Review // Wilder Girls by Rory Power

Friday, August 23, 2019


Wilder Girls by Rory Power
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: July 9th, 2019
Rating: 2 Stars
Source: Purchase
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 353

Summary (from Goodreads):

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.

Okay, so picking up Wilder Girls, for me, was a choice made due to the cover and the hype, both of which let me down terribly. I have heard so much good stuff about this book, but unfortunately, it just wasn't for me.

Wilder Girls primarily follows a girl named Hetty while she navigates life at Raxter, formerly her all girls' boarding school, now the place where she and the rest of the girls infected with the Tox are quarantined, waiting for a cure.

The Tox affects each girl differently. It fused the eyelids on one of Hetty's eyes shut, it gave her friend Reese a silver, scaled hand, and it gave her friend Byatt a second spine. I don't think this book ever really explains how the Tox came to be on the island where their school is. 

What can I say about the characters? I didn't really like any of them. I didn't really care about any of them. I didn't really understand why Hetty and Byatt were friends with Reese, I never really got the feeling that they liked her that much.

This book is pitched as a sapphic horror novel. The only relationships in this book are f/f. Romance isn't a big part of this book at all. I didn't really care about the romance in this book. Up until the point that they kissed, I had absolutely no idea which of the girls Hetty was going to end up with. It was a bit of a surprise to me.

I think my biggest problem with this book was the writing style. I don't know how to describe it, maybe it felt kind of distant and eerie? Whatever it was, I just could NOT get into it. In the beginning it felt really jarring to me. I feel like I noticed an abundance of commas being used throughout the book. I feel like if it hadn't been for the writing style, I might have liked this book at least a bit because I could have possibly gotten into the story.

Since I kept seeing this book being described as horror, I thought that it was going to be maybe somewhat scary. I mean, in a way, yeah it kind of is. But I was expecting for the book itself to be scary, not the part where you're thinking about how this book could relate to real life.

I think that this book is kind of a look at a possibility of what could happen in real life due to global warming? I remember reading an article a few years ago about how ancient illnesses could start popping up because of so many layers of permafrost melting and releasing bacteria and parasites that have been frozen for ages. And I think at the end of the book, it's mentioned that the illness the girls are experiencing could have been caused by a parasite that had likely been frozen and relatively recently thawed out.

And it feels like this book just kind of ends. Like, I have no idea what the characters are supposed to do from the point that this book ends. I feel like the ending is mildly hopeful for the characters, but also could be bleak. I literally don't know.

Overall, this book just wasn't for me. I literally didn't care about anything in it the whole time I was reading. I kept reading, just hoping that it would hook me, but it never happened. I think I am in the minority on this one, it seems to have mostly good reviews. So, if you're curious you should give it a shot. I don't think that I would personally recommend it though.

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

Review // The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd Jones

Friday, August 16, 2019


The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: September 24th, 2019
Rating: 5 Stars
Source: TheNovl
Format: Physical ARC
Pages: 352

Summary (from Goodreads):

Seventeen-year-old Aderyn ("Ryn") only cares about two things: her family, and her family's graveyard. And right now, both are in dire straits. Since the death of their parents, Ryn and her siblings have been scraping together a meager existence as gravediggers in the remote village of Colbren, which sits at the foot of a harsh and deadly mountain range that was once home to the fae. The problem with being a gravedigger in Colbren, though, is that the dead don't always stay dead.

The risen corpses are known as "bone houses," and legend says that they're the result of a decades-old curse. When Ellis, an apprentice mapmaker with a mysterious past, arrives in town, the bone houses attack with new ferocity. What is it about Ellis that draws them near? And more importantly, how can they be stopped for good?

Together, Ellis and Ryn embark on a journey that will take them deep into the heart of the mountains, where they will have to face both the curse and the long-hidden truths about themselves.

**I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.**

The Bone Houses follows Ryn, a gravedigger from the small village of Colbren, through a forest in medieval Wales as she tries to end a curse that brings back the dead every night. Along with her new friend, Ellis, who is a mapmaker, and a dead goat, she makes her way to the abandoned fortress of the Otherking to find and destroy the cauldron of rebirth, which is supposed to give life.

So.. I loved this book. I don't know what it is with me and books about reanimated corpses, but I love them so much.

I loved our main character, Ryn. Since her father disappeared, she has taken over his position digging graves for the villagers to earn money for her family. In fact, she seems to be entirely motivated by her family in one way or another. She will do whatever she has to do for her brother and sister. Her main reasons for helping Ellis with creating his map of the mountains are to get coin for her family and to see if she can find her father.

She is also one of the only people who believes in the bone houses, who generally stay within the confines of the forest. Until something changes and they start to venture out further and even begin to attack her village. She has taken to spending nights outside of the village to keep an eye on the bone houses and taking care of any that get too adventurous with the axe that she carries around with her.

I really liked Ellis as well. He is so dedicated to his mapmaking. His motivation with his maps seems to be to make sure that people don't get lost in their travels and villages and their people don't get forgotten about because nobody can find them. He has chronic pain from an injury he received as a child. I can't speak to whether it's good rep for chronic pain or not, though. His history is super interesting.

I really enjoyed the romance in this book. It's super slow burn. Ryn and Ellis get along so well in this book, that was something that I really appreciated about them. And it never feels like either of them were really chasing the other. It just kind of felt like they accidentally fell for each other on their journey. So more of this book felt like it was about what the characters were trying to accomplish rather than building a romance.

This story seems to be based heavily on Welsh mythology which, I thought was really interesting. I liked the questions about whether or not death changes a person. Are the bone houses just mindless zombies? Or are they just themselves, but dead? I liked the descriptions in this book. I thought the writing was lovely without being overly flowery.

