I wanted to love Wilder Girls so much. There is so much about this premise that intrigued me. After watching Kayla’s (booksandlala) vlog about this boI wanted to love Wilder Girls so much. There is so much about this premise that intrigued me. After watching Kayla’s (booksandlala) vlog about this book that sold it to me. In the end, however, I was very disappointed about this book. For the record, I found out it was a Lord of the Flies retelling far too late. I really dislike Lord of the Flies and that would’ve deterred me.
I guess I’ll start with the characters of this book. For one, I couldn’t tell the difference between these characters. I couldn’t even keep track of who they were by their physical differences but those were also so obscure. There are some characters who are sapphic, which is cool, but I was not sold on these characters. The beginning of this book is very slow in its pacing because it should’ve focused on the characters but I couldn’t tell them apart so it was all wasted on me.
If I hadn’t guessed the big reveal--well, not the exact details but we weren’t given a lot of details either way-- of this book so early on, I think I would’ve loved the writing. I could tell that the idea was to have readers at the edge of their seat but that was lost on me. Body horror is not something that gets me. I tend to have a strong stomach for things like that so that wasn’t something I was worried about.
The writing was something I couldn’t deal with. The writing style was so disjointed and all over the place. I could tell that Power was going for a sort of stream of consciousness writing style and I wish more people had talked about that more in their reviews. I’m not a fan of stream of consciousness writing in books so this was beyond frustrating for me. I guess this was purposeful but not done well for me.
I also hated the ending. I know a lot of people loved the ending, and I didn’t mind certain aspects of it, but overall, it was bad. I wanted to know more about how the tox came from and how things came to be. There’s so much more Power could’ve done with that ending and that reveal. Again, I guess this is such a subjective take. The spoilers has more about my thoughts on this.
Overall, this was not a book for me! I wanted so much more from this book.
(view spoiler)[--Ugh that ending. I'm all about ending the story by simply ending it but I wanted more information about the Tox. Prehistoric parasites are coming to life after the earth has warmed so quickly on this island was a cool reason for the Tox. It impacts the girls more because of estrogen but not boys because they can't handle it? But it doesn't hurt a person who has reached menopause? I wanted so much more because that entire ending was so quick. Nothing really happens for the first 50% or so of this book and the last couple of pages has almost too much. At the end of the day, if you can tell me that the Tox is created by parasites, I'm sure you can give me more information about them.
--Where is the contaminated food going? You can't tell me that you're throwing all of that food into the water and it's not coming into contact with other animals/people.
--I don't doubt for a moment that if the Navy and others could hide this from the rest of the world. It's been done before and I know it can be done again. However, I want to know when this is set? There is no way that if this story is set during the era of social media, people wouldn't be asking questions. (hide spoiler)]...more
I grew up reading the Boxcar Children mysteries as a kid and only read a few of the Nancy Drew. However, I'd never read the first book that started itI grew up reading the Boxcar Children mysteries as a kid and only read a few of the Nancy Drew. However, I'd never read the first book that started it all so I decided to do so for the reading rush (2020). I wasn't expecting this book to be so incredibly short or so obvious. It's written for kids and not adults so that's why this was such an interesting experience. ...more