Review: Wilder Girls

Title: Wilder Girls
Author: Rory Power
Genre: Young Adult, Horror
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback
Release Date: July 9, 2019
Rating: ★★★★

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.

Review:

This story was a rollercoaster ride!

I felt the camaraderie between the girls right away. They were close because they had all been affected by the same disease, called the Tox. It affected everyone differently. Some girls grew gills, another grew a second spine, and other people grew tree branches out of their bodies. Each symptom kept getting creepier than the last, because they were unpredictable.

I liked the way that this story had two different perspectives. Hetty had the Tox, but she was fairly reliable throughout the story. The narratives switches to another girl for a few chapters, and she is very sick with the Tox. This gives an inside look into how it affects the girls when it takes over their bodies.

I really enjoyed this story. It had creepy horror elements that kept me hooked. I would love to see a sequel happen one day!

Thank you Penguin Random House Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

Have you read Wilder Girls? What did you think of it?