Wilder Girls is the haunting tale of an isolated boarding school consumed by the Tox, infecting and deforming the girls of the boarding school and killing almost all the adults. Narrated by two close friends, Hetty and Byatt, this book follows both the close relationships between the remaining girls of the school as well as the mysteries and intrigue hidden behind the Tox itself, and how the government is handling the situation.

I really wanted to love this book. An isolated boarding school? Some deadly virus thing changing everyone it comes across in very odd ways? An f/f relationship thrown in the middle of all that? It was a recipe for perfection, and had me quite hooked for a while, until all of a sudden it didn’t anymore. This is one of those books where the idea was fantastic, but the execution needed a lot of work.

My main issues were with the plot itself, as I was quite into the strained yet flourishing relationships between the three girls this book centers around. There’s just a whole lot of things that don’t line up overall, things that are hidden from either the girls or the government that either group could have very easily figured out or seen. However, this book was leaning towards a 3 star rating right up until the end, where the author suddenly decided to info dump the entire twist in the last 10 pages? While most had been predictable or not altogether shocking even if I hadn’t guessed it, it was given to the reader like ripping off a band aid, ‘if I do it super fast they won’t think too hard about it’ I guess?? You’re also just left with that, there’s no true resolution of the actual plot at hand or anything, you’re just dropped with the explanation behind everything. It’s super open, but doesn’t actually give you enough to theorize the rest of what happens yourself or anything. It was just too messy for me.

The pacing was also all over the place, as already seen by the ending. For a short book, there is a whole lot of nothing happening in the beginning, and even when things start to pick up, there’s too many slow down moments to really keep the fast pace high tension vibe going. It could’ve definitely used some tightening up in that regard.

I tried really hard to enjoy and love this book, and while it was a quick read, I can’t say I had too much fun besides seeing my books read this year go up. There were just too many issues with how the plot and twist were handled for me to enjoy what that plot and twist actually were.