A review by orcamagicka
Wilder Girls by Rory Power

dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.0

When I saw this was a feminist Lord of the Flies meets the film Annihilation I was VERY intrigued. Unfortunately, I could not connect to the characters. They seemed very one-dimensional and Hetty, the main character, was very bland and dislikeable in my opinion. Many of the characters made obviously stupid decisions throughout the story and at times the book was incredibly frustrating to read. Hetty made the most of these decisions and I hated how despite all the mistakes she makes and the intense suffering her actions put the other characters through, she never fully suffers the consequences of her own actions. The plot moved way too slowly for the first portion of the story and honestly didn't get remotely "scary" until maybe the last quarter. I see a lot of people complaining about the ending and that it was "too ambiguous" or "left too many unanswered questions". Personally, I thought the ending was appropriate for the story (in fact WAY better than I was expecting) and as a huge horror fan, endings like this are common for the genre. It ends with the potential for a sequel but either way I think the story is fine as a stand-alone. Overall this book had a lot of promise but fell short for me

 
SpoilerAlso there seemed to be some plot holes in the story. If the Tox is a parasite how on earth did the CDC and Navy not discover this when researching the nine girls? A massive parasitic worm doesn't sound like it would be hard to find in the body, and could be removed with some ease. Also how on earth was Teddy infected just by kissing Byatt? My best guess was they transferred parasitic eggs or microscopic worms but if that's the case, all of the girls would have more than one adult worm in their body
 
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