Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

128 reviews

t_swizzle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Blood, Child death, Death, Violence, Murder, Medical content, Confinement, and Chronic illness

its_nix's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical content, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Abandonment

ecn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

2.5

I really like the premise of this book but almost the whole story was about the journey to the answer. I think there needed to be a bit more of a build up instead of waiting around for an answer.
Other than the girls’ school aspect, the story was almost exactly like an XFiles episode - which was fun, but it also left me wanting/expecting more. Nothing felt new or exciting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Toxic friendship, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Blood, Body horror, Toxic relationship, and Forced institutionalization

lovelymisanthrope'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? It's complicated

4.0

This novel was the perfect YA blend of "Lord of the Flies" and "Annihilation". This story follows a group of girls who are isolated because they have been exposed to the "tox" and now find themselves mutating in different ways. The government drops off food to them periodically, and they have no other contact with the outside world. When one of the girls goes missing, they start to investigate further why they are mutating as they are, and why no one seems to help them. 
There was quite a bit of graphic body horror in this book, so be warned before embarking on the journey of this book. I really enjoyed seeing the mystery play out, and I was very satisfied with the ending. This was a very strong debut, and I am excited to see more from Rory Power! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Torture, Medical trauma, Gore, and Medical content

Moderate: Murder

its_j's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Murder, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Violence, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Death of parent, and Cursing

Moderate: Abandonment

Minor: Self harm

knightreads's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense 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? No

4.0

I  enjoyed this book. It wasn’t perfect by any means but it had enough there that I felt attached to the characters journey and invested in the different ways the characters were affected by the Tox. One of the things I highlighted most in the book was the varying ways the girls mutated from it, along with some beautiful descriptions.

I enjoyed the fact you’re thrown in over a year later rather than at the start, it creates some mystery around things that slowly gets pieces together  as you read and it helps to understand why the characters act the way they do and how they’ve adapted and coped with a major traumatic event. And the moments of normal teenage girl drama sprinkled in helped solidify that oh wow these are kids who are dealing with monsters and death while also figuring out do they have a crush on their friend.

My major gripe with the book is it felt incomplete. To my knowledge there’s no sequel which means there’s a lot of loose ends that made it unsatisfying to finish and drove me mad because I want to know what happens next!

Spoilers for the Ending

The ending particularly felt hollow. When I thought Byatt was dead I was heartbroken and distraught that Hetty had done all this and still lost Byatt but it almost felt as if that was how it should have been so it felt a bit cheap for Byatt to suddenly come alive after it describing her losing more blood than a human should and being out in the snow for nearly a day and then she’s lost all memory? I don’t know if it was meant to be an extra cruelty for Hetty to have done so much, to get Byatt back alive but it’s not her Byatt anymore. 

It just felt dumb and that the author wanted to keep Byatt alive but didn’t want to make it believable that she would be. The book felt unfinished, the girls out at sea with serious injuries and no closure for the reader as to what happens. It felt as if the author wrote themselves into a hole and rather than try to dig out of it they just went “I’ll end here I guess then I don’t have to.” The build up and urgency was done well but it fell flat when the ending is so unresolved.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Minor: Suicide

laurav's review against another edition

medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Violence, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Gun violence

nutmegandpumpkin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I definitely bought this for the cover lol. This book was okay. Not amazing but not terrible. It was an enjoyable read.
•
Some quick notes:
- lgbtq+ characters (including the MC)
- weirdly the author uses the word “sliver” so much in the descriptions of the book that it’s almost comical
- some of the characters lack depth. for instance Byatt really just feels like a plot device and feels like she’s  only there for other characters rather than being a fully developed character herself (which is weird because she gets a pov). she does get backstory and a personality but something about it feels surface level
- it dragged in some places 
- I really wanted it to explore more of the tox and what was happening. it felt like we only got a little taste of explanation and then nothing more
- really cool concept 
- very dark and creepy :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Medical content, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Murder, Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Grief, Vomit, Animal cruelty, and Cannibalism

myllo's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I did find the book very intriguing to read and it definetly kept me hooked for hours at a time. I cant say im too satisfied with the ending, a bit of an open one. But it was a good book, theres some very cute and I would say fairly realistic lesbian representation without it being the main plot and without any homophobia included which i appreciated. The story carried out as a bit of a mystery because of the sickness, and the reader gets to figure out the symptoms and causes along with the main characters during the course of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Murder

Moderate: Self harm, Death of parent, Child death, and Blood

Minor: Vomit, Animal death, Violence, and Gun violence

bitesizedbeet's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Child death, Death, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Gun violence, Animal death, Medical content, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Confinement, Self harm, Murder, Vomit, and Grief