Reviews with content warning for Blood - Wilder Girls

i liked it a lot, but honestly im not the biggest fan of fantasy books like this bc i can never follow along with the world building. i was really confused abt the tox stuff and the ending felt rushed and unfinished.
but lots of wlw rep i love that! and hetty was a great protagonist. i felt like her and reese didnt have a lot of chemistry tho, like i didnt hate them together but i wasnt loving it(maybe bc it felt rushed too..im more of a slowburn type of girl)
unrelated but some parts made me cringe, you know when you can just tell that an author used to write fanfiction? dont get me wrong i love reading ao3 but i dont want to read borderline fanfiction in an actual published book

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sinaprst's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

this was ok
i picked this up because i liked the cover, so i knew basically nothing about the story whatsoever going into this

in short: the book is about a boarding school on an island were somesort of virus or diseases spread, that lead to several students and teachers dying while others grew second body parts or similar stuff. now the school and island have been on lock down for i believe 18 months, while the government tries to find a cure (alledgedly). we follow our main character Hetty and her friends Bryce (i think is her name) and Reese while they trie to survive and figure out what is going on the island.

first of all, i loved the writing style. the author used some interesting choices, especially with the second pov character later on, that might not be for everyone, but i absolutly adored them.

the beginning is very slow. the first like 60 pages felt like ages to me, because nothing really happens except for pages over pages of exposition and world building.
but after that i got hooked and couldn`t put it down

nonetheless i felt like the book lacked some depth in some parts. i couldn`t really connect to any of the characters and in end still felt like i knew nothing about them, eventhough the story is very character driven

the sapphic lovestory also felt very out of the blue

and literally lasted like under 24h in book time????

. i was all in all very disappointing to read and i was hoping for more.

the ending was also very open and left me with more questions then answers honestly. i also wished that Bryce was really dead, her suddenly being still alive felt weird to me, idk why tho.
also, did Hetty and Reese really just leave the rest of the girls to die on the island, when they literally scolded the headmistress and this other girl for the exact same thing just like one page before that??? this behaviour really confused and is probably one of the reasons why the ending felt so weird to me.

all in all, i loved the cover, premise and writing style, but the characters felt shallow, the lovestory underdeveloped and the ending questionable, therefore well deserved 3/5 stars from me :)

edit: i have just found out that her name is Byatt and not Bryce

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sifairi's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I really enjoyed this book, but It felt very slow for me. About 3/4 of the way through it does pick up and then I couldn't put it down.

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elsea_readingelsea's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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cammiem8's review

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dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

It was ok but I was disappointed by the expectations set by the publisher that this would be like a female Lord of the Flies. I didn’t really care for the characters and while the setting was interesting, it didn’t live up to its concept.

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spelledlikesleigh's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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may_emmy's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

that was....something. i hoped it would be better but expected it to be worse. its good but not exceptional or fantastic. im probabl not gonna reread it but i guess im glad that i read it once. i screamed at the book from time to time, and thats a good thing, and i didnt see all the plotpoints/-twists coming.

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