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Wild Girls
Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep meets Donna Tartt’s The Secret History , this daringly imagined, atmospheric, and original debut is part coming-of-age story and part supernatural tale about teenage girls learning their own strength.
Daringly imagined, atmospheric, and original, Wild Girls is an exhilarating debut—part coming-of-age story and part supernatural tale about girls learning their own strength.
Kate Riordan fears two things as she grows up in the small Appalachian town of Swan that she’ll be a frustrated townie forever or that she’ll turn into one of the mysterious and terrifying wild girls, killers who start fires and menace the community. Struggling to better her chances of escaping, Kate attends the posh Swan River Academy and finds herself divided between her hometown—and its dark history—and the realm of privilege and achievement at the Academy. Explosive friendships with Mason, a boy from the wrong side of town, and Willow, a wealthy and popular queen bee from school, are slowly pulling her apart. Kate must decide who she is and where she belongs before she wakes up with cinders at her fingertips.
Mary Stewart Atwell has written a novel that is at once funny and wise and stunningly inventive. Her wild girls are strange and fascinating creatures—a brilliant twist on the anger teenage girls can feel at their powerlessness—and a promise of the great things to come from this young writer.
Daringly imagined, atmospheric, and original, Wild Girls is an exhilarating debut—part coming-of-age story and part supernatural tale about girls learning their own strength.
Kate Riordan fears two things as she grows up in the small Appalachian town of Swan that she’ll be a frustrated townie forever or that she’ll turn into one of the mysterious and terrifying wild girls, killers who start fires and menace the community. Struggling to better her chances of escaping, Kate attends the posh Swan River Academy and finds herself divided between her hometown—and its dark history—and the realm of privilege and achievement at the Academy. Explosive friendships with Mason, a boy from the wrong side of town, and Willow, a wealthy and popular queen bee from school, are slowly pulling her apart. Kate must decide who she is and where she belongs before she wakes up with cinders at her fingertips.
Mary Stewart Atwell has written a novel that is at once funny and wise and stunningly inventive. Her wild girls are strange and fascinating creatures—a brilliant twist on the anger teenage girls can feel at their powerlessness—and a promise of the great things to come from this young writer.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published October 9, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 109 reviews
October 2, 2019
this is a piece of adult fiction that i think would probably find a more sympathetic readership amongst a YA audience.
because as allegory, as homeroom-doodle revenge fantasy, this has a lot of potential. it's all about the perceived powerlessness of teenage girls and what if some girls in this town had a switch that no one could see but every so often it would be flipped somehow and that girl would go buckwild with the flames and the flying and the unstoppable violence and everyone would be so damn scared? how awesome would that be?
and it's true - the idea is awesome, but the treatment of it just doesn't go anywhere.
as an empowerment piece, it doesn't satisfy because the appearance of powers is random and destructive. and not destructive in a "take back the night" way, but destructive to the girls themselves. so that sucks.
as appalachia mythology story it doesn't work because the author stubbornly refuses to even say where this takes place except "south of tennessee," which is fine - not everything has to have a pin on the map to be rewarding, but the blurriness of location compounded with the blurriness of intent just makes the whole thing feel like a baby crayon sketch instead of what could have been a really slick graphic novel girlhero kind of story.
as a coming of age story, it doesn't really work because there is no growth, no learning, no sticking. there's death and suicide and virginity-loss and betrayal and a haircut and these are all things that should be in a typical coming of age story, but the part this book lacks is the response to these situations. everything seems to have the same weight. nothing seems to have any purpose in the driving of the story, stuff happens but to no real end. giving examples amounts to spoilers, but just trust me; bizarre things happen but really just for the sake of having something bizarre happen. instead of a leather-tight allegory, we have some abandoned scraps where you can only see what might have been.
but i think a YA reader, going through all that delicious power/powerlessness turmoil of the reckless hormonal teen years might be able to get more out of it than some old dried out tortoise like me, already very aware of her powerful woman-might. because i think a lot of the voice was good, and some of the set pieces were nice; i just need a method to my madness, which when i was a teenreader, i required less. then, i could have been given an idea and a story, and been perfectly content. as a wizened adult, now i suddenly have all these other needs, like "why are you telling me this?" "what does this signify?" "why mention this thing if there will not be a payoff?" "hurry up, i have to make dinner" etc.
as a daydream, this is a lot of fun. but as a novel, it just doesn't work so hot.
karen russell promised me: "appalachian magic, conflagration, and supernatural violence." but she never promised me these elements would ever cohere into anything. fair enough.
come to my blog!
because as allegory, as homeroom-doodle revenge fantasy, this has a lot of potential. it's all about the perceived powerlessness of teenage girls and what if some girls in this town had a switch that no one could see but every so often it would be flipped somehow and that girl would go buckwild with the flames and the flying and the unstoppable violence and everyone would be so damn scared? how awesome would that be?
and it's true - the idea is awesome, but the treatment of it just doesn't go anywhere.
as an empowerment piece, it doesn't satisfy because the appearance of powers is random and destructive. and not destructive in a "take back the night" way, but destructive to the girls themselves. so that sucks.
as appalachia mythology story it doesn't work because the author stubbornly refuses to even say where this takes place except "south of tennessee," which is fine - not everything has to have a pin on the map to be rewarding, but the blurriness of location compounded with the blurriness of intent just makes the whole thing feel like a baby crayon sketch instead of what could have been a really slick graphic novel girlhero kind of story.
as a coming of age story, it doesn't really work because there is no growth, no learning, no sticking. there's death and suicide and virginity-loss and betrayal and a haircut and these are all things that should be in a typical coming of age story, but the part this book lacks is the response to these situations. everything seems to have the same weight. nothing seems to have any purpose in the driving of the story, stuff happens but to no real end. giving examples amounts to spoilers, but just trust me; bizarre things happen but really just for the sake of having something bizarre happen. instead of a leather-tight allegory, we have some abandoned scraps where you can only see what might have been.
but i think a YA reader, going through all that delicious power/powerlessness turmoil of the reckless hormonal teen years might be able to get more out of it than some old dried out tortoise like me, already very aware of her powerful woman-might. because i think a lot of the voice was good, and some of the set pieces were nice; i just need a method to my madness, which when i was a teenreader, i required less. then, i could have been given an idea and a story, and been perfectly content. as a wizened adult, now i suddenly have all these other needs, like "why are you telling me this?" "what does this signify?" "why mention this thing if there will not be a payoff?" "hurry up, i have to make dinner" etc.
as a daydream, this is a lot of fun. but as a novel, it just doesn't work so hot.
karen russell promised me: "appalachian magic, conflagration, and supernatural violence." but she never promised me these elements would ever cohere into anything. fair enough.
come to my blog!
