Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Growing and Changing: Exposure to Toxins Will Do That

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

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I’m pretty sure I purchased this book when it first came out. The only problem was, I purchased it as an Spanish language ebook and I don’t speak or read Spanish.  I tried to fight with Barnes & Noble about an exchange but gave up quickly.  When I saw the opportunity to purchase it on a discount just recently, I took it.  The cover intrigued me just as it did when I first purchased it, and the summary was equally tantalizing. The book begins after […]

“I think I’d been looking for it all my life a storm in my body to match the one in my head.”

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

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In one word: Unnerving First things first. We gotta talk about this cover. FRIGGIN. GASP. From art to font, the whole thing is perfection. It really captures the tone of the book, as nature and puberty coalesce into a diseased nightmare for the students of the Raxter School for Girls. When the Tox breaks out the girls are quarantined, and a year and a half later, they are no closer to answers, and their numbers are dwindling. We follow a trio of friends, Hetty, Byatt, […]

Taut, Gripping, and Totally Twisted

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

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The friends who recommended Rory Power’s Wilder Girls to me sure know how to get my attention. “Gripping queer relationships and teen girls being badasses!” said one. “You’ll love this, it reminds me so much of that show Yellowjackets that you won’t stop talking about,” raved another. Well, that sealed the deal. Wilder Girls takes place entirely on the fictional Raxter Island off the coast of Maine, primarily at the Raxter School for Girls. The all-girls boarding school is now under complete quarantine because of a mysterious […]

The reviews I forgot to post, part 1!

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

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Somehow I ended up reading three dystopian novels in a row. Maybe not the best choice during an actual pandemic.  Wilder Girls is set in an all-girls boarding school on an isolated island off the coast of Maine.  About a year and a half before the novel starts, something… happened.  A sort of disease that was probably already present on the island suddenly made an evolutionary jump from two species (an iris and a crab) to everything else, including people.  The disease, which they call […]

Crown of Mutation

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

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My journey to Wilder Girls was thus: Get obsessed with the HBO Show, Devs Remember how much I like Alex Garland Re-watch Annihilation (a movie based off the first of the Southern Reach novels by Jeff VanderMeer) Go down the rabbit-hole reading Southern Reach reviews, spoilers, and theories Stumble across a Cannonball Read review which likened Wilder Girls to Annihilation Which brings me to now! I read through this novel over the Easter long weekend and was immediately captured by the imagery and premise. An […]

Wilder Girls Seemed Tame

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

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This book began with an interesting premise: there is some sort of outbreak on a small island off the coast of Maine. The only inhabitants left on the island are remnants of an all-girls boarding school, guarded by a fence, some guns, and their teachers. The girls slowly start to mutate with unexplainable systems, and so does the wildlife on the other side of the fence. This book felt similar to Lord of the Flies. Who is in charge? Why are they in charge? Is […]



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