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?
No comments:
Post a Comment