May 5, 2015
Kate Riordan lives in Swan River, a small town somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains with a history of crazy teenage girls who, out of the blue, will spend a night burning things down and murdering people before the urge wears off as fast as it came. Kate, who attends a fancy private academy and plans to go to college, doesn't want to become a wild girl. But since no one understands how it happens, how can it be prevented?I picked this book because it sounded out of my usual genres but also appeared to promise a supernatural undercurrent. The jacket flap promises "a brilliant twist at the anger teenage girls can feel at their powerlessness" and also a story that is "funny and wise and stunningly inventive."
Well, if there's any funny in this book, I failed to find it. Kate's narration is tense and grim and depressing from the get-go, and it never changes. She's distant and disapproving; she never connects with anyone, not even herself. She has no sense of humor about anything, ever.
The story opens with a promising prologue during Kate's freshman year at the academy, when she and her new BFF go to a local festival where Kate refuses to partake of an all-too-human-looking pig roast, and she and her friend have their palms read by a well-known witch. Then Chapter One jumps to the beginning of Kate's senior year; she and Willow, now a former friend, have drifted apart but begin to reconnect. Kate's new best friend wants to write a book about wild girls through history, with a focus on the Swan River phenomenon. And they are all taking a course in "Myths and Mysteries" from the darkly handsome, somewhat mysterious schoolmaster. His part in the story seems heavily influenced by Julian in The Secret History (which I think this book is trying to pay homage to. And failing miserably).
So ... you'd think all this might come together. And maybe the author thinks it does. But mostly it just turns into a straightforward contemporary story about uncomfortable friendships, queen bees and mean girls, and the fear of getting stuck in a rut. I think we're supposed to feel some kind of menace from the potential for any girl to go "wild," but I didn't feel it among all the wretched dreariness. Things happen, but none of them seem to matter or really add up to anything.
We learn a little about some of the former wild girls -- they almost all end up outcasts and losers, still angry, still completely powerless. But -- so does Kate. Since I'm telling you all not to read this, I'm going to tell you that it
The entire message of this book seems to be that nothing really matters or adds up to anything. Don't try to see a pattern. There isn't one. There's no closure, no real ending, happy or otherwise. It's like the worst of literary fiction, only with a pretense at being genre which pulled me in and then failed to materialize.
I did not enjoy this book at all. I don't even know what it's doing in the YA section with its total downer attitude.
December 30, 2012
I really, really wanted to like this book. A "magical realism" book about girl power set in Appalachia and blurbed by Karen Russell? Yes, please. Unfortunately, this book fell short in just about every way I can think of and I'm wondering if I need to re-think my trust in Russell. I think that all the components were there to make this an awesome book, but the writing just didn't come through. Most of the main events happened so quickly and were so easily brushed by that it didn't even appear as though they were important (for example, Mason's suicide happened so quickly and garnered so little attention, that I kept expecting him to pop back up). Another example, Kate's hair cut, which I guess should have been a big deal, but didn't play any real role in the actual story. And then there were all the things that happened that didn't really seem to matter at all. Why did Kate lose her virginity to Mason? (I mean, I know why the person Kate would have, but why was that relevant to the story?)
A few more issues:
I never could get a good grip on where this was meant to be set. Swan River, yes, yes, but where? Not Tennessee, but south of Tennessee, so maybe North Carolina? Georgia? I don't know. There were deltas, but also mountains (and also a fancy private school inexplicably in the middle of this dying town).
The fact that the town was dying was repeated, over and over, but there was no real answer other than that there was some bad juju going on there. This is such a missed opportunity, and actually a little insulting to those of us who do live in Appalachia, witness the poverty everyday, and know that there are very real and important reasons why towns like this are in trouble. I thought, for a moment, there was maybe a glimmer of hope when Maggie talked about becoming mayor to help Swan River, but then at the end, she'd given up on that dream and they'd all just left (as did the narrator, who apparently never wanted to return, even though Clancy was apparently pining for her).
Also, the very real environmental issues mentioned in the book were so glossed over that I don't think most readers would even give them a second look.
Again, I think that this could have been a great book; unfortunately, it wasn't even a very good one.
A few more issues:
I never could get a good grip on where this was meant to be set. Swan River, yes, yes, but where? Not Tennessee, but south of Tennessee, so maybe North Carolina? Georgia? I don't know. There were deltas, but also mountains (and also a fancy private school inexplicably in the middle of this dying town).
The fact that the town was dying was repeated, over and over, but there was no real answer other than that there was some bad juju going on there. This is such a missed opportunity, and actually a little insulting to those of us who do live in Appalachia, witness the poverty everyday, and know that there are very real and important reasons why towns like this are in trouble. I thought, for a moment, there was maybe a glimmer of hope when Maggie talked about becoming mayor to help Swan River, but then at the end, she'd given up on that dream and they'd all just left (as did the narrator, who apparently never wanted to return, even though Clancy was apparently pining for her).
Also, the very real environmental issues mentioned in the book were so glossed over that I don't think most readers would even give them a second look.
Again, I think that this could have been a great book; unfortunately, it wasn't even a very good one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 30, 2017
You might think this will all come together in the end while clumping along, but it won't.
