Belated ARC Review – Wilder Girls

From Goodreads:

It’s been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty’s life out from under her.

It started slow. First the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island home, the girls don’t dare wander outside the school’s fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure they were promised as the Tox seeps into everything.

But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie beyond the fence. And when she does, Hetty learns that there’s more to their story, to their life at Raxter, than she could have ever thought true.

Unfortunately this was not the book for me. I usually don’t post full reviews below 3 stars to my blog but as I received this as an eARC I have written one. All that went through my head during this was WHERE THE HELL WERE THE PARENTS? The current world situation has made this point double. If a child fell ill at school irregardless of what happened I doubt any parent would just accept it and move on especially if they went for hearing from them regularly to nothing. I know mine would kick the door down and I am an adult. This was compounded by the fact that the whole premise just read a bit wooley and hand wavy. No one seemed to question it the situation was just accepted. Nothing puts me off a book faster it just forgetting that science exists and that scientists are living, caring, principled people (don’t get me started on how the members of the CDC are portrayed in this book – i could have a spoiler filled rant just on that very small portion).

Those glaringly big plot issues aside this did start out really interesting, the only reason I kept reading is I was sure it would all have an awesome explanation that would pay off. I was disappointed. Again it was hand wavy and took up half a sentence. The queer romance subplot that was promised by all the hype just wasn’t, at least i didn’t find it. The writing style itself also really vague and hollow – almost monotone. I get that it is told from the perspective of people who are not being fed the full picture but there are many other books that feed the reader information while keeping the mystery alive, letting the reader seek out the answers with the characters. This just didn’t, it was very blah..

I wish this was better but this book was blah.. I didn’t detest it just didn’t entertain me.