“Wilder Girls,” a debut novel by Rory Power, was unlike anything I’ve read in the Young Adult genre. It is a common theme in YA to have pretty typical tropes. Girl falls in love with some guy. Add some dystopian elements to it, and BAM, a young adult story I’ve read time and time again.

 The premise of the novel is the reader following Hetty, student at Raxter’s School for Girls, and her friends, Reese and Byatt. 

 A year and a half prior, a mysterious disease took over the island their school is on, causing many students and teachers to die, as well as girls to mutate. The “Tox” is what they call it. The girls are quarantined on the island as the disease wreaks havoc on the students as well as the land around them. 

The book details the struggles of the girls’ lives, blocked from the outside world, relying on the Navy and CDC to drop food and supplies to them. 

The Tox is known to cause flare ups in the girls. When Byatt is rushed to the infirmary, an area that it is unlikely she will ever come out of again, Hetty is determined to find her. 

This book was a pretty fast read at only 368 pages. 

The one gripe I have is that I wish it were a bit longer. I think that it  could have gone more in depth into the lives of the characters and the world itself, if it was longer. If there is a sequel, I am looking forward to it. 

This book is a fast paced horror/dystopian book that was refreshing to the YA genre. 

4/5 stars.