You might also think this is an adult novel, trust me, it's pure YA in its worst form from too much teen angst in a whiny voice to the obligatory love triangle that expands itself even further, add some mean girls and a weird, sort-of supernatural element thrown in to draw the crowds.
You will also possibly expect lyrical writing and hope for the "Wild Girls" to be not just magical but also interesting, slightly terrifying maybe on a visceral level, Karen Russell blurbed this after all, but all of this will not happen. It blends the broken small town setting with the rich boarding school in the most boring way, remains vague where you want more and is highly predictable where it should have stayed more mystical.
You might have enjoyed dark female coming-of-age stories in the past and feel like this will go with them, I still would say this is not what you seek. The darkness gets drowned in the endless love dramatics, the coming-of-age elements you will not care about when the narrator herself is pretending her life is a doomed dance on the volcano's edge when it is really, really not.
You might have a different taste in literature than I do, fair enough, but give the average rating here a quick glance, it is very low. Ratings aren't everything, sometimes our taste doesn't flow with the masses, mine often doesn't. Still, I would listen this once, "Wild Girls" is not a great book, it is a messy mixture of things you have read and seen before and things you don't care about.
In case I wasn't clear, I did not care for anything in this book. Not one bit.
You might also think this is an adult novel, trust me, it's pure YA in its worst form from too much teen angst in a whiny voice to the obligatory love triangle that expands itself even further, add some mean girls and a weird, sort-of supernatural element thrown in to draw the crowds.
You will also possibly expect lyrical writing and hope for the "Wild Girls" to be not just magical but also interesting, slightly terrifying maybe on a visceral level, Karen Russell blurbed this after all, but all of this will not happen. It blends the broken small town setting with the rich boarding school in the most boring way, remains vague where you want more and is highly predictable where it should have stayed more mystical.
You might have enjoyed dark female coming-of-age stories in the past and feel like this will go with them, I still would say this is not what you seek. The darkness gets drowned in the endless love dramatics, the coming-of-age elements you will not care about when the narrator herself is pretending her life is a doomed dance on the volcano's edge when it is really, really not.
You might have a different taste in literature than I do, fair enough, but give the average rating here a quick glance, it is very low. Ratings aren't everything, sometimes our taste doesn't flow with the masses, mine often doesn't. Still, I would listen this once, "Wild Girls" is not a great book, it is a messy mixture of things you have read and seen before and things you don't care about.
In case I wasn't clear, I did not care for anything in this book. Not one bit.
November 6, 2012
I received this in a Goodreads First Reads Giveaway.
"Wild Girls" by Mary Stewart Atwell is a coming of age story of a young girl in a small Appalachian town with two big fears; staying put for the rest of her life, or becoming a violent Wild Girl.
While I have read worse books, I didn't overly enjoy this story either. It was ok. I felt the characters were under developed, and a plot line that depended on the pecking order of teen girls. There wasn't a lot of build up towards understanding what causes the Wild Girls. And I will admit that I felt that Dr. Bell was a superfluous character.
When I started reading this book I really thought I would be lead on this mystical journey finding the truth behind the Wild Girls and instead I was spoon fed the comings and goings of rich teen girls that I can't relate to. I'm sure this may be enjoyed by someone, but it isn't for me.
"Wild Girls" by Mary Stewart Atwell is a coming of age story of a young girl in a small Appalachian town with two big fears; staying put for the rest of her life, or becoming a violent Wild Girl.
While I have read worse books, I didn't overly enjoy this story either. It was ok. I felt the characters were under developed, and a plot line that depended on the pecking order of teen girls. There wasn't a lot of build up towards understanding what causes the Wild Girls. And I will admit that I felt that Dr. Bell was a superfluous character.
When I started reading this book I really thought I would be lead on this mystical journey finding the truth behind the Wild Girls and instead I was spoon fed the comings and goings of rich teen girls that I can't relate to. I'm sure this may be enjoyed by someone, but it isn't for me.
December 22, 2012
About 3.5 stars. At first I was a bit disappointed, because I didn't know where it was going, but then I got caught up in the story and the characters. The supernatural weirdness seems to jump out of nowhere. I felt the book was a bit uneven, but then I just got really into it.
Loved the descriptions of the Appalachian town, the female relationships and the way that the main character worries a lot about becoming evil, or getting stuck.
I'm a sucker for stories about teenage girls in boarding school settings. This book is definitely an adult book, even though it deals with teen girls. The narrator is looking backward, which gives it a more adult feel.
I will be really surprised if this movie doesn't get optioned into a film at some point. It could make a pretty good movie- think something like Foxfire or a boarding school story like The Wives of Bath crossed with The Craft.
Loved the descriptions of the Appalachian town, the female relationships and the way that the main character worries a lot about becoming evil, or getting stuck.
I'm a sucker for stories about teenage girls in boarding school settings. This book is definitely an adult book, even though it deals with teen girls. The narrator is looking backward, which gives it a more adult feel.
I will be really surprised if this movie doesn't get optioned into a film at some point. It could make a pretty good movie- think something like Foxfire or a boarding school story like The Wives of Bath crossed with The Craft.
November 25, 2012
There are times when the serendipity offered up by the New Books shelf at the library causes me great joy, and there are times when it causes me to curse the day I ever learned to read. Today it's the latter. I am not sure what exactly I expected (something 70s, with free love, I think), but horror was certainly not on my list for today. I stay away from horror on purpose, mostly because it's, um, horrifying. I stuck with it for the first 150 pages, but then I started to skip and skim and peek through my fingers and flinch and shudder. Things caught on fire. People died in gruesome fashions. Old men were skeevy and good men were apathetic. Girls got knocked up and knocked down.
Perhaps it's a good horror book, I don't know. I hated it. Maybe you'll like it. If you do, don't tell me.
Perhaps it's a good horror book, I don't know. I hated it. Maybe you'll like it. If you do, don't tell me.
September 25, 2013
It thought it was great, very atmospheric, and it reminded me a bit of Elizabeth Hand's /Waking the Moon/ in a good and non-derivative way. I agree with what some others have said, that it feels more like YA than "adult fiction."
