Details

Length: 353
Story Build: slowly builds then quickens, begins suspenseful 
Character development: solid with some lingering questions 
Age Recommendation: 8th grade (with parent knowledge), high school readers
Reasoning: violence, fantasy gore, queer relationships, language 

Summary and Review

I wasn’t going to pick up Wilder Girls because, while the cover caught my attention, the inside flap immediately caused me to pause. I am not a fantasy or science fiction fan; I never have been, although I have read my fair share over the years (Harry Potter etc). However, I went to Barnes and Noble recently and there it was, sitting on the table, with a YA Book Club sticker on it. 

I thought, hey, if BN is giving it the seal of approval as a book club book, I might as well check it out. 

The novel is told through the eyes of two girls at the Raxter school, Hetty and Byatt. Mainly the story is told by Hetty, though. The girls are part of a population of ladies that remain at the school, located on an island off the coast of Maine, where a disease (it seems), labeled the Tox, has infected most everything on the island. 

It is a bit unclear what the Tox does, but from various character descriptions, it seems to result either in death (Tox’s rejection of the human body) or in odd flare ups that are different for each girl.  

The reader enters the story about a year into this quarantine as the girls are not allowed to leave the island or the school unless designated by the Headmistress and her trusty sidekick, Welch. However, food is scarce and the CDC has yet to find a cure for these girls, and some have died and others have mysteriously gone missing. 

It isn’t until Byatt disappears that Hetty and her frenemy (but possible love interest?), Reese, break the rules and try to find out where she went and what is really going on. In order to do this, they must brave the woods surrounding the school, which has also been infested with Tox and is seemingly more dangerous than it ever was previously. 

Power definitely brings about questions of loyalty, friendship, and what is justifiable when you are fighting for your life. You are definitely left wondering: are these girls safe? Did they do the right thing? 

Celebrations

I am always in awe of an author who creates a world that is clearly creative and thorough. Power did just that with her school and the creation of Tox. She created suspense well with her oscillating perspectives, and I was intrigued to find out how it would end.

Hesitations

Power definitely varied her sentence structure and played around with punctuation and capitalization and space for effect; it was interesting, but I found it impeded my understanding of what was going on in the story. Furthermore, I understand the need to create short, clipped sentences, but I felt that this novel had too many. I sometimes was confused about what was being described, what was going on, and ultimately could not really summarize what the Tox is or what it does to the characters. I was left with a great many questions… I also found myself kind of rooting for the main characters but yet wasn’t particularly attached to any of them. I finished the book but felt left behind… a feeling of not getting it fully.