a bacteria or a virus) and it evolved in this specific way that allowed it to use all manner of life. Though back to how it is transmitted. I don't understand how a parasitic worm-thing can be shared by two people kissing. I am sticking with the fact that this was a parasitic worm, so it would have to share it's genetic material somehow. Does the genetic material go into the sliva or into the lungs to be spread out?
Also, there are people on the island who don't have the disease. How? Hetty said that the Tox seeps into everything on Raxter! Why isn't it affecting them? One last question, why was Estrogen a factor in how the disease affected you? What did the disease do that Estrogen inhibited or supported?
I know that this is a work of fiction and that I should suspend my beliefs but this is my passion. I love learning about new diseases. Powers give nothing substantial. It is all maybes and we think. I want concert answers. I would even take a "flux capacitor" explanation!
The Plot
From the synopsis, it sounds like Hetty and Reese are trying to find Byatt, their friend who was taken from them and the school. This is kind of what happens but it is missing the whole part about the fact that the Navy comes by and gives them food and is actively trying to kill them. Also, the whole lets rescue Byatt thing felt like it was not at the forefront of the novel. It was kind of towards the end of the book. It was rushed and when they finally do get to her the book ends.
*spoilers*
WHAT WAS WITH THE ENDING??
Byatt, Hetty, and Reese are all just chilling in the boat trying to escape to the mainland and so they are just going to leave the island behind? Also what about the fact that they are extremely contagious? I would like some answers! Or at least an epilogue.
The Pacing
I bounced back and forth between wanting to DNF and actually enjoying the book. It didn't flow well. I feel that there were scenes that could have been cut. Like the Byatt ones; they were informative but took away from the promised story.
What did I actually like about the book?
The Characters
I didn't mind them. Reese was the best. I loved her stoic-ness and how she would do literally anything for Hetty. Speaking of her and Hetty, I shipped them the moment I saw them together. I wish that we could have seen them together more.
This quote
We don't get to choose what hurts us.
I felt this quote personally. This quote embodies the concept that we don't get to have a choice in how we affect other people or how they affect us. It is a concept that many, many people need to learn.
Thank you to you dear reader for reading my rant review of Wilder Girls. I do wish that I could have loved this book more but alas I could not.
TW: suicide, chemical gassing, gore, dead bodies, death of parental figure,
My Thoughts:
When Wilder Girls first popped up on Bookish First, I knew that I had to get it. I had heard so many rave reviews about it and everyone talking about it. Rightly so because it sounded fabulous; a sapphic horror novel with a strange disease! Be still my microbiologist's heart, sign me up!
Alas, my excitement for the book slowly wanned as I was reading it. I was getting into it and I really did want to DNF. I pushed through because I had gotten it from Bookish First thus felt a duty to fulfill my agreement to provide a review. It did get a bit better towards the middle. I was getting answers and the plot was flowing. Then there waa maybe 100-pages left and my desire to DNF was back again. When I finally finished it, I was pissed. The ending just stops. There was really no closure.
So where did this book go wrong?
The Mood
Wilder Girls is set on Raxter Island and it seems to be winter there. The girls are bundled up in coats and destroying furniture to stay warm. Though I was reading it, I never felt the cold. I never felt like I was at Raxter with them: feeling the cold, the pain of losing people that you care about. I wanted to feel that. I enjoy emphasizing with characters and I never did that here. I felt from them yes, but it was more like when someone you don't know tells you that there loved one who you don't know passed away. You feel from them but you don't mourn with them.
The Disease
Fair warning, I am a Microbiologist and my mother is an Infection Control Nurse, so we have many discussions in my house on how to deal with infectious disease (yes the dinner conversations are quite lively). I was talking (well more like ranting) with her last night about Wilder Girls and we were discussing how unlikely it would be for the CDC and the Navy to just leave the girls on the island. I can understand the quartine as it would be ridiculous for these girls to spread this disease especially since it is highly contagious. I tried to remind myself that this is a horror novel and them being left alone on the island is part of that and subsequent trying to irradicate them. Powers could have incorporated the health care workers into the lives of the girls fully by having a character who are trying to care for the girls in Raxter. They could have still gotten the disease. They could still be affected. The government could still cover it up and try to irradicate them.
Now for the disease itself, I have some questions. *spoilers for the rest of the paragraph* The Tox seems to be from the ending of the book a worm-like parasite that takes over the body and causes the horrific side effects. It evolved from the Raxter Irises to the Raxter Blue crabs to the Raxter Girls and the rest of the living things on the island. It seems to be transmitted through air or saliva because an unfortunate character kissed one of the girls and they then died shortly after due to the Tox. How does this work??? From what I know about transmission of diseases, they don't jump between killing plants and then killing animals. I can suspend my knowledge for this parasite because I can see a very thin argument on the fact that because it is a parasite (not a bacteria or a virus) and it evolved in this specific way that allowed it to use all manner of life. Though back to how it is transmitted. I don't understand how a parasitic worm-thing can be shared by two people kissing. I am sticking with the fact that this was a parasitic worm, so it would have to share it's genetic material somehow. Does the genetic material go into the sliva or into the lungs to be spread out?
Also, there are people on the island who don't have the disease. How? Hetty said that the Tox seeps into everything on Raxter! Why isn't it affecting them? One last question, why was Estrogen a factor in how the disease affected you? What did the disease do that Estrogen inhibited or supported?
I know that this is a work of fiction and that I should suspend my beliefs but this is my passion. I love learning about new diseases. Powers give nothing substantial. It is all maybes and we think. I want concert answers. I would even take a "flux capacitor" explanation!
The Plot
From the synopsis, it sounds like Hetty and Reese are trying to find Byatt, their friend who was taken from them and the school. This is kind of what happens but it is missing the whole part about the fact that the Navy comes by and gives them food and is actively trying to kill them. Also, the whole lets rescue Byatt thing felt like it was not at the forefront of the novel. It was kind of towards the end of the book. It was rushed and when they finally do get to her the book ends.
*spoilers*
WHAT WAS WITH THE ENDING??
Byatt, Hetty, and Reese are all just chilling in the boat trying to escape to the mainland and so they are just going to leave the island behind? Also what about the fact that they are extremely contagious? I would like some answers! Or at least an epilogue.
The Pacing
I bounced back and forth between wanting to DNF and actually enjoying the book. It didn't flow well. I feel that there were scenes that could have been cut. Like the Byatt ones; they were informative but took away from the promised story.
What did I actually like about the book?
The Characters
I didn't mind them. Reese was the best. I loved her stoic-ness and how she would do literally anything for Hetty. Speaking of her and Hetty, I shipped them the moment I saw them together. I wish that we could have seen them together more.
This quote
We don't get to choose what hurts us.
I felt this quote personally. This quote embodies the concept that we don't get to have a choice in how we affect other people or how they affect us. It is a concept that many, many people need to learn.
Thank you to you dear reader for reading my rant review of Wilder Girls. I do wish that I could have loved this book more but alas I could not.