Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

34 reviews

gandalfsleftshoe's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Confinement, Gore, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

melusinedln's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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

2.75

2.75 stars.

This book is disappointing and I don’t know why the publisher agreed to publish it as it is. When you reach the end, you’re left with even more questions than in the start, and the ending scene, like every other important scene in this book, has no impact at all. It felt like the author wanted a lazy open ending just to be able to make a 2nd book if this one sold well.
Also, the queer romance between 2 of the characters is underdeveloped despite being one of the main point used by the publisher to sell the book.

It’s generating a lot of frustration in me because the idea was really good, but it was so poorly executed. I had a nice time reading some parts of the book, and okay time reading most of them, and I was so frustrated when I reached the lazy ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, and Pandemic/Epidemic

nicosta_music's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? No

4.0

I feel like Wilder Girls is being done a disservice by being marketed as Lord of the Flies but with girls. Both books involve one gender of schoolchildren being stuck on an island, but the similarities stop there. And speaking as someone who hated Lord of the Flies: thank god that they do. 

Wilder Girls was a truly exciting read -- the plot kept me hooked the entire way through, and the characters were interesting and engaging. I thought the world-building was interesting and the different twists were essential in continuously raising stakes throughout the book. I think my only complaint is that

the ending does feel a bit underwhelming. It sort of leaves the book open to a sequel, but not enough so that I felt it was a good ending. It reads more like the author just didn't know how to end the book so it was left ambiguous.

But besides that, I still thoroughly enjoyed Wilder Girls, and it definitely defied my expectations in a good way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, and Cursing

Minor: Torture and Vomit

sareidle's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical trauma, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal death, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Death of parent, and Dysphoria

wynnie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Gun violence and Medical content

Minor: Self harm, Suicide, Torture, and Vomit

fanboyriot's review against another edition

dark fast-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

3.0

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and War

Minor: Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, and Fire/Fire injury

sapphire_dreams's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gun violence, Self harm, and Abandonment

scourtheatlas's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Suicide, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Torture

f2c's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

sinaprst's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Cursing and Grief

Minor: Torture