Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

54 reviews

tinnuben's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

greenglass67's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

This book is crazy! I loved the characters, I loved the setting, I loved the plot. Rory Powers' writing is fantastic. It's so easy to visualize all the settings and the action of the book is intense and gripping. There are scenes that I think get a bad rep for being confusing, but it all feels like it's a necessary part of the story. It's important for those scenes to be confusing. This book was a little slow getting started, and it takes a while for your questions to be answered, but I felt that the payoff was worth it. There are some scenes that contain pretty graphic body horror and injuries, but if you can get past that, this would be a 5.0!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Self harm, Terminal illness, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

charleshasalibrary's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

I wanted to give this book a chance despite the lower rating, but it was worse even than I expected. For context, I rarely if ever give a book less than 3 stars. But Wilder Girls earned it. First of all, the characters were completely undeveloped. I was supposed to apparently feel something about these girls' relationships to one another, but it's like we were thrown into the story halfway through and I was given no substantial background to understand their dynamics. So I didn't care about them or emotionally believe the story at all. Secondly, the writing truly felt like my middle school self wrote it. Over the top, trying too hard to be lyrical when it didn't need to be. It made the whole book feel even more cringe-worthy. Lastly, the plot! The plot was the one thing that kept me reading this book, because I found it so intriguing and wanted to understand the mystery. But the explanations were so poorly given. The ending in general was terribly executed. For someone who apparently felt so much guilt for what she'd done, the main character chose to be incredibly selfish at the end. I won't say more so as not to give spoilers, but all in all - I hate that this book got any hype at all. It truly feels like it was written by a 14 year old.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, and Death of parent

Moderate: Self harm

greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? No

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

onemorepagecrew's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

Wilder Girls by Rory Power strikes me as a book that some will enjoy, and others will wish they had never picked up – very niche in its audience.  Personally, I was into it and would selectively recommend it.  

 

The story is set at a boarding school for girls that has been put under quarantine by the CDC.  We jump in after they have already adjusted and fallen into a routine, then slowly learn bits about the early days when the isolation first began.  It’s an effective way to tell the story without reading through the whole event.  Instead, the book focuses on what happens when a few girls start disappearing and the protagonist, Hetty, starts looking for answers.  

 

The book is categorized as YA lgbtqia+ horror and that felt inaccurate.  There are romantic relationships between girls in the school, but their world is so bleak that it’s not the focus, more of an implied afterthought.  And horror is a tough bar to clear.  This was suspenseful at times but never tense (for me), definitely not scary (again, for me), but did have a few graphic descriptions.  It’s more of a creepy mystery through a lens of survival dystopia. 

 

It is an interesting look at how powerful information can be, especially when it is withheld.  How isolation can be achieved by manufactured fear.  If you enjoyed books like Devolution, Dry, or Unwind then this might be a good one for you. 

 

Content warnings: Gore, Death, Self-harm, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Self harm, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Medical trauma

apolloniablooms's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.0

It really choked at the end, which felt rushed.  Overall glad I read it, but it feels like a shadow of books like Annihilation and Inspection which do the same thing but feel more complete.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

jenny_d's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

msradiosilence's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Tldr; Reese and Hetty and Byatt deserve better and I hope they all make it because PHEW.

Read my full review at: https://www.rainyreader.com/single-post/wilder-girls.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

rainbow_kitten_five's review against another edition

Graphic unexpected self-harm

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm and Suicide

Moderate: Body horror, Forced institutionalization, and Murder