My only complaint is the ending feels rushed--it's a first novel, though, so you gotta kind of give her pass... I would have given it five stars, but those last few chapters...it starts moving too fast, doing too much.
I especially like Mason. He's good stuff. ;-) Plus, there aren't enough stories about maenads out there in the world. All in all, totally worth your time. And maybe on her later work she'll get a better handle on the pacing at the end. It's very easy to wrap up a horror novel too quickly, I've read hundreds that fall into the trap.
My only complaint is the ending feels rushed--it's a first novel, though, so you gotta kind of give her pass... I would have given it five stars, but those last few chapters...it starts moving too fast, doing too much.
I especially like Mason. He's good stuff. ;-) Plus, there aren't enough stories about maenads out there in the world. All in all, totally worth your time. And maybe on her later work she'll get a better handle on the pacing at the end. It's very easy to wrap up a horror novel too quickly, I've read hundreds that fall into the trap.
July 18, 2019
This was a really fun book--and very much a YA Secret History, set in southern Appalachia. The ending surprised me a bit, and is something I'll need to think about a bit more. But overall, the protagonist who is ambivalent about the phenomenon of "wild girls" in Swan River, girls who, in reaching adolescence, come into supernatural powers of pyrokinesis and general destruction. She is both drawn to and terrified by her own potential to become a wild girl, and surrounded by other girls in her boarding school who deal with these possibilities in varying ways.
December 17, 2012
I really wanted to like this book, and I was so disappointed. I felt like there was just so much missing, it was predictable, and the ending left a lot of unanswered questions. The author, I think, writes short stories, maybe she should have stuck with keeping it a short story...
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December 2, 2012Wild Girls is literary fiction that's actually easy to read. A completely original story by an author who obviously has a unique imagination. A book that would appeal to an older YA audience as well as adults. Atwell is adept at telling a story that gets you thinking in a teenage girl's voice. I went Hunh at the end, but in a good way. She does not tell a story in an obvious way, and there were moments that I had to re-read passages to get their meaning.
Pick it up if you like Curtis Settenfeld or Meg Wolitzer
Note: I was provided a copy of this novel to read by Random House of Canada
Pick it up if you like Curtis Settenfeld or Meg Wolitzer
Note: I was provided a copy of this novel to read by Random House of Canada
April 11, 2013
What I expected from this story... wasn't that. No strong feelings here, just ambivalence. Writing was fair, but I couldn't follow the (almost nonexistent) plot. Story never really picked up, and I kept waiting for anything to happen, then it just ended. Kate doesn't really grow as a character, and Willow and her minions didn't inspire much feeling in me... empty
January 25, 2018
I really wanted to like this - young women who live in a Southern US town are vulnerable to becoming 'wild girls': furious creatures that fly, incinerate and generally wreak havoc with their internalized anger. Unfortunately, Atwell's writing style and the dullest protagonist you can imagine make it a struggle to get through. It's like the shadow of a great magical-realist novel, where the best things happen offscreen.
September 9, 2012
The girls of Swan River aren't just wild - they're murderous! Mary Stewart Atwell's debut novel is more than your average coming-of-age story: it's dark and creepy and fantastic - I'll definitely be keeping my eye on this author!
September 5, 2013
An interesting read. The explanation for the wild girls was satisfying but not solid.
June 20, 2019
I didn’t want it to end! Think I just found a new favorite author. This is a masterpiece, that’s all I can say.
June 28, 2020
The timeline jumped around a little bit in the beginning, making it somewhat hard to follow. The premise of the story was interesting, but the epilogue made the ending fall a little flat.
September 2, 2016
[
English review below
]
Volevo leggere questo libro da molto tempo e forse per questo motivo, mi aspettavo una storia diversa. Durante la lettura, sono passata dal mood "wow quanto caspita è figo questo libro" a "ma quando finisce?!". Sono rimasta un po' delusa.
Secondo me, la storia poteva essere sviluppata meglio: durante la lettura, dagli eventi iniziali si procede verso capitoli dove praticamente non succede niente. OK so che i momenti di calma piatta spesso anticipano grandi colpi di scena ma non è questo il caso. Dopo un inizio scorrevole e interessante, il libro si è rivelato noioso e prevedibile.
Neanche la difficile situazione familiare e le prime cotte riescono a far maturare, agli occhi del lettore, la protagonista Kate Riordan. Una ragazza che insegue i propri sogni, senza trovare la forza di combattere per la loro realizzazione. E questo atteggiamento va imputato sicuramente a sua madre che ha smesso da tempo di prendersi cura delle proprie figlie.
Willow, la migliore amica di Kate, è il burattinaio che tende i fili della storia. . Grazie alla sua forza di persuasione, Kate pende completamente dalle sue labbra fin dalle prime pagine. Per capire la verità, Kate ha bisogno di una bella svegliata da parte di qualcuno. Chi sarà il fortunato?
Completano il quadro i due bellocci di turno: da una parte Mason affascinante ma depresso, dall'altra Clancy gentile e fin troppo accondiscendente.
Mi sembra quasi che l'esistenza di questa città sugli Appalachi privi i propri abitanti di una solidità psicologica necessaria a sopravvivere nella vita. La paura per le ragazze selvagge infatti, comprensibilmente priva i cittadini di certezze: la vita non è quindi più un susseguirsi di azioni, ma diventa passività pura di fronte allo scorrere del tempo e all'avvicinarsi dell'imminente prossimo disastro.
L'Accademia, collegio femminile, riveste in questa società il ruolo di tramite fra la cittadina di Swan River e il mondo esterno. Grazie al lavoro della madre, Kate frequenta questa scuola insieme alle figlie delle più ricche famiglie della zona. In questa realtà, Kate viene a contatto con la superficialità dei ricchi e con l'infelicità di ragazze costrette a seguire non la propria volontà, bensì quella dei genitori.
