Reviews with content warning for Blood - Wilder Girls

I just... didn't really understand the point of this story?

The premise of a mysterious outbreak that affects and mutates all the wildlife as well as all the students at the all-girls boarding school on the island was quite interesting but poorly executed in this case. With limited food being sent to them from a nearby naval base, and mutated monsters prowling the island, the girls have to fight for survival with the hopes that they survive long enough for a cure to be developed.

First of all, the girls were all unlikeable and I couldn't grasp why they liked each other. Perhaps the strange circumstances (being quarantined and stuck together on an island while suffering from strange symptoms and mutations in solidarity) made them stick together out of some strange sense of loyalty. It was never clearly explained or demonstrated why these girls should even care about each other.

Then there was the romance and betrayal thrown into the mix that I just didn't care for it - the relationships and characters just weren't fleshed out enough to make me care.

Also, while I don't mind horror, I do hate gore and there were definitely some cringey and nasty gore-y scenes.

Lastly, there was the terrible way the book ended, which just leaves the reader with even more questions and zero answers.

Content Warnings

rose_thorn2020's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

I enjoyed the story but I didn’t think the author wrapped it up very well. It left me with more questions than answers. Overall a good book though

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adalieslittlelibrary's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated

4.0

I enjoyed this book. It’s outside of my usual genre, but it was good overall. I did wish certain parts were fleshed out more and felt like it could have benefitted from a bit more development, but it was a decent standalone. If you’re looking for a good dystopian/science fiction/horror/mystery standalone novel, I’d recommend trying this one. There are pretty decent content warnings so make sure to check those before jumping in.

Content Warnings

funkylitchick's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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ladyinverse's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

this book had me wanting to eat dry wall it's so good oh my god

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ennui_09's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Content Warnings

lv_ct's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

The book starts eighteen months after the quarantine is called over the boarding school Raxter School for Girls. The CDC and Navy are researching to figure out what is causing an infection dubbed by the girls at the school as "The Tox." As they research, the girls are restricted to inside the school and start to mutate with the virus, as well as all of the animals and flora on the island, making the rest of the island extremely dangerous. This book follows the main character Hetty and her two close friends, Byatt and Reese, as they try to survive until a cure can be developed. However, when Byatt goes missing, Hetty and Reese make it their goal to find where she was sent, leading to secrets being revealed about what has actually been happening for the past year and a half.

Pros:

This storyline felt incredibly unique to me, as it is a different take on the "area becoming infected by a mysterious virus" trope that is common in media. And considering that this book was published in mid-2019 right before the pandemic, it felt very ironic and almost timely.
I enjoyed the detailed descriptions of things such as the landscape and the mutations the girls went through as it helped me envision the constant terror and horrors these young girls were facing. It helps to put the reader in the shoes of the characters, rather than just telling the reader what was happening.
Queer, and specifically sapphic, relationships in the midst of a dystopian, survivalist world.
My favorite point in this book - all of the characters is morally gray. We want to root for them because you see how brave they are and vulnerable they can be. However, it's their flaws that are really noticeable. They are selfish out of self-preservation, only caring about themselves and their closest friends. It makes the reader want to scream "but you're the hero, you are supposed to save everyone." But ultimately, it is a real human thing to do.

Cons:

First-person writing is truly difficult, and it is hard to do it in a manner that does not come off as amateur writing. This said I think there are some really well-done parts in the book where Power nails the POV writing, and other times where it falls flat and becomes victim to "Tumblr-Esque" writing.
I really wish there were better explanations of the other characters OUTSIDE of Hetty, Byatt, and Reese. The reader is given glimpses of the other characters, but not as much as I would have liked there to be. At times we are only given the ages of characters, and nothing more.
- Following this, among the characters we are given descriptions to, there did not seem to be much diversity in terms of phenotypes in the characters, minus the mutations.
- There was a good amount of different personalities amongst the characters, so that good job on that aspect.
I really wish that Hetty and Reese's romantic relationship was delved into a bit deeper rather than tied in the last 100 pages. I am glad they got together because throughout the book it was an obvious question of "something is going to happen, but what?" Nevertheless, their relationship with each other is never fully fleshed out. Especially with Hetty killing Reese's dad, I wish I could have a little more background substance to their relationship before that heavy blow.
The explanation of what happened in regards to the Tox on the island truly only comes out in the last 50 pages, and still did not feel very cohesive. The reader is thrown bits and pieces of an explanation before the acknowledgments are indicating the closing of the book. It really feels like the book should have been either 1. longer or 2. had a second part to it.

Conclusion:
I personally really enjoyed this book. It is the first book I have read for fun in a long time, as I am either working or in school. I have been recommending this book to people constantly recently and I do recommend for anyone looking through these reviews to read it yourself - if you are okay with gore, blood, grief, and violence - cause it is a great read.

Content Warnings

tinnuben's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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