Wilder Girls ~ Rory Power

★★★★★

I received this ARC from Delacorte Press via BookishFirst in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way. All quotes are taken from the uncorrected proof and are subject to change.

I better be getting a sequel or I will personally strangle Rory Power.

The Tox didn't just happen to us. It happened to everything.

Obligatory Summary

It's been 18 months since an insidious and horrific disease known as the Tox took over Raxter Island, and the girls trapped there are beginning to unravel. The Tox takes something from each of them, humans and animals alike—some their eyes, some their sanity—and gives them something else in return.

Hettie and her two best friends, Byatt and Reese, have managed to maintain a friendship throughout all this turmoil. But things are changing, and when one of them disappears, Hettie will do whatever it takes to find her.

Part psychological thriller, part psychological horror, Wilder Girls is about bodies and minds and how to break both.

There's this place in her, somewhere nobody can touch, not me or Reese or anyone. It's just hers, and I don't even know what it is, really, just that it's there, and that she takes it with her when she goes.

My Thoughts

Phenomenal!! Absolutely phenomenal!!! I've never read a book more accurately compared to another work of fiction; Wilder Girls truly is the YA Annihilation, for both the book and the movie version. It's also very similar to Lord of the Flies in all the best ways. It's atmospheric. It's spooky. It's got all the feels. It gives you burgeoning existential dread. I loved every second of it.

The writing is a tad difficult to get into at first, but once you're in, you really can't get out. It has a very stream-of-consciousness style that usually doesn't work for me with first person, but it worked amazingly well in this. Those messy, confusing scenes were some of my absolute favorites, and I can't wait to reread this just to experience them again.

I think I have been a problem all my life. Here I am where problems go. First Raxter and now here, and I have always been heading here, haven't I, haven't I. Too bright and too bored and something missing, or perhaps something too much there.

I will warn you now: this emulates Annihilation in more than just atmosphere and eco-spooks. It has one of the most open endings I've ever read for a book that isn't in a confirmed series. It's more vague than The Giver (and that did get confirmed!) I personally didn't mind it (that much; I am willing to strangle Rory Power if I never get an answer, mind you) but I can imagine it bothering a lot of people. I've generally accepted that horror usually doesn't give you any concrete answers, because explanations tend to eliminate the spook factor. I mean, just look at Lost.

As for characters, I did get a little bored with Hettie sometimes, but only because of certain things that were happening with Byatt at the same time and I really wanted to know her side of things more than Hettie's. Overall, though, I loved all the characters. I loved the LGBTQ+ inclusion, and how it wasn't done in a self-indulgent, ~ooh, look at me! I'm inclusive~ kind of way. It was natural and realistic and I loved it. The way Power planted little seeds of character development (and really, worldbuilding too) and then expanded on them in a reveal either shortly after or way later was honestly so masterful. I will literally rave about how well everything was set up for hours if you let me.