Sebbene il libro non mi sia piaciuto nella misura che speravo, riconosco che l'autrice ha introdotto una nuova immagine di streghe adolescenti , riuscendo abilmente a costruire un castello di leggende folkloristiche a esse legate. Nonostante la creazione di diversi personaggi, ognuno con la propria personale psicologia, rimane l'impressione che, a causa dell'adozione dell'esclusivo punto di vista di Kate, le differenti figure non siano state adeguatamente approfondite. Un romanzo autoconclusivo che ha lasciato però nel mio cuore un senso di incompiuto.
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WILD GIRLS by Mary Stewart Atwell
I've wanted to read this book for a long time: maybe that's the reason why I've imagined a different story. While I was reading, I felt a lot of emotions but in the end, I was a bit disappointed.
In my opinion, the story could be better. In the first pages, there are a lot of events but then, there are chapters where nothing happen. Sometimes, it means that reader has to wait for something shocking. However, after an interesting beginning, I was bored because things were really predictable. D:
Kate Riordan, the main character, is a girl who tries to reach her goal, but she doesn't fight enough to make her dreams true. As for me, this attitude comes from her mother because she hasn't taken care of her daughters from a long time.
Willow, Kate's best friend, is the puppeteer of the story. Despite attentions given to her, I've never liked her. .
Kate has been completly controlled by Willow since the first pages. She needs the help of someone else to understand the truth and be awake.
The picture is completed by two boys: Mason is charming but depressed, Clancy is nice, kind and he will die for Kate.
It seems like the moral strenght to survive in the life has been taken away from the inhabitans of this town over Appalachian mountains. The fear of wild girls deprives citizens of certainties: now life doesn't mean actions, but waiting for the next coming disaster.
The Academy, a women's college, represents the connection between Swan River and the external world. Thanks to her mother's job, Kate is attending this school together with daughters of the richest families of the territory. In this reality, Katy finds the unhappiness of her mates, forced to follow their parents' desideres instead of theirs.
Although I haven't enjoyed the book as much as I expected , I admit that the author has built a new image of teenager witches , using a castle of folk legends. Each character has his own personality which isn't properly addressed because Kate's point of view is the only adopted. This is a novel with a determined and specified end, however it has left a sense of unfinished in my heart.
[ Thank you for having read my review. I'm Italian and my English is not so good, but I hope you like it. Bye :3 ]
"Avevo soprannominato -sorriso dell'autostrada-quella sua espressione determinata e malinconica, ma probabilmente lui non era mai stato in autostrada in vita sua"
Volevo leggere questo libro da molto tempo e forse per questo motivo, mi aspettavo una storia diversa. Durante la lettura, sono passata dal mood "wow quanto caspita è figo questo libro" a "ma quando finisce?!". Sono rimasta un po' delusa.
Secondo me, la storia poteva essere sviluppata meglio: durante la lettura, dagli eventi iniziali si procede verso capitoli dove praticamente non succede niente. OK so che i momenti di calma piatta spesso anticipano grandi colpi di scena ma non è questo il caso. Dopo un inizio scorrevole e interessante, il libro si è rivelato noioso e prevedibile.
Neanche la difficile situazione familiare e le prime cotte riescono a far maturare, agli occhi del lettore, la protagonista Kate Riordan. Una ragazza che insegue i propri sogni, senza trovare la forza di combattere per la loro realizzazione. E questo atteggiamento va imputato sicuramente a sua madre che ha smesso da tempo di prendersi cura delle proprie figlie.
Willow, la migliore amica di Kate, è il burattinaio che tende i fili della storia. . Grazie alla sua forza di persuasione, Kate pende completamente dalle sue labbra fin dalle prime pagine. Per capire la verità, Kate ha bisogno di una bella svegliata da parte di qualcuno. Chi sarà il fortunato?
Completano il quadro i due bellocci di turno: da una parte Mason affascinante ma depresso, dall'altra Clancy gentile e fin troppo accondiscendente.
Mi sembra quasi che l'esistenza di questa città sugli Appalachi privi i propri abitanti di una solidità psicologica necessaria a sopravvivere nella vita. La paura per le ragazze selvagge infatti, comprensibilmente priva i cittadini di certezze: la vita non è quindi più un susseguirsi di azioni, ma diventa passività pura di fronte allo scorrere del tempo e all'avvicinarsi dell'imminente prossimo disastro.
L'Accademia, collegio femminile, riveste in questa società il ruolo di tramite fra la cittadina di Swan River e il mondo esterno. Grazie al lavoro della madre, Kate frequenta questa scuola insieme alle figlie delle più ricche famiglie della zona. In questa realtà, Kate viene a contatto con la superficialità dei ricchi e con l'infelicità di ragazze costrette a seguire non la propria volontà, bensì quella dei genitori.
Sebbene il libro non mi sia piaciuto nella misura che speravo, riconosco che l'autrice ha introdotto una nuova immagine di streghe adolescenti , riuscendo abilmente a costruire un castello di leggende folkloristiche a esse legate. Nonostante la creazione di diversi personaggi, ognuno con la propria personale psicologia, rimane l'impressione che, a causa dell'adozione dell'esclusivo punto di vista di Kate, le differenti figure non siano state adeguatamente approfondite. Un romanzo autoconclusivo che ha lasciato però nel mio cuore un senso di incompiuto.
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WILD GIRLS by Mary Stewart Atwell
I've wanted to read this book for a long time: maybe that's the reason why I've imagined a different story. While I was reading, I felt a lot of emotions but in the end, I was a bit disappointed.
In my opinion, the story could be better. In the first pages, there are a lot of events but then, there are chapters where nothing happen. Sometimes, it means that reader has to wait for something shocking. However, after an interesting beginning, I was bored because things were really predictable. D:
Kate Riordan, the main character, is a girl who tries to reach her goal, but she doesn't fight enough to make her dreams true. As for me, this attitude comes from her mother because she hasn't taken care of her daughters from a long time.
Willow, Kate's best friend, is the puppeteer of the story. Despite attentions given to her, I've never liked her. .
Kate has been completly controlled by Willow since the first pages. She needs the help of someone else to understand the truth and be awake.
