The more I scroll through booktok to see what people are saying ab wilder girls, the more Iโm convinced no one actually understood this book
Marketing it as YA was a mistake, bc this is a horror book with young adult characters. The book ends the way it does bc this book isnโt fantasy, itโs science fiction, and weโve been clearly told throughout the book that there is no help, these girls have been given up on.
There is no magical cure to save the day and to me, it seemed like Rory Power didnโt want to take that cheap deus ex machina. Her story is so grounded that it couldnโt have ended any other way. Itโs all a very realistic depiction of life and teenage girls and trauma.
It is such a bleak depiction of the world and the realistic circumstances that we would face with an outbreak like the tox. But itโs not a hopeless book. The end inspires hope: hope theyโll make it the mainland, hope they can find a cure, hope that Byatt will be okay, no matter how unlikely.