Wilder Girls

· Delacorte Press
4.2
21 reviews
eBook
368
Pages
Eligible
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About this eBook

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

"The perfect kind of story for our current era."Hypable

Featured in Vulture’s "11 Books to Read If You Already Miss Yellowjackets"!

From the author of Burn Our Bodies Down, a feminist Lord of the Flies about three best friends living in quarantine at their island boarding school, and the lengths they go to uncover the truth of their confinement when one disappears. This fresh debut is a mind-bending novel unlike anything you've read before.

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.

And don't miss Rory Power's second novel, Burn Our Bodies Down!

Praise for Wilder Girls:

4 STARRED REVIEWS!

"Take Annihilation, add a dash of Contagion, set it at an all-girls' academy, and you'll arrive at Rory Power's occasionally shocking and always gripping Wilder Girls."--Refinery29

"This thrilling saga...is sure to be one of the season's most talked-about books, in any genre."--EW

"Fresh and horrible and beautiful....readers will be consumed and altered by Wilder Girls."--NPR

Ratings and reviews

4.2
21 reviews
Sheila Goicea
13 December 2019
I received a copy of this book via Delacorte Press and BookishFirst in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! In no way does this affect my rating or review. All included quotes have been taken from an ARC and may not match the finished publication. Content Warning (from the author's website directly): Graphic violence and body horror. Gore. On the page character death, parental death, and animal death (the animals are not pets). Behavior and descriptive language akin to self harm, and references to such. Food scarcity and starvation. Emesis. A scene depicting chemical gassing. Suicide and suicidal ideation. Non-consensual medical treatment. DNFing at page 31. Here I am again, with another DNF. I must admit that I’m rather relieved to set this one down with a sense of finality. Wilder Girls first caught my attention when it was said to be a Lord of the Flies retelling with an emphasis on feminism. I’m not one for feminist stories (or the targeted audience for that matter), but the retelling portion had me intrigued. Lord of the Flies is a title that I won't forget, despite having only read it once when I was in high school. When I kindly received a physical ARC from BookishFirst, I had to try it out, despite my hesitations. After only getting thirty pages in, I realized that I should have just gone with my gut instinct on this one. I had read a short snippet of the book before receiving an ARC, and was somewhat wary towards the writing style. I hoped that the snippet I read was singular, and meant as a voice of introductory narration. To my dismay, the entire story is told in a conglomeration of fragmented sentences and incomplete thoughts. For a movie, this style may have been more appropriate. For a novel, it does not work. Undoubtedly, the style hints at a crudeness that fits the premise. It felt blunt and even barbarous, at times. While effect in that aspect, it doesn’t work for a novel because it prohibits flow and unity. In regards to it being a Lord of the Flies retelling, I cannot really say. Seeing how I didn’t (and couldn't tolerate) read far enough to wager whether Wilder Girls did, in fact, follow the themes, or not. From what I read, I believe relationships will take on a higher importance and focus than its counterpart. Since this is a DNF read, I will not be assigning a star-review.
4 people found this review helpful
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Jenna
9 July 2019
Hetty is the teen protagonist who wants not only to survive but to truly live in this gruesome, immersive, and gorgeous story that takes place in an all-girls school set on an island that has been infested by the deadly “tox”. This story is not for the faint of heart as the tox causes monstrous deformations in the host bodies- both physical and psychological. And the author does not hold back on causing every single one of her characters pain! Nor is this story for the grammar police. The prose is absolutely stunning in the poetic sense. The author goes ALL IN on voice, throwing grammar conventions out the window. The result is almost a cinematic experience—virtual reality, at times, and I think it is completely fitting for this story. If you’re looking for an engrossing tale that is dark and raw, devoid of superficial beauty or expectations, about girls, survival, friendship, and f/f romance, and find beauty in the strange and sometimes macabre...then you will enjoy this book!
3 people found this review helpful
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Angel White
14 October 2021
2.5 Rounded to a 2 I was expecting a lot more with this one after reading the premise. It was very interesting to start, but just didn't catch my attention much. It felt rushed in some spots and slow in others. Not a very put together format or flow (for me anyway). I'm honestly not sure if this is a series or ... the ending leads one to believe there should be more to it. I honestly can't stand when a story just abruptly cuts off and leaves me feeling unsatisfied...open-ended finishes are great when they work and make sense. This did not. Find me on Instagram @bookn.all.night
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About the author

Rory Power grew up in Boston, received her undergraduate degree at Middlebury College, and went on to earn an MA in prose fiction from the University of East Anglia. She lives in Massachusetts. Her first novel is the New York Times bestseller Wilder Girls. To learn more about Rory, go to itsrorypower.com and follow @itsrorypower on Twitter and Instagram.

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