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A review by readsandrants
Wilder Girls by Rory Power
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I saw a review by 'corabookworm' here and it summed up a lot of my feelings on this book. their review starts by saying they're disappointed and goes on to say:
"While the plot was mildly interesting, not much actually happened. The mystery that the blurb hinted at, which seemed to be the premise of the story, never fully got solved. Some clues were never explained, which left multiple loose ends, and the ending was completely unsatisfactory.They literally. Left All. The other. Girls. Behind. To save. Themselves. After saving as many of the Raxter girls as they could from a deadly gas (which at least would've been a peaceful death), they leave them all behind to be either (1) eaten alive by a huge zombie bear or (2) bombed. "
I completely agree on this point, not only was I mad that after everything, they just left, I was disappointed at how vague things were in the end we basically just got: it was a parasite and we don't know the cure for it yet and everyone thinks we're dead what will we do
there were also other things that weren't exactly explained but talked about like we should understand, like: why their families were told they were dead in the first place, why they didn't just bomb them from the beginning, why they were trying to test them with the food, why the headmistress was suposedly evil and why Taylor switched sides to help them, why Byatt seemed to be a fragment of herself, why she was taken of all the other girls, what exctly that drug was, where were all the teachers if there was supposedly 10 of the 20 left, and so many other things where I was just like: why.
this reviewer also goes on to say:
"One of the two POV main characters, Hetty, was selfish and, in my opinion, stupid, multiple times during this book. Besides that ending, she put the girls of Raxter at risk multiple times, either accidentally or knowing what could happen, and it infuriated me.
The other main character is Byatt, who goes missing from Raxter in the beginning(ish) of the book. Most of her chapters had no punctuation, like poetry, but the style didn't fit with the rest of the book. It almost made it feel like one long rambling sentence, making it very difficult to read. I found myself almost skimming these parts."
I also strongly agree with this. there were very few chapters from Byatt and I had to constantly read and reread to understand what was happening, I feel like the hazy kind of drugged state could have still been written without it sounding like mindless rambling. it also wasn't consistent, one second everything would be repeated and run together and the next minute she would be speaking perfectly normal, then repeat the same process the next chapter.
overall I just feel meh about the book, though I did have a lot of fun while reading it and it was very addictive to read. i think the ending definitely lowered my rating but so did all of Byatts chapters and the kind of explanations for what happens in them.
"While the plot was mildly interesting, not much actually happened. The mystery that the blurb hinted at, which seemed to be the premise of the story, never fully got solved. Some clues were never explained, which left multiple loose ends, and the ending was completely unsatisfactory.
I completely agree on this point, not only was I mad that after everything, they just left, I was disappointed at how vague things were in the end we basically just got: it was a parasite and we don't know the cure for it yet and everyone thinks we're dead what will we do
there were also other things that weren't exactly explained but talked about like we should understand, like: why their families were told they were dead in the first place, why they didn't just bomb them from the beginning, why they were trying to test them with the food, why the headmistress was suposedly evil and why Taylor switched sides to help them, why Byatt seemed to be a fragment of herself, why she was taken of all the other girls, what exctly that drug was, where were all the teachers if there was supposedly 10 of the 20 left, and so many other things where I was just like: why.
this reviewer also goes on to say:
"One of the two POV main characters, Hetty, was selfish and, in my opinion, stupid, multiple times during this book. Besides that ending, she put the girls of Raxter at risk multiple times, either accidentally or knowing what could happen, and it infuriated me.
The other main character is Byatt, who goes missing from Raxter in the beginning(ish) of the book. Most of her chapters had no punctuation, like poetry, but the style didn't fit with the rest of the book. It almost made it feel like one long rambling sentence, making it very difficult to read. I found myself almost skimming these parts."
I also strongly agree with this. there were very few chapters from Byatt and I had to constantly read and reread to understand what was happening, I feel like the hazy kind of drugged state could have still been written without it sounding like mindless rambling. it also wasn't consistent, one second everything would be repeated and run together and the next minute she would be speaking perfectly normal, then repeat the same process the next chapter.
overall I just feel meh about the book, though I did have a lot of fun while reading it and it was very addictive to read. i think the ending definitely lowered my rating but so did all of Byatts chapters and the kind of explanations for what happens in them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, and Gore