Wilder Girls by Rory Power
‘They told us to wait and stay alive.’
St Trinian’s meets Lord of the Flies in Rory Power’s haunting debut.
Raxter School for Girls has been under quarantine for eighteen months since the mysterious Tox hit. It started slow. Teachers died first, then it began to infect students, turning their bodies strange. Wait and stay alive. That is what they were told, and so the girls don’t dare wander past the school fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. But when her best friend Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine and risking the horrors outside.
Wilder Girls is a gritty horror novel with dystopian aspects on the surface, but the core of the story is indisputably held together and driven by the tender bonds and heartfelt relationships between the girls. This is not a story of “friendship conquers all”, but a story of Hetty gritting her teeth and making the choice to face fears, uncertainty, and stand up to the corrupt adult leadership for the sake of her friend. A book in which body horror and fears for survival go hand in hand with the confusion of growing up and moving through the uncertain teenage years between childhood and adulthood.
The girls are not the only part of Wilder Girls with claws. Power’s rich, evocative writing will hook you from the start, almost poetic in contrast to the visceral, eerie content of the story. This is a book that is difficult to put down; that makes you want to unravel the thriller-esque secrets behind the Tox along with Hetty, whose story you’ll be thinking about even after you turn the last page.
Submitted by Shannen
