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mrstats93's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
I could tell it was well-written but I had a hard time keeping the characters straight in my head. Since I listened as an audiobook, it was a little more difficult to get through because there are some non-English words which threw off the flow a bit. Overall, it was an interesting read but I wouldn't recommend it to many people.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Rape, and Suicide
nerdybookqueen's review
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I wanted to like this book. I was so excited when I saw it in the bookstore, but I'm on a buying ban so library it is, and now I'm a bit grateful for it.
This book felt more focused on making a point than telling a story, at the detriment of the point it's trying to make.
Things I liked:
I loved the premise and concept. A badass, diverse group of women rescuing other women from awful shit and giving them the chance to heal? Fantastic. And the bits of that I got were great.
Some parts hit so hard, and they were so good. I loved those bits, especially the ones separate from the characters- there are these unlabeled paragraphs centered on the page and they almost all hurt in a meaningful way.
I really liked the bits we got from the "Book of Memories" (which I don't think is ever mentioned in the actual story?) that introduced the other women.
The concept of two traumatized characters learning to recover from their trauma so they can trust and have a relationship? Great, I love that.
What I didn't like:
I found this book super hard to follow. I have no idea what was going on in the world, it felt like a ton of information was tossed at me but not in a coherent way, I really don't know anything about the other women besides our main girl, Paheli. I feel almost like I was dropped into a sequel that already expects me to know what's going on. I wish I knew more about the world and characters. Except the food, there was so much talk of food that felt super out of place for the most part.
The writing was...weird. I really didn't enjoy most of it. Beyond being hard to follow, it also felt kind of bland. I'm not really sure how to explain it, it was just very frustrating. Especially the weird unnamed narrator bit. The characters were already hard enough to keep track of, having a narrator not identified was just extra confusing. I found I really didn't care about most of the characters, which is frustrating, because I don't want to feel that way, and not in a book with such a good concept.
This book dealt with very heavy topics in a poor manner. It felt like a lot of it was just presented to us and then the reader is hit on the head with "hey this thing is bad" and I feel like people who disagree and don't view these traumatic things as bad probably wouldn't pick up the book. It didn't feel like there were any emotions when these were discussed either, between characters, that they were just stating "hey this is bad, we need to help women from it." Which yes, is true, but it's weird to write it that way.
The ending was so anticlimactic. I got to it and was left feeling just... "what, that's it?"
Overall, I thought it would be really good, and the cover is gorgeous, but I was left feeling kind of disappointed. Which is so frustrating. It had such a cool concept, but it was executed poorly.
This book felt more focused on making a point than telling a story, at the detriment of the point it's trying to make.
Things I liked:
I loved the premise and concept. A badass, diverse group of women rescuing other women from awful shit and giving them the chance to heal? Fantastic. And the bits of that I got were great.
Some parts hit so hard, and they were so good. I loved those bits, especially the ones separate from the characters- there are these unlabeled paragraphs centered on the page and they almost all hurt in a meaningful way.
I really liked the bits we got from the "Book of Memories" (which I don't think is ever mentioned in the actual story?) that introduced the other women.
The concept of two traumatized characters learning to recover from their trauma so they can trust and have a relationship? Great, I love that.
What I didn't like:
I found this book super hard to follow. I have no idea what was going on in the world, it felt like a ton of information was tossed at me but not in a coherent way, I really don't know anything about the other women besides our main girl, Paheli. I feel almost like I was dropped into a sequel that already expects me to know what's going on. I wish I knew more about the world and characters. Except the food, there was so much talk of food that felt super out of place for the most part.
The writing was...weird. I really didn't enjoy most of it. Beyond being hard to follow, it also felt kind of bland. I'm not really sure how to explain it, it was just very frustrating. Especially the weird unnamed narrator bit. The characters were already hard enough to keep track of, having a narrator not identified was just extra confusing. I found I really didn't care about most of the characters, which is frustrating, because I don't want to feel that way, and not in a book with such a good concept.
This book dealt with very heavy topics in a poor manner. It felt like a lot of it was just presented to us and then the reader is hit on the head with "hey this thing is bad" and I feel like people who disagree and don't view these traumatic things as bad probably wouldn't pick up the book. It didn't feel like there were any emotions when these were discussed either, between characters, that they were just stating "hey this is bad, we need to help women from it." Which yes, is true, but it's weird to write it that way.
The ending was so anticlimactic. I got to it and was left feeling just... "what, that's it?"
Overall, I thought it would be really good, and the cover is gorgeous, but I was left feeling kind of disappointed. Which is so frustrating. It had such a cool concept, but it was executed poorly.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Misogyny, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Pregnancy
amre23's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-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? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Suicide, Kidnapping, Death, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Pedophilia, Rape, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Torture, and Misogyny
Minor: Sexual assault, War, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent
the_book_bee's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Child abuse
Moderate: Rape
nostoat's review
adventurous
emotional
sad
medium-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 a story about broken girls and a broken boy; it's a story about girls with angry sharp smiles; it's a story about healing and the way it's never quite done. It's a story about survival and carving out spaces to thrive. It hurt a little to read but it also made my heart sing. Alternately told in first person singular and first person plural this is a gorgeous narrative and one I won't soon forget.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Violence, Sexual violence, and Child abuse
Minor: Death
vaniavela's review
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Misogyny, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Suicide
bookswithlee's review
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
4.5/5 stars
I picked up this book having never heard of it and quite honestly I didn’t read the synopsis, I saw the color filled with colors and diversity and I knew I had to read it.
