Wilder Girls - Rory Power
Genres: Mystery, HorrorPages: 353
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Release Date: 09/07/2019
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It's been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty's life out from under her.
It started slow. First the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island home, the girls don't dare wander outside the school's fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure they were promised as the Tox seeps into everything.
But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie beyond the fence. And when she does, Hetty learns that there's more to their story, to their life at Raxter, than she could have ever thought true.
It may be September but look at me, I finished a book this year! I picked Wilder Girls as my way back in because it has a drop dead gorgeous cover and all the tropes I love. Mysterious island? Check. Weird virus? Check. Boarding school drama? Check check check.
Wilder Girls is one of the books that feels absolutely amazing. Until you actually sit down and start thinking about the overall plot. To be honest, this is full of plot holes, things are not explained much or explained in a rush (which often just feels like lazy writing) and there's very little characterisation outside of Hetty and her friends.
The story is good and I did love Hetty, Byatt and Reese, however the story from Reese's perspective would have been more interesting, as it was pretty clear that Reese had a better back story. Actually I can't really say much about Hetty before Raxter because it's barely mentioned and all I know about Byatt is that she's Byatt. It might have been mentioned and I forgot. There's definitely an overall feeling like they have lived at Raxter their whole lives.
The ending was a straight up cliffhanger so I presume there will either be a sequel or the author just didn't have the ability to finish the story properly. I hate to be harsh but the overall vibe I got was that the author had a small stomach and very large plate, they had a concept and no ability to fully flesh out and execute it into something beautiful.