The picture is completed by two boys: Mason is charming but depressed, Clancy is nice, kind and he will die for Kate.
It seems like the moral strenght to survive in the life has been taken away from the inhabitans of this town over Appalachian mountains. The fear of wild girls deprives citizens of certainties: now life doesn't mean actions, but waiting for the next coming disaster.
The Academy, a women's college, represents the connection between Swan River and the external world. Thanks to her mother's job, Kate is attending this school together with daughters of the richest families of the territory. In this reality, Katy finds the unhappiness of her mates, forced to follow their parents' desideres instead of theirs.
Although I haven't enjoyed the book as much as I expected , I admit that the author has built a new image of teenager witches , using a castle of folk legends. Each character has his own personality which isn't properly addressed because Kate's point of view is the only adopted. This is a novel with a determined and specified end, however it has left a sense of unfinished in my heart.
[ Thank you for having read my review. I'm Italian and my English is not so good, but I hope you like it. Bye :3 ]
June 12, 2015
Kate Reardon is a high school freshman. Her father has passed away when Kate was small. She lives with her mother, her mom's boyfriend Travis (the local sheriff's deputy, and a nice guy although a bit of a stoner), and her older sister Maggie. They live in the small Southern town of Swan River. The river is the town's predominant feature. Many of the residents spend their whole lives without crossing the bridge out of town, but not Kate and Maggie. Mother Reardon is an administrative assistant for Dr. Bell, the dean of the local girls' academy. Through her, the working-class Reardon girls are able to attend the fancy-pants preparatory academy.
But as one might expect in an atmospheric piece of Southern gothic/borderline horror fiction, Swan River is a town with a secret. It's an open secret and a mystery among the residents, but hidden from the outside world: Swan River is the home of the Wild Girls. These paranormal creatures start out as ordinary teenager girls, generally between the ages of sixteen and eighteen. (Dangerous 16th Birthday trope, anyone?) Seemingly at random, they're transformed: glowing skin, the ability to spark fire with their bare fingertips, extraordinary strength and violence, and the propensity to fly away. Then, just as suddenly, they return to normal girls, left to deal with the consequences of their supernatural mayhem and, occasionally, murder.
Kate is terrified she'll become a Wild Girl, and at the same time, she's a little afraid that she won't.
In the book's prologue, Kate and Maggie attend the town's yearly festival with Mom and Travis. It's held on the local commune, Bloodwort Farm, home of the Deadnecks. The nickname is a portmanteau of Deadhead (used as a general term for hippie types, whether they actually listen to the Grateful Dead or not) and redneck (used as a general term for socioeconomically disadvantaged Caucasian-Americans). Although Kate and her friend Willow aren't aware of it at first, it will be the town's last summer festival because of the strange events that occur that night. A seemingly innocent(ish) prank by local bully Crystal Lemons involving Roman candles turns into something far more sinister and threatening. By the morning, Crystal is dead, the commune-dwelling Bird Man (so called for his tattoo) is grievously injured, and the commune has mostly burned down.
An equally important development that night is that Kate and Willow meet Mason Lemons, Crystal's bad-boy brother. The three of them will become something of a love triangle, but all the relationships in the triangle are doomed from the start. Dr. Bell is a student of folklore and mythology, and he knows much more than he's letting on about the Wild Girls. He theorizes a connection between them and the Maenads of ancient Greek myth. (You may remember the Maenads from such literary works as Charlaine Harris's Living Dead in Dallas.)
An important literary reference - and one which, I admit, I haven't read - is The Bacchae by the ancient Athenian playwright Euripides. The play describes an attempt by a king to outlaw the worship of the god Dionysus and the subsequent revenge enacted upon that king by Dionysus's followers, the crazed Maenads. Dr. Bell fancies himself a modern Dionysus, but it turns out he is merely the king.
One of the interesting themes throughout this novel is the relationship between male authority and female wildness. We see it in the relationship between Mama Reardon and Travis, in the relationship between banjo-playing Maggie and her bandmate/lover Kevin (a.k.a. Kayak Boy), and we see it in the relationships between Kate, Willow, Mason, and Mason's pal/organic gardening enthusiast Clancy. (Clancy may or may not become the great love of Kate's life - the novel leaves it open-ended. They do share a passion for the environment.) We even see glimpses of it in the relationship between Willow and her parents. To what extent is a woman to put aside her own wildness, her own passions and enthusiasms, in exchange for the love and/or civilizing influence of a man? The author's answer seems to be, "It is a delicate balance. Different women will land of different sides of the equation."
The writing throughout this novel is beautiful and strange, even more poetic and lovely than the Southern-style writing I admired in Beautiful Creatures. Kate is a smart, savvy heroine well able to handle the dangers that creep into her world. She thinks she's not as tough as her sister Maggie, but she's wrong. She is both physically and emotionally stronger than she ever imagined.
I would recommend this book to anyone with the caveat that it contains scenes of graphic violence and an attempted rape scene. Those who are sensitive to violence may want to sit this one out.
In the novel, Willow and the other women drink bloodwort tea. Bloodwort, also known as bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), is a real plant, and it has been used in traditional medicinal practices. However, it should be noted that ingesting bloodroot extracts is NOT recommended, since it contains substances that are known to be toxic to animal cells. (It is, however, being studied as a potential cancer treatment.) Perhaps the best traditional use of bloodroot is as a red dye; it is so used by some American Indian basket weavers.
I checked this audiobook out of my local public library and wasn't obligated to review it in any way.
But as one might expect in an atmospheric piece of Southern gothic/borderline horror fiction, Swan River is a town with a secret. It's an open secret and a mystery among the residents, but hidden from the outside world: Swan River is the home of the Wild Girls. These paranormal creatures start out as ordinary teenager girls, generally between the ages of sixteen and eighteen. (Dangerous 16th Birthday trope, anyone?) Seemingly at random, they're transformed: glowing skin, the ability to spark fire with their bare fingertips, extraordinary strength and violence, and the propensity to fly away. Then, just as suddenly, they return to normal girls, left to deal with the consequences of their supernatural mayhem and, occasionally, murder.
