TL;DR
Overall rating: 3/5
Genre: Horror & suspense; adventure & survival
Length: 400 pages
One-sentence summary: When "the tox" hits an all-female boarding school on an island in the not-too-distant future, the U.S. government quarantines the students and staff, who must survive the medical emergency, each other, and the wilderness of the island.
Tough topics: violence, body horror, and gore; character and animal death (the animals are not pets); suicide, suicidal ideation, and self-harm; non-consensual medical procedures
Read-alikes: Plain Bad Heroines, by Emily Danforth; Burn Our Bodies Down, by Rory Power; The Gilded Ones, by Namina Forma; Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
Available formats: Borrow the audio and electronic versions on the Sora app or SoraApp.com.
I wanted to like this book more than I actually liked it, I think. Maybe? I'm a little conflicted about my feelings, here.
The idea is compelling: An all-female cast is quarantined in an island boarding school as their bodies and the wilderness around them succumb in eerie ways to something called "the tox." One girl's eye seals shut while an organic growth blossoms behind it, another girl's hand sprouts sharp silver scales, and a third develops a second spine on the outside of her body.
The first two thirds of the book absolutely drew me in. The post-Tox world created by Rory Powers is captivating and spooky. Powers only reveals to the reader what the girls at the school are also able to access--the school and some adjacent bits of the island--which reinforced the quarantine setting of the novel for me. And I loved the characters: They are, as fellow Goodreads reviewer Kai noted, "unapologetic, unlikeable, determined, passionate, independent, queer, young women with complex characters and emotions." In other words, they seem very real.
I wasn't thrilled by the ending, though. I am absolutely NOT the kind of reader who has to have all loose ends of a book neatly tied up; I enjoy a little ambiguity in my happily-ever-after. But Wilder Girls honestly felt like it wasn't finished. It isn't clear what might happen to the majority of the characters after the last page of the book and there are never any revelations about the Tox--where it came from, how it got to a totally isolated island, and if it will ever be cured (or even if anyone other than the girls cares if it is) were never even touched upon. Maybe Powers was leaving room for a sequel? I would totally read it, if that were the case.
Don't let the 3/5 rating put you off. I actually really enjoyed the book, its premise, and the writing. I just happened to be frustrated by the lack of backstory & resolution.