What I liked about this book was the authors ability to tell a story that was both balanced between fantasy and real life events.
Although the cover is beautiful and the book is no doubt fantasy, what I took away from it is that this book was written as away to highlight how girls of color have been silenced and mistreated by others for years. While this book is full of trauma and potentially triggering content, I thought the author did a great job balancing this trauma with joy, and happiness. In the end the book highlighted how strong, amazing, and beautiful women are.
The trauma was not placed in this book to dump on the readers or to pull on heartstrings. It felt as though it was meticulously placed as way to echo much of reality in an authentic way. I sometimes struggle with trauma. being placed in stories as a thrill factor, twist, or to elicit favorable emotional reactions.
There were a few things that I didn’t particularly like about the story. The first half of the book was slow and felt like an information dump at times. I had a hard time keeping up. Not only that there is about 10-11 different characters and I always struggle with that in books as I can’t keep up with what information I need to remember and not every character has great development. However in this story, it was largely done as the “wild ones” are meant to be one entity, which I liked. It give me freshwater/bunny vibes.
Overall I enjoyed this book, but it’s definitely going to require a reread. I think if I had time to really flesh out and process some of the details I might be able to tears a little higher.
CW/TW: misogyny, sexual violence, kidnapping, sexual assault, rape, suicide, trafficking, death of parent
I picked up this book having never heard of it and quite honestly I didn’t read the synopsis, I saw the color filled with colors and diversity and I knew I had to read it.
What I liked about this book was the authors ability to tell a story that was both balanced between fantasy and real life events.
Although the cover is beautiful and the book is no doubt fantasy, what I took away from it is that this book was written as away to highlight how girls of color have been silenced and mistreated by others for years. While this book is full of trauma and potentially triggering content, I thought the author did a great job balancing this trauma with joy, and happiness. In the end the book highlighted how strong, amazing, and beautiful women are.
The trauma was not placed in this book to dump on the readers or to pull on heartstrings. It felt as though it was meticulously placed as way to echo much of reality in an authentic way. I sometimes struggle with trauma. being placed in stories as a thrill factor, twist, or to elicit favorable emotional reactions.
There were a few things that I didn’t particularly like about the story. The first half of the book was slow and felt like an information dump at times. I had a hard time keeping up. Not only that there is about 10-11 different characters and I always struggle with that in books as I can’t keep up with what information I need to remember and not every character has great development. However in this story, it was largely done as the “wild ones” are meant to be one entity, which I liked. It give me freshwater/bunny vibes.
Overall I enjoyed this book, but it’s definitely going to require a reread. I think if I had time to really flesh out and process some of the details I might be able to tears a little higher.
CW/TW: misogyny, sexual violence, kidnapping, sexual assault, rape, suicide, trafficking, death of parent
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence, Misogyny, Sexual assault, and Rape
Moderate: Kidnapping, Suicide, Trafficking, and Death of parent
nessas_lair's review
emotional
slow-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
TW: Sexual assault, child trafficking, rape, child abuse, violence, and suicide
Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for the ARC! I thought the concept of this book was very intriguing and I loved the discussion about the struggles women face in the world. There's lots of great quotes in this book. It's quite a slow-paced story until the last 50 pages or so where all the action happens. The face-off scene with the villain and the Wild Ones was a bit underwhelming because there was so much buildup to the moment and it ended so quickly. I also thought the characters could have been a little more fleshed-out because the girls didn't really have distinct personalities aside from Paheli and Valentina. The worldbuilding was really fascinating though, and I liked the concept of the Between. Overall, this is a very dreamlike written story with interesting themes, but I wish the characters were a bit better written.
3.5/5 Stars
Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for the ARC! I thought the concept of this book was very intriguing and I loved the discussion about the struggles women face in the world. There's lots of great quotes in this book. It's quite a slow-paced story until the last 50 pages or so where all the action happens. The face-off scene with the villain and the Wild Ones was a bit underwhelming because there was so much buildup to the moment and it ended so quickly. I also thought the characters could have been a little more fleshed-out because the girls didn't really have distinct personalities aside from Paheli and Valentina. The worldbuilding was really fascinating though, and I liked the concept of the Between. Overall, this is a very dreamlike written story with interesting themes, but I wish the characters were a bit better written.
3.5/5 Stars
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, Suicide, Child abuse, and Violence
herfleurs's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
"We, however, don't cry. We're too angry to."
The Wild Ones foi uma experiência complicada. Eu li os textos da autora sobre esse livro e tenho imenso respeito e gratidão por ela ter escrito e ter colocado suas dores aqui.
