Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

48 reviews

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

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

mizareads13's review

adventurous mysterious sad fast-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? Yes

4.0

Was disappointed there's no sequel because I don't feel like they really explained the

reason why Raxter as a place was so toxic to the point they got all these girls dying from puberty like??? wtf is up with that???? and then the fact that they left the ending soooo ambiguous too. idk i feel like more could've been done with this story

it could've been a whole series really, but it is what it is

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Abandonment, Blood, Bullying, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Chronic illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Murder

aparnaprab's review

slow-paced

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

0.25

i want three hours of my life back. this was. an experience.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Child death, Confinement, and Murder

Moderate: Forced institutionalization and Self harm

there was so. much. blood.

mpbookreviews's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Blood, Child death, Medical content, Forced institutionalization, Body horror, Death, Gore, and Suicide

tinnuben's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Suicide, Vomit, Forced institutionalization, Self harm, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Violence, Grief, and Medical content

greenglass67's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

This book is crazy! I loved the characters, I loved the setting, I loved the plot. Rory Powers' writing is fantastic. It's so easy to visualize all the settings and the action of the book is intense and gripping. There are scenes that I think get a bad rep for being confusing, but it all feels like it's a necessary part of the story. It's important for those scenes to be confusing. This book was a little slow getting started, and it takes a while for your questions to be answered, but I felt that the payoff was worth it. There are some scenes that contain pretty graphic body horror and injuries, but if you can get past that, this would be a 5.0!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Terminal illness, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Animal death, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

charleshasalibrary's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

I wanted to give this book a chance despite the lower rating, but it was worse even than I expected. For context, I rarely if ever give a book less than 3 stars. But Wilder Girls earned it. First of all, the characters were completely undeveloped. I was supposed to apparently feel something about these girls' relationships to one another, but it's like we were thrown into the story halfway through and I was given no substantial background to understand their dynamics. So I didn't care about them or emotionally believe the story at all. Secondly, the writing truly felt like my middle school self wrote it. Over the top, trying too hard to be lyrical when it didn't need to be. It made the whole book feel even more cringe-worthy. Lastly, the plot! The plot was the one thing that kept me reading this book, because I found it so intriguing and wanted to understand the mystery. But the explanations were so poorly given. The ending in general was terribly executed. For someone who apparently felt so much guilt for what she'd done, the main character chose to be incredibly selfish at the end. I won't say more so as not to give spoilers, but all in all - I hate that this book got any hype at all. It truly feels like it was written by a 14 year old.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Suicide, Violence, Animal death, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Self harm

greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? No

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Violence, Vomit, Cannibalism, Confinement, Suicide, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Abandonment, Blood, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Child death, and Death

onemorepagecrew's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

Wilder Girls by Rory Power strikes me as a book that some will enjoy, and others will wish they had never picked up – very niche in its audience.  Personally, I was into it and would selectively recommend it.  

 

The story is set at a boarding school for girls that has been put under quarantine by the CDC.  We jump in after they have already adjusted and fallen into a routine, then slowly learn bits about the early days when the isolation first began.  It’s an effective way to tell the story without reading through the whole event.  Instead, the book focuses on what happens when a few girls start disappearing and the protagonist, Hetty, starts looking for answers.  

 

The book is categorized as YA lgbtqia+ horror and that felt inaccurate.  There are romantic relationships between girls in the school, but their world is so bleak that it’s not the focus, more of an implied afterthought.  And horror is a tough bar to clear.  This was suspenseful at times but never tense (for me), definitely not scary (again, for me), but did have a few graphic descriptions.  It’s more of a creepy mystery through a lens of survival dystopia. 

 

It is an interesting look at how powerful information can be, especially when it is withheld.  How isolation can be achieved by manufactured fear.  If you enjoyed books like Devolution, Dry, or Unwind then this might be a good one for you. 

 

Content warnings: Gore, Death, Self-harm, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, Self harm, Grief, Forced institutionalization, and Medical trauma

apolloniablooms's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.0

It really choked at the end, which felt rushed.  Overall glad I read it, but it feels like a shadow of books like Annihilation and Inspection which do the same thing but feel more complete.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Self harm, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Gore, Body horror, Violence, Child abuse, Child death, Vomit, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Grief, Emotional abuse, Death, Confinement, Blood, Animal death, and Abandonment