Wilder Girls by Rory Power follows three friends, Hetty, Byatt, and Reese as they attend the Raxter School for Girls on an island. While at school, a strange disease starts spreading and grotesquely killing members of the student body. After a year of battling this disease, everyone is used to the routine and changes. Hetty is chosen to leave the boarding school and get food from the mainland. She is astonished when she finds a large food supply, despite not having any food at the school, and that this devastating disease has barely affected the mainland. Hetty, Byatt, and Reese work to understand what’s happening, while battling the disease themselves.

I liked this book! I typically appreciate the characters in a book way more than the plot, but I really enjoyed both in this book. The plot built at a good pace throughout the novel, and focused on the important ideas, not too many tiny details. I never knew what was going to happen next, which kept the book from getting boring. The characters were all written and relatable, but I definitely had more questions about minor characters and the fate of the main characters at the end of the story.

-Anna