A review by kry_yang
Wilder Girls by Rory Power

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This book honestly has so much potential novel-of-the-year-material. I read it in one day because omg I was so into like the first 90% of the story. The ending honestly left a lot to be desired though, and while I was really looking forward to the sapphic elements in the story, I kinda felt like the lesbian relationship(s) got pushed to the background. 

I was SUPER drawn into the experience of reading the book, but now that I've given myself some time to reflect on the book as a whole, I think there's a lot to be desired. But still... Holy crap I can't believe I flew through this book. I am still REEEEEELING.

Strongest parts of the book:
  • Language. I was a huge fan of Power's style. It's super descriptive, a bit flowery at times without being super over-the-top. Minor spoiler:
    I freaking loved what she did with Byatt's POVs, using broken sentences and paragraphs to convey the character's (in)sanity.
  • Setting. I was instantly drawn to the dark academia vibes of having an all girl's school on a remote island. Powers does a great job of developing the specific setting, and I could practically feel myself living there. Honestly like halfway through the book I totally thought this island existed IRL...
  • Body horror descriptions. I'm a sucker for fantastically-written gore and this really hit the spot. Of course, MASSIVE content warning for super disturbing, extremely detailed descriptions of guts and stuff. Powers really goes hard.
  • Just overall an incredible reading experience? I loved exploring the setting, the *premise* of the dystopian-world, the author's language... This book was quite the atmospheric read!

Weakest parts of the book:
  • Character development. There's a triad of main female characters but I felt that the dystopian vibes were so compelling in the story that the characters felt kinda lackluster, especially when I got to the ending of the book. I felt like I *kinda* understood each character, but there was a *lot* more that Powers could have done to really explore each person's psyche.
  • The ending. Felt a little sudden for me... I wonder if there's a planned sequel?
  • Length... I almost feel like this book needed to be another 100 pages, so we could get more backstory on the main characters. And also get more of that sweet sapphic content!!!

TL;DR: Sapphic horror story with dystopian vibes, feat. heavy Lord of the Flies inspiration. Incredible reading experience but if you think hard about it then you might realize that the characters aren't actually as developed as they could be... Would recommend this to readers who are into horror/gore, but lots of gory content warnings so proceed with caution!
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