Wilder Girls, Rory Power

My review of Wilder Girls by Rory Power. This is an epic tale of girls trying to survive through their quarantine after a deadly virus breaks out amongst them.

Wilder Girls, Rory Power

Themes: Horror, Dystopia, LGBT Young Adult

Reading Format: Paperback

Pages: 320

4 STARS

This book is on sale in the UK February 6th 2020. Thank you to Macmillan Children’s Books and MyKindaBook for the early copy of this amazing read.

I tore through this book in a couple of days because the story was so gripping and full of suspense. Placed around the simple premise of an outbreak of some unknown virus, the girls on this island must fight to survive. There’s a real grouping together of different types of female characters, generally, they are all fighting together and have all bonded through their experience.

As with most disease/virus outbreaks in TV and books, we don’t really know the cause of it. I felt like we were slowly fed hints throughout this book about this illness. It takes a different shape in every student, affecting their bodies in ways such as growing an extra spine or losing an eye. I definitely felt intrigued to learn more about this disease and see why it was happening and what was happening to the rest of the world.

This book is told through a dual narrative, split between two characters. I really liked this method of storytelling, because each character has such a different background, it’s interesting to read about the situation from a different perspective. The second narrative is quite special, it’s written in a really clever way to convey the situation the character is in. I’m keeping this spoiler-free, so I won’t go into any more detail than that, but it’s an interesting perspective to read.

This book is fast-paced and I didn’t get literature cabin fever from a book set all in one place. The setting was all on one island, I desperately wanted to see the state of the outside world. But I enjoyed exploring the setting of the girl’s school. Because of the suspense and clever writing of this book, I never felt bored. I’d definitely advise picking it up!