Wilder Girls by Rory Power

Goodreads Synopsis:

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.

[Amazon CA] [Book Depository]

My Thoughts

There are some trigger warnings in this book listed below:

• Graphic violence and body horror. Gore.
• On the page character death, parental death, and animal death (the animals are not pets).
• Behaviour and descriptive language akin to self harm, and references to such.
• Food scarcity and starvation.
• A scene depicting chemical gassing.
• Suicide and suicidal ideation.
• Non-consensual medical treatment.

I forgot how much I enjoy reading Young Adult novels; add in some horror, and I’m all over it! I can’t believe it took me so long to read this novel.The premise of a boarding school that’s under quarantine because of some unknown substance making them sick has me written all over it. I also enjoyed the isolation of being in a boarding school on an island really added to the horror elements. 

I think that I’m being converted into a horror fan? Not the Stephen King horror, but like… Normal horror? I don’t even know how to phrase that! I did read The Apocalypse Strain by Jason Parent in August and enjoyed it. I also read Cold Storage by David Koepp and enjoyed that as well… and they all have death via parasites in them… Coincidence? I think the character development and the characters overall were well written – I got a good grasp on the social aspects of the boarding school, who the groups were and the main protagonists. 

The only negative that I could find with this is the explanation for why they were under quarantine and the explanation for the mutations. It seemed rushed and not fleshed out. I wanted more explanations for why it was happening, other than a few sentences near the end. 

I was satisfied with the ending, it was open-ended which I normally dislike, but I felt like it fit this novel. Overall, I enjoyed it – I like the writing, it got better the more I read it. The first page threw me off because of the writing style, but I got over it and consumed this book. I HAD to know what would happen. It was a fast, entertaining read which is what I’m looking for right now. I got this book from the library, but I would consider buying it at a thrift store to add it to my collection. I look forward to reading more books by Powers. 

Let me know your thoughts below!