Wilder Girls
By Lucinda Dyer,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Teen girls band together in violent dystopian thriller.
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4 stars
What's the Story?
WILDER GIRLS begins 18 months after a mysterious virus called the Tox has killed or maimed all the humans and animals on a remote island off the coast of Maine. The island's sole occupant, the Raxter School for Girls, has been quarantined by the government and only a small group of girls, one teacher, and the headmistress are still alive. All of the survivors bear terrible scars from the Tox, and relapses (often fatal) are common. To protect themselves from dangers known and unknown, the girls learn how to shoot, and when on Gun Shift, stand guard on the school roof. Because of the quarantine, they've been forbidden to go outside of the fence surrounding the school. Only the Boat Shift, girls who pick up supplies left by the Navy, have permission to venture out. This is a dangerous task, as the woods around the school are now filled with animals the Tox has transformed into bloodthirsty beasts who've attacked and killed students. Like everyone at the school, 16-year-old best friends Hetty (a scholarship student) and Byatt (a rich kid from Boston) and their roommate, Reece (daughter of the school's groundskeeper), are waiting for the cure promised by the government. But that's never come and the food and supplies left by the Navy are barely enough to keep them alive. When Hetty is assigned to the Boat Shift, she discovers that all is not as it seems on the island. Then, Byatt falls ill and disappears from the school's infirmary.
Is It Any Good?
The violence in this often-grisly dystopian novel never overshadows the core of its compelling story of girls unprepared for an almost apocalyptic event who band together to create a new society. A society in which they must be caring and supportive and also make unimaginable choices about life and death for some of their own. There's a horrible virus, terrifying beasts roaming the woods, and a mystery to be solved -- and the empowered teens in Wilder Girls bravely step up and take it all on.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how the students in Wilder Girls create a life for themselves centered not on classes and grades but survival. What role would you have played on Raxter Island? Would you have been a Gun Shift or Boat Shift girl?
If you'd had a chance to escape through the fence surrounding the school, would you have taken it? Or would you have continued to wait for the government's promised cure for the Tox?
If you were quarantined on island like Raxter, who would you want with you? What character strengths or talents made you choose them?
Book Details
- Author: Rory Power
- Genre: Horror
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy , Book Characters , Friendship , Great Girl Role Models
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: Delacorte Press
- Publication date: July 9, 2019
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 13 - 18
- Number of pages: 357
- Available on: Paperback, Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Last updated: July 1, 2022
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