Wilder Girls by Rory Power

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

• Publisher: Delacorte Press, July 9th 2019
• Genre: Horror, Young Adult
• Format: Ebook
• Page Count: 348 pages
• My Rating: ★★★★ (4/5)

Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

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Content warnings: body horror, blood, bones, gore, guns, death of prominent/secondary/minor characters, poisoning

Fear like a veil, and everything looks like something else, like danger, like hurt.

Hetty

This is one of the very few horror books I have ever read, and as someone who was haunted by the supposedly cute animation Monster House, horror was never my first choice of genre. But October calls for spooky reads, and since Wilder Girls is sapphic, the scare would hopefully be worth it. And I was pleasantly surprised. The gore and horror, not entirely revolting, were almost poetic.

I miss the way the wind steals your breath like it never belonged to you in the first place.

Byatt

Set on a fictional island Raxter in Maine, the Raxter School For Girls is plagued by the Tox, a physically and mentally altering infection. Put under lockdown, the girls and their teachers fight the Tox as well as each other for survival, waiting for the day when there is a cure. When Hetty Chapin’s (16) best friend Byatt Winsor (16) disappears, it is up to her to figure out what is really happening. Maybe Reese Harker (16) will help, too.

The story is about self preservation, friendship, and desires during dire times. I love that climate change played a vital but almost invisible part, and the two-way connection between the pandemic and the ugliness of humanity where the Tox brings out the girls’ worst selves and their deepest cravings manifest in their physical changes.

My other eye’s dead, gone dark in a flare-up. Lid fused shut, something growing underneath.

Hetty

I love everything about the writing. It is rhythmic, haunting, and the narrative at times breathy, fitting for the scenes. There are subtle (and not so subtle) imageries and references as well as vivid depictions of thought processes and instabilities through manipulating sentence structures. Power also managed to thread unseen thoughts between the lines and created jarringness with contrasting ideas like “the gun skin-warm” when the girls, organic bodies, are possibly losing body temperature. When done perfectly, like Power had, I adore fragmented sentences. And there are also instances of internal rhyming that enhanced the reading experience.

I can see it coming like a wave cresting like the sun rising like a train down the tracks like a bullet like / like home

Byatt

The story has a very open ending, making the characters’ intentions and fates ambiguous. I personally have a darker take on future unwritten events from scrutinizing many of the characters’ actions and motives. Were the book to end two chapters earlier, the story would have a less dismal open ending yet still be fully complete. Several scenes reminded me of Shakespeare’s The Winter Tale and the ending of The Great Gatsby. The overall plot was also as odd and occasionally random as the stage direction “Exit, pursued by a bear” in more ways than one.

Power’s words are so perfect they make me want to scream. It is not often I read something that completely resonates with how I think and feel and I get chills just from her words. They stole my breath and thoughts away and I wasn’t prepared. Yet I could not be more prepared when the words speak to me like the Tox twitching in Hetty’s eye. [13 Oct 2020]

Buddy read with Cas!