Kate is terrified she'll become a Wild Girl, and at the same time, she's a little afraid that she won't.
In the book's prologue, Kate and Maggie attend the town's yearly festival with Mom and Travis. It's held on the local commune, Bloodwort Farm, home of the Deadnecks. The nickname is a portmanteau of Deadhead (used as a general term for hippie types, whether they actually listen to the Grateful Dead or not) and redneck (used as a general term for socioeconomically disadvantaged Caucasian-Americans). Although Kate and her friend Willow aren't aware of it at first, it will be the town's last summer festival because of the strange events that occur that night. A seemingly innocent(ish) prank by local bully Crystal Lemons involving Roman candles turns into something far more sinister and threatening. By the morning, Crystal is dead, the commune-dwelling Bird Man (so called for his tattoo) is grievously injured, and the commune has mostly burned down.
An equally important development that night is that Kate and Willow meet Mason Lemons, Crystal's bad-boy brother. The three of them will become something of a love triangle, but all the relationships in the triangle are doomed from the start. Dr. Bell is a student of folklore and mythology, and he knows much more than he's letting on about the Wild Girls. He theorizes a connection between them and the Maenads of ancient Greek myth. (You may remember the Maenads from such literary works as Charlaine Harris's Living Dead in Dallas.)
An important literary reference - and one which, I admit, I haven't read - is The Bacchae by the ancient Athenian playwright Euripides. The play describes an attempt by a king to outlaw the worship of the god Dionysus and the subsequent revenge enacted upon that king by Dionysus's followers, the crazed Maenads. Dr. Bell fancies himself a modern Dionysus, but it turns out he is merely the king.
One of the interesting themes throughout this novel is the relationship between male authority and female wildness. We see it in the relationship between Mama Reardon and Travis, in the relationship between banjo-playing Maggie and her bandmate/lover Kevin (a.k.a. Kayak Boy), and we see it in the relationships between Kate, Willow, Mason, and Mason's pal/organic gardening enthusiast Clancy. (Clancy may or may not become the great love of Kate's life - the novel leaves it open-ended. They do share a passion for the environment.) We even see glimpses of it in the relationship between Willow and her parents. To what extent is a woman to put aside her own wildness, her own passions and enthusiasms, in exchange for the love and/or civilizing influence of a man? The author's answer seems to be, "It is a delicate balance. Different women will land of different sides of the equation."
The writing throughout this novel is beautiful and strange, even more poetic and lovely than the Southern-style writing I admired in Beautiful Creatures. Kate is a smart, savvy heroine well able to handle the dangers that creep into her world. She thinks she's not as tough as her sister Maggie, but she's wrong. She is both physically and emotionally stronger than she ever imagined.
I would recommend this book to anyone with the caveat that it contains scenes of graphic violence and an attempted rape scene. Those who are sensitive to violence may want to sit this one out.
In the novel, Willow and the other women drink bloodwort tea. Bloodwort, also known as bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), is a real plant, and it has been used in traditional medicinal practices. However, it should be noted that ingesting bloodroot extracts is NOT recommended, since it contains substances that are known to be toxic to animal cells. (It is, however, being studied as a potential cancer treatment.) Perhaps the best traditional use of bloodroot is as a red dye; it is so used by some American Indian basket weavers.
I checked this audiobook out of my local public library and wasn't obligated to review it in any way.
January 23, 2018
How! Could I not love! A book where a character finds a field notebook full of secrets and the main one is "What is Kalmia latifolia?"
Kalmia latifolia is me! It's where I got my name, mountain laurel, the omnipresent shrub, glossy & sharp & pervasive, given to bursts of white flowers bleeding pink at the petals.
Also mini-Graceland is in this book, as is a reasonable facsimile of the private girls' college I attended in Appalachia, as are the towns I see in West Virginia laid along the river, also calling people Deadnecks.
I read this book to decompress from BeBadWeekend in Richmond. It was there I learned that someone who knows my dog but not me, named their newborn baby girl Althea, after my own lil dog. That, and that Grateful Dead song Althea.
Full Slurpee.
Kalmia latifolia is me! It's where I got my name, mountain laurel, the omnipresent shrub, glossy & sharp & pervasive, given to bursts of white flowers bleeding pink at the petals.
Also mini-Graceland is in this book, as is a reasonable facsimile of the private girls' college I attended in Appalachia, as are the towns I see in West Virginia laid along the river, also calling people Deadnecks.
I read this book to decompress from BeBadWeekend in Richmond. It was there I learned that someone who knows my dog but not me, named their newborn baby girl Althea, after my own lil dog. That, and that Grateful Dead song Althea.
Full Slurpee.
February 12, 2017
This book can be summed up in this one excerpt from page 231: "If I knew someone who was becoming a wild girl, I would tell her to add up everything that matters to her - the people she loves, her hopes for the future. Put that on one side of the scale and, on the other, put the satisfaction of destroying what you hate."
This book is about young women and what happens when their rage takes on a supernatural power - and whether or not each girl has the power to control it.
This book is about young women and what happens when their rage takes on a supernatural power - and whether or not each girl has the power to control it.
June 2, 2017
Probably more like a 3.5. I wish we could give half-stars in our reviews. The best thing about this story is the characters. They are nuanced and interesting. They could be people you know or have met. The story also manages to include some predictable YA themes without veering into cliche, so that was refreshing. Definitely worth picking up if you want something fast and fun to get lost in for a few days, but don't overwork yourself trying to take it too seriously.
May 10, 2023
2.5/5 ⭐️
I really wanted to like this book! It’s an easy read, but I feel like it fell short of its potential.
I was very intrigued by the concept of the Wild Girls and it being set in Appalachia, but it never dug in as much as I had hoped it would. It didn’t give me that “heart racing, on the edge of my seat” feeling that I expected.
Although I was able to get through the book & it was enjoyable enough, it’s left me wanting more.
