Wilder Girls | Rory Power

 

Title: Wilder Girls

Author: Rory Power

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Release date: July 9th, 2019

Genre(s): young adult fiction, dystopia, mystery, science fiction, thriller

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5

Purchase links: Bookalicious | Popular Online | Book Depository

Blurb

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.

Source: Goodreads 

My Review

Trigger Warnings/ Content Warnings provided by the author: 

• graphic violence and body horror, gore. 
• on the page character death, parental death, and animal death (the animals are not the 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
• disease
• guns
• near-death experiences
• profanity 
• stitching

I have seen people pitched this book as a feminist Lord of the Flies and I've read it before. It does give me similar vibes to Lord of the Flies especially the girls are being confined on the island and they strive for food every day; fighting against their hunger as they wait for the rescue to arrive. They also transcend natural capacity in brutality if their lives were to be on the line - like how ones can be nice beforehand but when they're driven to the edge, they turn for the worst to survive. These moments are the only things that I've found similar to the Lord of the Flies, but the rest of it is a completely new idea and I'm really intrigued by the whole plot itself. 

This book has a terrific premise whereby the students at an all-girls boarding school situated on the island are being fierce for food after going through 18 months of isolation. Why are they being quarantined for so long? There's this viral outbreak going on the island where all of the girls including, teachers and the body of the school are infected by unknown and cryptic diseases called Tox. The tox doesn't only happen to them but as well as to the animals residing on the island. These diseases grow on them like mutation - modifying and distorting the bodies into something that is incomprehensible like some of them grow out gills, skin that split bones open, eyes' lid being fused - there are so many random mutations and they vary on individuals. While for the animals, timid ones can grow bigger, feral, and some of them could be turning deadly into flesh eaters. Another interesting about this pandemic is that the girls experience flare-ups whenever their bodies change as the modification of the disease always happens in stages. The more frequent it happens, the worse students' conditions. Some of the students couldn't handle the change and once it's bad enough, they're sent to the infirmary for self-lockdown. However, those who have gone through that room would never return. 

In this story, we follow up three first points of view of three best friends; mainly Hetty and some parts of Byatt and Reece. They have promised each other that they will stay thriving until the promised cure arrives. They have this platonic relationship or maybe sisterly love. It's interesting though because the bond they have for each other surpasses the word love and if I were to word it precisely; the only motivation for them not to give up their life is to rely on each other's presence. This book is unexpectedly, emotionally driven too like even if you're a stranger to their life, you can't help but feel the palpable connection they have for each other.  So when Byatt has reached her maximum flare up and has gone missing, Hetty and Reece swear to do anything that can save their friend, even if they're to break the quarantine rules and go to the other side of the fence that lies nothing but horrific experiences that will traumatise them. 

Ok for real, I really love the premise, the incredibly disgusting diseases, the characters, the mystic atmosphere, the brutality, and the PLOT TWISTS. These elements are done and delivered very well except for the plotwise and how the story is wrapped up in the end. For most of the book, the plot delivers but I figure out there are so many plot holes that can conjure up questions in readers' minds. Because I DO. I do have a lot of questions that are left unanswered and that just makes me being a frustrated reader in the end. For your information, the plot is sometimes not connected to each other or simply I say it's not linear even though oddly we could follow up the storyline easily. It could be fantastic and I would have rated this book 5 stars if the author doesn't go on too vague or leaving some parts as open-ended interpretations because I don't read and already feel attached to a third quarter of the book only to find the ending disappoints me. Having said this, I wish the author could write another sequel to this book because it deserves more explanation. 

In terms of writing, it's very poetic. I think beginners will have a hard time reading the first part of the book because it's merely full of descriptions and quite boring, wait till you pass about 50 pages, then the excitement will fill in. This book is recommendable for those who enjoy body horror, sci-fi, and a mind-boggling mystery.