Overall, I really liked this book! I didn't want to put it down while I was reading and I already have a finished copy preordered! If you're into dark standalones, Welsh mythology, ReAnImAtEd CoRpSeS(!!!), and slow-burn romance, I would recommend this book. It would be a perfect, atmospheric read for the spooky season.

Have you read this book or are you looking forward to it?

Review // Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

Friday, August 9, 2019


Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan
Girls of Paper and Fire #1
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson Books
Publication: November 6th, 2018
Rating: 3.5 Stars??
Source: Audible
Format: Audiobook
Pages: 400

Summary (from Goodreads):

Each year, eight beautiful girls are chosen as Paper Girls to serve the king. It's the highest honor they could hope for...and the most demeaning. This year, there's a ninth. And instead of paper, she's made of fire.

In this richly developed fantasy, Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most persecuted class of people in Ikhara. She lives in a remote village with her father, where the decade-old trauma of watching her mother snatched by royal guards for an unknown fate still haunts her. Now, the guards are back and this time it's Lei they're after -- the girl with the golden eyes whose rumored beauty has piqued the king's interest.

Over weeks of training in the opulent but oppressive palace, Lei and eight other girls learns the skills and charm that befit a king's consort. There, she does the unthinkable -- she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens her world's entire way of life. Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide how far she's willing to go for justice and revenge.

Trigger warnings for rape, sexual assault, and animal death.

Girls of Paper and Fire follows Lei, a girl with golden eyes, who is taken from her village and forced to become one of the Demon King's Paper girls, or basically one of his teenage concubines.

Usually there are only eight Paper girls chosen, but Lei was taken from her village by a disgraced general who wanted to redeem himself with the Demon King. So she was kidnapped and made to be the ninth Paper girl, I think mostly because of her eyes and the fact that golden eyes are supposed to be lucky and the Demon King is superstitious.

Based on the synopsis, I thought that her being the ninth Paper girl was going to be more important than it felt to me. I also thought the "fire" part was going to be bigger, but this could all be me not paying close enough attention to the audiobook. Also, the golden eyes, for as much as they were talked about in the beginning of the book, didn't feel like that big of a deal.

So, in Ikhara, there are three types of people. Regular humans are known as the paper caste, they are the bottom class. Steel caste people are half demon and half human. And then the Moon caste people are full demons and they are the ruling class.

When Lei is forced into life as a Paper girl, she follows along dutifully with most everything she has to do because the general who took her said that if she didn't, her family would pay. She eventually kind of settles into life with the other Paper girls because she is hoping that she will be able to find her mother, who was taken from her village in a similar fashion seven years earlier. She makes friends with the girls and goes to her classes and does what is asked of her.

Until the first time she is called to the king's bedroom. When her name is on the paper that the king sends, she is taken to her first ye (?? I'm not sure, I listened to the audiobook) lesson, basically a sex lesson so she will have an idea of what to expect with the king.

So, overall, I do think that I liked this book, but I'm not 100% sure what I think of it. I think part of it is because I listened to the audiobook while I was doing other things. 

I don't know what I think of Lei. I don't actively dislike her, but I don't think I really actively like her either. She rebels against her role as a concubine by refusing the king because this isn't what she wants for herself. Which, I respect that. But I didn't like how she treated other girls who maybe embraced their position for whatever reason. They had no choice, maybe the actually found that they enjoyed it, they didn't want the punishments that came with refusing. Particularly the way she talked to her friend Aoki.

I liked the romance. Lei and another one of the Paper girls end up falling in love. I liked how Lei realized what her feelings were when she was at her first ye lesson and the instructor, Zelle, told her to just imagine during their lesson that she was with the person that she had feelings for instead of imagining the king. I liked how the girls relationship progressed. I feel like the only thing I didn't really like in this regard was how it felt like Lei was kind of demanding some of the other girl's secrets? I don't know. 

I feel like not a lot really happened in this book? Which, of course, so many of my problems could amount to how much attention I was able to give the audio at any given time. But it felt like she got taken, then there was a lot of stuff with the Paper girl business, then some stuff about a rebellion thrown in at the end. I don't really feel like Lei was qualified enough to be given as much of an opportunity to participate in this rebellion as she was. She had like five minutes of training at the end and then was forced into a main role.

The more I write in this review, the less I feel like I should be reviewing it at this point, honestly.

One thing I really didn't like about this book was how one girl was repeatedly described as "feline". As having "feline" features and whatever else. I could see that as being something to describe her once or twice, but after a certain point, I kept forgetting that she was a Paper girl and not a Steel or Moon caste cat form demon.

And one thing that I thought throughout this book (as someone who is absolutely not the target audience) was that it could possibly benefit from being NA or adult even. It is a book entirely about a group of girls who are chosen to be the king's concubines, who are called one by one to his bedroom, and who have sex lessons every time they are chosen by the king. Girls sneak off with lovers. For a book that is so centered around people having sex, I feel like the story would have benefitted from not having to be so fade-to-black.

But once again, I am not the target audience for this and am probably projecting the types of things I want to find out there to read.

So, when I finished this book, I was like, "Yes! This was so good!" And while, I still feel like I liked it, the more I think about it, the more the details are fuzzy (I only just finished it two days ago), and I just feel like I am confused. I will absolutely be continuing on with the series because I am curious to see what happens next. But I will definitely benefit from a physical re-read of this book. Also, the covers are goooorgeous.

This is 100% why I tend to prefer audiobooks for rereads. I always feel like I get more from the original story, with this I just feel confused at this point. What a great starting point for hopping back into reviews! Love this for me. I feel like you can just see where things started going downhill in my head.

Have you read this book? What did you think of it?


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