I really wanted to like this book! It’s an easy read, but I feel like it fell short of its potential.
I was very intrigued by the concept of the Wild Girls and it being set in Appalachia, but it never dug in as much as I had hoped it would. It didn’t give me that “heart racing, on the edge of my seat” feeling that I expected.
Although I was able to get through the book & it was enjoyable enough, it’s left me wanting more.
March 24, 2025
Is this really not YA? I just assumed it was, but looking at the book, I can't find where it's actually marketed as such.
I admit that I skimmed the latter half of this. There were a lot of characters - too many, I thought - and I kept losing what the central conflict was, which I don't think should happen with a straightforward book like this. Anyway, all the best to the author. It just didn't grab me, I guess.
I admit that I skimmed the latter half of this. There were a lot of characters - too many, I thought - and I kept losing what the central conflict was, which I don't think should happen with a straightforward book like this. Anyway, all the best to the author. It just didn't grab me, I guess.
July 7, 2017
I woke up at midnight and couldn't go back to sleep, so I read this book. And finished at 4 hours later. WOW. Not what I expected—I'd picked it up expecting more of a Heathers kinda vibe, but this was more supernatural/mythology come to small-town life. Powerful and violent and strange all the same.
March 26, 2018
Strange but good!
July 19, 2018
It was a bit of a mash-up of other genres for my taste. And I agree that there's no way this is anything other than a YA book.
June 24, 2019
This is one of the first books I’ve read in a while that I couldn’t put down. I know it’s gonna stick with me for a while.
September 20, 2023
The best book I’ve read in a long time. I’ll be thinking about the wild girls for days…
November 26, 2012
Why I wanted to read Wild Girls (from my Waiting on Wednesday post):
a coming-of-age story
set in a small Appalachian town
a brilliant twist on the anger teenage girls can feel at their powerlessness
Wild Girls exceeded any expectations that I had (which were pretty high). It wasn't the angst-filled drama that description led me to believe it to be. It is part mystery, part coming-of-age and very intense throughout. Anticipating when the wild girls may appear and what brought them about was enough to keep my on edge for most of the time I was reading it. Up until the very end, I didn't really know what the wild girls were for sure. Were they possessed by some higher dark power? Were they witches learning their own strengths and abilities? Or were they just menacing girls acting out for attention? I was guessing, pondering, and speculating throughout and not knowing for sure was just as thrilling as realizing what they were.
Wild Girls takes place at a boarding school in the small desolate town of Swan River. It would seem to be an unusual place to send the daughters of wealthy families before sending them off to college or out into society. It's not the most prestigious school or the most sophisticated town, but it has it's own history and its own backwoods culture. The setting was crucial to the story and it began to seem as though Swan River was its own character playing an active role in what happened to these girls.
One of my favorite parts of Wild Girls was the folklore strung throughout and the use of histories and ancient myths. Even the stories of the wild girls who murdered people or set places on fire, were passed down through years and years of oral history. Tales told by someone who saw what happened or knew someone who was a wild girl, but never from the wild girls themselves. These second party accounts always kept them a mystery - never to be completely understood. And still what I didn't like was that Kate knew someone who became a wild girl, her sister - Maggie, and she couldn't ever get a complete explanation of why she turned.
As I said before Wild Girls is part mystery, part thriller, and part coming of age. But I think at the core of it, Wild Girls takes a close examination at relationships. Whether they are familial, romantic, or friendships - they are filled with expectations, disappointments, compromise, and acceptance. Kate is the focus of many of these relationships and seeing her navigate through them and find her place and find herself was worth every moment spent reading this book.
Wild Girls is more wonderful than I've put into words here. I'd recommend it to any fan of mythology, folklore, mystery, young adult, and Appalachian literature. It would be a great book club selection and I will be recommending it to mine.
Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. I was not compensated in any way other than the book provided. Thoughts and opinions are my own.
a coming-of-age story
set in a small Appalachian town
a brilliant twist on the anger teenage girls can feel at their powerlessness
Wild Girls exceeded any expectations that I had (which were pretty high). It wasn't the angst-filled drama that description led me to believe it to be. It is part mystery, part coming-of-age and very intense throughout. Anticipating when the wild girls may appear and what brought them about was enough to keep my on edge for most of the time I was reading it. Up until the very end, I didn't really know what the wild girls were for sure. Were they possessed by some higher dark power? Were they witches learning their own strengths and abilities? Or were they just menacing girls acting out for attention? I was guessing, pondering, and speculating throughout and not knowing for sure was just as thrilling as realizing what they were.
Wild Girls takes place at a boarding school in the small desolate town of Swan River. It would seem to be an unusual place to send the daughters of wealthy families before sending them off to college or out into society. It's not the most prestigious school or the most sophisticated town, but it has it's own history and its own backwoods culture. The setting was crucial to the story and it began to seem as though Swan River was its own character playing an active role in what happened to these girls.
One of my favorite parts of Wild Girls was the folklore strung throughout and the use of histories and ancient myths. Even the stories of the wild girls who murdered people or set places on fire, were passed down through years and years of oral history. Tales told by someone who saw what happened or knew someone who was a wild girl, but never from the wild girls themselves. These second party accounts always kept them a mystery - never to be completely understood. And still what I didn't like was that Kate knew someone who became a wild girl, her sister - Maggie, and she couldn't ever get a complete explanation of why she turned.
As I said before Wild Girls is part mystery, part thriller, and part coming of age. But I think at the core of it, Wild Girls takes a close examination at relationships. Whether they are familial, romantic, or friendships - they are filled with expectations, disappointments, compromise, and acceptance. Kate is the focus of many of these relationships and seeing her navigate through them and find her place and find herself was worth every moment spent reading this book.
Wild Girls is more wonderful than I've put into words here. I'd recommend it to any fan of mythology, folklore, mystery, young adult, and Appalachian literature. It would be a great book club selection and I will be recommending it to mine.
Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. I was not compensated in any way other than the book provided. Thoughts and opinions are my own.
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