Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

18 reviews

katielaine_w's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense 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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Homophobia and Lesbophobia

lil13's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Vomit, Child abuse, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Minor: Abandonment, Animal death, Bullying, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Suicidal thoughts

aspring's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Violence

Moderate: Vomit

arieloley's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I absolutely loved this read!! I couldn’t put it down. My heart went out to all of the characters and I was genuinely invested and enthralled. The imagery and writing in general was incredibly realistic. I would’ve liked a bit more explanation about Byatt’s situation, about the Tox, and the end felt a little bit vague, but overall I loved it and would reread for sure. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, and Violence

paigerigby's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Death, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Chronic illness, and Physical abuse

indiaaaa's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, and Vomit

Weirdly written like it’s for middle school age kids but has extreme gore and murder at the end. Wouldn’t recommend to anyone under the age of 16

whimsylindsey's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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? No

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, and Violence

moonlitemuseum's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Several things came to mind when I was reading this book, each alone and then occurring simultaneously:

The dismal disquiet of the school setting in Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. The loamy prose in Jeff Vandermeer's Southern Reach series, an attempt to block out something encroaching that may very well be, is, already inside you. The character "Vriska Serket" from online web behemoth "Homestuck". The mechanic in the visual novel "We Know The Devil" where two friends pair up and leave the third flagging sadly behind. The promotional image often used for "Girls' Last Tour", which I have yet to read, but which haunts me with how lonely and determined it's protagonists look -- all suited up in hardy jackets and thick boots against a cruel and endless post-apocalyptic background.

2020 was a hard year to read Wilder Girls in, but maybe that's why I stuck fast to it like a lichen on a rock.  In a time of ever-worsening climate change and chaos around an illness, fiction helped mask it enough that I could swallow it, and the mask Wilder Girls wears is very thin. Practically translucent. It's about a disease that's pervasive, infectious and unavoidable, and it's also about how badly everyone fucks up the response to that disease even with plenty of advance warning. It's about friendship, sort of, but it's also about how little you can really know anyone. It's about crabs. It's about a landscape that's beautiful and awful, compelling and repellent. It's about body horror. It's about

kissing your most difficult friend

. It's about the innate horror of something moving behind what you can see. It's about...

Wilder Girls isn't a book I would recommend someone to read if they like tidy endings or even compassionate ones with lots of optimism.

It has a dour, difficult ending. You don't learn all the answers. All three of the main characters are in dire and possibly inescapable circumstances.

I liked the ending very much. 

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves difficult fictional girls of all pedigrees, with a strong caveat for the medical, physiological and

parasitic

horror contained within it. It was a difficult and upsetting book to read for 2020, but that may be why it was a great book to close out the year with. I can't wait to read more like it.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, Self harm, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, and Torture

Minor: Body shaming, Bullying, and Homophobia