Eu me conectei com o livro, não acho que não tenha como não. Eu adorei a escrita e a forma como ela escolheu contar a história das meninas. Eu adorei os capítulos onde a gente não tem como saber quem é que está narrando e achei ótimo o uso do "nós".
Enquanto o romance na maior parte do tempo não me incomodou como normalmente faz, acho que porque o processo de atração em si não aconteceu/não foi muito explícito, ele tomou uma parte muito maior do livro do que esperava e de certa forma foi muito imaturo pra mim. Eu não estou falando sobre trauma mas sobre a quantidade de tempo de vida dessas pessoas. Paheli leva todo o foco do livro e sendo a primeira ela é extremamente adolescente ainda, no começo foi interessante ver uma "líder" de forma diferente mas quando o romance toma conta da equação ficou maçante.
Eu entendi a denúncia que a autora fez e de forma nenhuma quero ditar sobre perdão ou pespectivas, nada assim, mas me incomodou o fato de que apenas "garotas" são pensadas sobre no livro. Não houve uma vilanização de mães exatamente, porque eu senti o que autora trouxe mas eu acho que teria sido uma boa opção ter expandido essa questão. Não é só garotas adolescentes que sofrem, e claro que entendo o público alvo também mas eu acho tão importante o momento que a gente ganha maturidade e consegue olhar pra nossa figura materna e entender ela como mulher que sofre as mesmas opressões que a gente e acho que isso faltou demais aqui.
O começo do livro foi maravilhoso pra mim, o audiobook (que corri atrás desesperadamente assim que comecei o livro correspondeu minhas expectativas) é ótimo, mas as últimas 100/150 páginas eu me vi ao ponto de desistir. Puxou tanto pro final as coisas que virou uma bagunça e tudo perdeu um pouco do sentido pra mim, nesses últimos momentos eu nem sequer me lembrava sobre o que grupo era e o que ele significava sabe. Com o passar do tempo fica complicado gostar do livro quando elas passaram horas andando e comendo e não exatamente resolvendo as coisas e acaba que algumas coisas ficam muito convenientes. Nem quer o livro de memorias foi bem explorado como estava sendo no início. O começo pode ficar complicado, tem várias info dumps pra explicar o universo e fica muito evidente porque as narradores conversam diretamente com você. O furo sobre magia me incomodou demais, é dito e mostrado todo tempo como mágica não funciona nelas então como o feitiço para localizar possíveis Wilds pôde ser colocado? Não fez sentido.
A autora trouxe diferentes experiências, amostras do que o grupo faz, a gente tem um pouco de como elas ajudam mulheres ao longo do tempo. As vezes por acaso, de caso pensado e com uma rede de apoio mesmo e quando essa ajuda falha mas pra mim ficou raso. Como eu disse eu gostei dos capítulos narrados em conjunto mas sendo eles e os de Pahali, que fui perdendo a vontade de ler com o tempo, acaba que fica esse vazio sobre o que elas realmente fazem durantes esses séculos. Também pensei que raça ia ser pelo menos um pouco abordado e não foi como eu esperei.
Eu não falei sobre Taraana mas ele faz parte da maioria do livro e eu não desgostei dele mas o plot dele não funciona pra mim, ainda mais quando um dos pontos que estavam funcionando, que era a vulnerabilidade dele, o fato de ele ter medo e de assumir seus traumas terem sidos meio apagados na transformação.
Estava sendo um sólido 4 estrelas mas não sei se foi meu interesse, a falta dele, ou a autora foi se perdendo e acabou que não funcionou pra mim do meio pro final.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Rape, Child abuse, Confinement, Sexual violence, Pregnancy, and Kidnapping
foreverinastory's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This was incredible.
Rep: Indian female MC (aro-spec coded), French BIPOC trans female sapphic side character, Korean female side character, Indonesian female side character, Filipina female side character, West African female side character (wears a head scarf), Pakistani female side character, Fijian female side character, Turkish female side character, Muslim Iraqi female side character, Japanese female side character. Unsure who is queer but at least half are not attracted to men.
CWs: Abandonment, blood, confinement, death, emotional abuse, grief, homophobia, injury/injury detail, infidelity, kidnapping, lesbophobia, misogyny, murder, physical abuse, sexism, torture, trafficking, prostitution, violence. Moderate: child abuse, child death, pregnancy, mention of attempted abortion, rape, sexual assault, sexual violence, suicide by running into traffic, bullying.
Rep: Indian female MC (aro-spec coded), French BIPOC trans female sapphic side character, Korean female side character, Indonesian female side character, Filipina female side character, West African female side character (wears a head scarf), Pakistani female side character, Fijian female side character, Turkish female side character, Muslim Iraqi female side character, Japanese female side character. Unsure who is queer but at least half are not attracted to men.
CWs: Abandonment, blood, confinement, death, emotional abuse, grief, homophobia, injury/injury detail, infidelity, kidnapping, lesbophobia, misogyny, murder, physical abuse, sexism, torture, trafficking, prostitution, violence. Moderate: child abuse, child death, pregnancy, mention of attempted abortion, rape, sexual assault, sexual violence, suicide by running into traffic, bullying.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Trafficking, and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Bullying