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A review by baum
Wilder Girls by Rory Power
3.0
it's been a while since a book's ending stymied me like this. i have no problem with an open ending, but this felt so abrupt it left me unsatisfied. i started getting worried about how the author would wrap things up about 30 pages to the end, not really because there were unanswered plot questions (which there were, but i don't mind not knowing exactly how the Tox worked; i was happy to leave that as an unknown) but because i felt like her characters hadn't been developed fully enough for their arc to end in that period of time. this was really a problem throughout the entire book, which is marketed as a sapphic romance on a mysterious, toxic island, but i felt like the romance subplot was pretty rushed and vague. i just needed more!!! i feel like adding an extra 100 pages would have been super helpful lol.
i also felt strangely at a remove from all the characters, despite the fact that this book was written in 1st person, which often leads to the opposite effect; there were a lot of punchy one-liners about how broken/fucked-up/sad the girls are but not many direct examples or instances where we see these emotions and complications worked through on the page. i would have loved to know more about the girls' backstories, especially byatt and her self-confessed propensity for lying. i love the concept behind this, and the vivd descriptions of body horror and organic decay (very Annihilation, as many people have pointed out), but i felt like this could have been more strongly linked to the thematic concerns of girlhood, living in the body as a woman, and the transformations that occur when one comes of age (because the author has explicitly cited this as her organizing principle, i expected more of this). again, i love the friendship dynamic among the three girls, which i felt rang true in terms of how some of my female friendships have also been strengthened/weakened over time, but i wish there was more showing, of how they *became* friends, and how the Tox affected the bonds between them.
lastly, the plot was quite predictable. i don't necessarily mind predictability, and this book isn't really centered around a narrative twist anyway, but i just thought i'd point it out. reminded me so much of promised neverland (the anime) haha.
i also felt strangely at a remove from all the characters, despite the fact that this book was written in 1st person, which often leads to the opposite effect; there were a lot of punchy one-liners about how broken/fucked-up/sad the girls are but not many direct examples or instances where we see these emotions and complications worked through on the page. i would have loved to know more about the girls' backstories, especially byatt and her self-confessed propensity for lying. i love the concept behind this, and the vivd descriptions of body horror and organic decay (very Annihilation, as many people have pointed out), but i felt like this could have been more strongly linked to the thematic concerns of girlhood, living in the body as a woman, and the transformations that occur when one comes of age (because the author has explicitly cited this as her organizing principle, i expected more of this). again, i love the friendship dynamic among the three girls, which i felt rang true in terms of how some of my female friendships have also been strengthened/weakened over time, but i wish there was more showing, of how they *became* friends, and how the Tox affected the bonds between them.
lastly, the plot was quite predictable. i don't necessarily mind predictability, and this book isn't really centered around a narrative twist anyway, but i just thought i'd point it out. reminded me so much of promised neverland (the anime) haha.