Vivid and horrific, with excellent female relationships
I have had an eARC of this book for a while now, but recently I have started to see this book everywhere, so I decided it was time to read it. I don't read a lot of dystopian or horror novels, but I am really glad that I wound up reading this one. Wilder Girls is set at an all girls boarding school, which is a setting that I really love in books. I really enjoyed the relationships between the girls in this story as they take care of each other and fight just to survive. It is a novel about a deadly contagious disease that they call the Tox, but it also focuses on female relationships and loyalty.
The idea behind this story really fascinated me. I have watched many movies and read several books where a contagious disease breaks out and people either get sick or have to struggle to stay alive in the world after. A lot of these kinds of stories wind up being about zombies and feel like fiction or they are about real diseases. Wilder Girls felt like a fresh take on an idea that is used a lot in science fiction or dystopian novels. The Tox is a unique disease where each of the teenage girls suffers different side effects. One girl has webbed hands, another grew a second spine, one has blisters all over and another grew silvery scales on one hand. The disease itself feels wild and is vividly described in a way that is both fascinating and horrifying.
The characters were pretty well developed. Bits of them are revealed by the things that they share and the things that they keep to themselves when they are isolated and only have each other. I love the close friendships between Hetty, Byatt and Reese and how they take care of each other and depend on one another through rough times. As a main character I found Hetty to be admirable because she was so loyal to her friends. The world in the book is so harsh, yet these girls know they can depend on each other and I absolutely loved reading about their relationships.
The writing also really made this book shine. The descriptions of the different ways the Tox effected people were so vivid that I could easily picture them. There wasn't non-stop action, but I didn't want to set it down and devoured it in less than a day. The ending was so intense that I couldn't read it fast enough. Wilder Girls was so different and interesting. This is a book that I know will stick with me for a long time just because of the descriptions. I was completely shocked to find out that this was Rory Power's debut novel, but I will watch out for anything she comes out with next.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2701166071?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
https://devouringbooks2017.wordpress.com/2019/07/04/wilder-girls-by-rory-power/
The idea behind this story really fascinated me. I have watched many movies and read several books where a contagious disease breaks out and people either get sick or have to struggle to stay alive in the world after. A lot of these kinds of stories wind up being about zombies and feel like fiction or they are about real diseases. Wilder Girls felt like a fresh take on an idea that is used a lot in science fiction or dystopian novels. The Tox is a unique disease where each of the teenage girls suffers different side effects. One girl has webbed hands, another grew a second spine, one has blisters all over and another grew silvery scales on one hand. The disease itself feels wild and is vividly described in a way that is both fascinating and horrifying.
The characters were pretty well developed. Bits of them are revealed by the things that they share and the things that they keep to themselves when they are isolated and only have each other. I love the close friendships between Hetty, Byatt and Reese and how they take care of each other and depend on one another through rough times. As a main character I found Hetty to be admirable because she was so loyal to her friends. The world in the book is so harsh, yet these girls know they can depend on each other and I absolutely loved reading about their relationships.
The writing also really made this book shine. The descriptions of the different ways the Tox effected people were so vivid that I could easily picture them. There wasn't non-stop action, but I didn't want to set it down and devoured it in less than a day. The ending was so intense that I couldn't read it fast enough. Wilder Girls was so different and interesting. This is a book that I know will stick with me for a long time just because of the descriptions. I was completely shocked to find out that this was Rory Power's debut novel, but I will watch out for anything she comes out with next.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2701166071?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
https://devouringbooks2017.wordpress.com/2019/07/04/wilder-girls-by-rory-power/