Reviews with content warning for Torture - Wilder Girls

I’ve had this book for a while and just got around to reading. Naturally, I went into it knowing nothing, as one does. To say it was not what I was expecting was an understatement. The plot did have a promise, there were some things that seemed all too realistic in a horror-ish paranoid way. The setting was done nicely at least.

Honestly, most of what I didn’t like was the ending. We got no answers for anything really, and it left with absolutely no resolution. It just felt like it was dragged out and then it just ended. The switching POV I normally really like just didn’t work for me; they just seemed too close to one another and a few pages in I’d forget which character it even was.

(First Person POV)

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sapphire_dreams's review against another edition

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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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eddiroll's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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f2c's review

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-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? Yes

3.0

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sinaprst's review

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

this was ok
i picked this up because i liked the cover, so i knew basically nothing about the story whatsoever going into this

in short: the book is about a boarding school on an island were somesort of virus or diseases spread, that lead to several students and teachers dying while others grew second body parts or similar stuff. now the school and island have been on lock down for i believe 18 months, while the government tries to find a cure (alledgedly). we follow our main character Hetty and her friends Bryce (i think is her name) and Reese while they trie to survive and figure out what is going on the island.

first of all, i loved the writing style. the author used some interesting choices, especially with the second pov character later on, that might not be for everyone, but i absolutly adored them.

the beginning is very slow. the first like 60 pages felt like ages to me, because nothing really happens except for pages over pages of exposition and world building.
but after that i got hooked and couldn`t put it down

nonetheless i felt like the book lacked some depth in some parts. i couldn`t really connect to any of the characters and in end still felt like i knew nothing about them, eventhough the story is very character driven

the sapphic lovestory also felt very out of the blue

and literally lasted like under 24h in book time????

. i was all in all very disappointing to read and i was hoping for more.

the ending was also very open and left me with more questions then answers honestly. i also wished that Bryce was really dead, her suddenly being still alive felt weird to me, idk why tho.
also, did Hetty and Reese really just leave the rest of the girls to die on the island, when they literally scolded the headmistress and this other girl for the exact same thing just like one page before that??? this behaviour really confused and is probably one of the reasons why the ending felt so weird to me.

all in all, i loved the cover, premise and writing style, but the characters felt shallow, the lovestory underdeveloped and the ending questionable, therefore well deserved 3/5 stars from me :)

edit: i have just found out that her name is Byatt and not Bryce

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sifairi's review

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challenging dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.75

I really enjoyed this book, but It felt very slow for me. About 3/4 of the way through it does pick up and then I couldn't put it down.

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parkerluck's review

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

2.75

This was fine. It was a quick read with some neat concepts that don't really get dug into. I didn't find Hetty particularly compelling and the plot beats were all pretty par the course for a story like this. Didn't really have the tension/descent to warrant the Lord of the Flies billing, honestly.

I also found it distracting that

the bear was just a photocopy of the Annihilation bear?? No one wanted to make that a different animal during the editing process?

Something I might rec to a younger family member as gateway horror, but not something I will remember for long now that I'm finished it.

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thenareads's review

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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

3.75

this book was so... just so good. i read it weeks ago & i still think of it sometimes now. it essentially was very dystopian and apocalyptic, without an actual apocalypse occurring. even though it meant to explore (at least i think?) human behaviours in post-apocalyptic situations, i feel like the book imparted me w more commentary on authoritative figures, government, and rebellion. it really made me think, especially towards the end.

hetty and reese’s breach of quarantine seemed like it was fuelled by justice for byatt, but it actually ended up leading to the downfall of them all. that part especially will never leave me because it worries me that acts of rebellion fuelled by a sense of justice may only worsen what we’re trying to help. it also worries me because, in part, it was fuelled by hetty’s hatred for her teacher, but she realised too late that she only meant to help and headmistress was the one who truly didn’t care. what if, in the chase of justice, we misplace our trust? how much will it cost us?

it was overall very thought-provoking and i could ramble on about everything in this book. my only two critics are that there is absolutely zero diversity. the school is literally all just a bunch of cis, white girls & one asian girl. i think it would’ve been much more interesting if girls of different backgrounds were included—not just race-wise, but class-wise, gender identity-wise, etc etc. this would’ve made for more complex and differing character dynamics & as well as plot progression, but even with all that aside, there’s no good reason why there couldn’t have been more diverse characters. my second critic is particular to the ending, but i think there was too much plot armour at the end, which really stunted the main character’s growth.

for example, when hetty and reese went to reese’s house, reese dying would’ve forced hetty to reflect and determined whether everything was worth it. it would’ve been nice to see if hetty’s fierce determination to get off the island and save byatt would’ve remained if reese died. but reese living was somewhat plausible. what i don’t think should’ve happened at ALL was byatt living at the end. that moment where tension grew between reese and hetty, as they had opposing views on what to do with byatt was such good potential for their character growth & dynamic with each other. but, instead, byatt “came back to life” and squashed all that. from that point onward, i just remember feeling like the ending was suddenly cut short, like the author had planned for this to be a duology, with the second book lingering on their escape, but was suddenly told that wouldn’t be possible. or maybe the author thought to drive the point home of reese and byatt being hetty’s girls, they all needed to see the end. i’m not sure what the reason was, but byatt logically should’ve died.

also! another piece of criticism i just remembered now. i feel like reese’s character was done dirty, especially in some bits. i’m not sure if the author was trying to antagonise reese for their dynamic or hetty is an unreliable narrator, but around the middle to end of the book i started to realise that reese’s earlier actions

(her choking hetty)

made no sense with the characterisation that was being revealed. even though hetty reflected on some of their past interactions, it just felt like the author forgot certain things reese said or did and wrote an almost completely different character for the second to third arc of the book. i obviously preferred her in those parts, but the inconsistency in characterisation really doesn’t make sense to me. i feel like it’s also part of the reason people don’t like reese because, out of the three, i personally believe she had the least fatal flaws and reasonable, realistic reactions to the plot. but that may just be my personal bias. overall, this was a very good book. i would definitely recommend it to a friend (i already have) and i can’t wait to reread it in the far future!

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