Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

94 reviews

indigoriverboat's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

This book was riveting and a quick read. The characters are compelling and flawed with warring needs and perspectives. The book shifts narrators a few times with amazing effect. The book deals with heavy themes and it is hard to tell who is trustworthy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Death and Murder

sapphire_dreams's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is literally one of the best books I ever read!! It’s chilling, dark and kinda a coming of age. I ADORED the characters and the whole story was so well constructed. The whole of Raxter and the dynamic between the girls was SO GOOD!! I genuinely loved it 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gun violence, Self harm, and Abandonment

katieswrld's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

This story was beautifully written and immersive all the way through. The Tox and how it affects the girls’ bodies was so unique and compelling, with the perfect mixture of body horror and realism. Nothing was so out-there that it was hard to picture, everything was described beautifully and vividly. Also, I liked that the author put trust in her readers, and didn’t spelling things out for us. Some books give you a fantastic line of description or dialogue and then get nervous and over-explain it. Not here. Perfectly vague and perfectly descriptive when needed, respectively. In terms of the ending, I can see how others would find it too vague, but I had no problem with it! I definitely would’ve appreciated more pages at the end just because I loved the story and the world within it so much, but I was content with where it left off! The open ending felt right in this instance.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Self harm, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

heathermarie08's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

I enjoyed the way this book was set up, the descriptive scenes and the mystery that slowly unraveled. However, the ending felt ... abrupt. It was a little disappointing. I liked the Byatt parts but not the way it was written. Maybe it was because I enjoyed this as an audiobook but it. Was. Very. Patchy. Overall, it was a good book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

jiji_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? No

4.5

Anyone beginning this should go in clear-eyed about what this book is and isn't. Setting aside the pastel cover with flowers and "Girls" in the title, this is a horror story. It isn't a cute or silly YA cozy mystery. There are no butterflies-in-the-stomach love triangles in math class. This is gory, dark, and deeply disturbing. If that's not your thing, don't start this, DNF it, and rate it poorly because you thought it was something it isn't. 

If this IS your thing, like it is mine, you're going to love this. On top of a deeply twisted, creeping dread of a plot, Power's writing is beautiful. It's poetic. It shocks at times, the poetry in the terror. It's brutal and fast-paced with no time to take a breath. At times I wished it were longer, but then I don't know if my heart and stomach could take much more. It's part zombie-apocalypse (kinda). It's part science thriller. It's part school girl survivalist drama. It's part warning. It's all good. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Vomit, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Incest and Sexual assault

savagemoose's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Blood, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

Moderate: Terminal illness and Gaslighting

funkylitchick's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma

Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Gore, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Abandonment

cko's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

5.0

Body horror, suspense, mystery, dark academia, nature, and survival themes. Lesbian romance and queer themes. Some more words for this book: haunting. gorgeous. (g)ripping. bloody. propulsive. contained. Really wonderful storytelling, strong characterization, tender and touching platonic love. It felt like a dream (nightmare?) come to life, so magical and real and bizarre.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Gore, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Grief

taliatalksbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

 Wilder Girls by Rory Power was horrific and gruesome—the perfect vacation read! No but seriously, I really loved this book and the characters. I do wish that there was more information, and I think that the book probably could have done with a few more chapters to wrap things up, but that’s just my personal preference. Overall I think this had great pacing, and I loved following Hetty, Byatt, and Reese. Also, clearly I need to note that the cover for this is absolutely stunning, and as the story unfolds, it becomes more and more fitting. I didn’t want to put this book down, and I think you’ll likely agree if you’re a fan of disease centric thrillers. For me, this had been sitting on my TBR for a while, and I’m so glad I finally got to finish it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Medical content, and Medical trauma

mfrisk's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I can’t quite decide how I feel about this one but I think it’s a 3.5 for me. 

I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the build up of the Tox and how that shaped Raxter and those within it. The scenes with the deer and one of the character’s parents were particularly chilling in their descriptions. The dual perspective was done fairly well though I think I was waiting for more from Byatt’s side in terms of her backstory and what drove her to lie. 

Things I didn’t love were the seemingly out of nowhere nature of the romance. While there were some touching moments it was a bit confusing and didn’t feel fully realized. 

And finally the ending was a huge disappointment. While you think the ending would at least give us more information about the navy and cdc involvement or about the tox or even what happens next we instead are led to an ending where we determine what happens. It felt like a chapter was missing and while I wasn’t expecting a happy ending perfect wrap up I definitely didn’t expect what we got. 

I hope to read more from this author as I overall really enjoyed this book but there were definitely some aspects I just wanted to see be pushed further given the darkness of the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Vomit and Toxic friendship