The one word that comes to mind when I think about Wilder Girls is…weird. It took me awhile to finish this book and I’m not sure if that’s because it was so strange for me or because I was in such a mood when I started reading it, but Wilder Girls just didn’t resonate with me like I thought it would.

Wilder Girls drops us directly into what can only be described as chaos. The young ladies of Raxter have been living on this island, trapped and transforming into something they don’t even fully understand. Every time a girl has a flare up, something new happens; an eye is fused shut, gills are sprouted, second spines arrive and it all comes with a wave of pain. As if that weren’t enough, the government has quarantined them until they find a cure. That means no parents, no friends back home, and no contact with the outside world. The only contact with the outside world that they have is the supply drop offs that they receive from Camp Nash, which barely help with anything. Medical supplies have long stopped and the food they get isn’t enough to feed even a fraction of them. Hetty and her friends, Byatt and Reese, are doing what is necessary for them to survive. They all have their own secrets, but they need one another if they’re going to make it through life here. After one of Byatt’s flare ups, things begin to spiral out of control and suddenly life at Raxter is more dangerous than ever.

Rory does an amazing job of describing life on Raxter. It feels like you’re actually in the middle of the crisis on Baxter. I could actually feel the character’s desperation, their tragedy and heir pain. Despite the fact that the story was a little confusing to follow and that it was beyond weird, Rory managed to craft a tale that, for better or for worse, certainly managed to draw me in.

There are two points of view in the book, Hetty and Byatt. Hetty serves as the main point of view for the majority of the story, but Byatt’s chapters offer up a unique version that her friends aren’t quite privy to once she becomes separated from them after her flare-up. I will say that the writing style is different in Byatt’s chapter and she certainly is a sneaky little thing, but by the end of the book I was very sympathetic with her, even if I didn’t completely understand her.

Besides some of the confusing writing, the one thing that I wish is that we would’ve gotten Reese’s point of view as well. We only see Reese through Hetty’s POV and while it does give us a bit of insight to her, being able to see her view would’ve been even better. I just feel like something was missing because we never got a full understanding of how Reese was dealing with life at Raxter without her parents and especially her father. It seems like the book’s ending sets itself up for a possible sequel and if so, maybe we’ll get a look inside of her head then.

Overall, I just wish I had enjoyed the story more, but I do still think that it was worth the read.

This review can also be found on my blog: https://bookswhitme.wordpress.com/2019/08/22/book-review-wilder-girls-by-rory-power/