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.
My Review:
Rating: 4/5 stars
I was glad to finally get to this book after it being on my TBR for a few years after it was recommended by someone for my 12 in 12 by 12. This isn't a genre I'd usually read: YA horror, but I was hooked pretty quickly. A pandemic takes over an island that houses an all girls boarding school who have been told to stay in quarantine and wait for a cure. This is a story of survival and friendship. We have Hetty, Byatt and Reese who have been friends since they joined the school. They will do anything for each other and when death is only inches away anything can literally mean anything. I liked the characters enough that I wanted them to survive but I can't say that I loved them. They each had grit that came with surviving through such horrors but they are still teenagers with teenage problems and perspectives.
The concept of the Tox (the disease) was really interesting and I enjoyed learning about it and how it affected the girls, the wilderness, the adults and men differently. I liked the dual POV from Hetty and Byatt especially when Byatt goes missing and we see what is happening to her while Hetty tries to find her. I liked the reveal of the secrets and lies that dotted throughout the book and how each added to the story. I love that this is an almost coming of age story, almost because they could die any day - and we have beautiful queer characters that made my heart sing. This is the type of book I needed to read in my teens. The romance wasn't a sole focus at all but just a small part of the story that gave the reader a little hope in what is a bleak world these characters are living in. It was a joy to read a story where being gay was so normal - completely accepted.
I couldn't rate this book more that 4 stars just because I wanted more. I wanted more of everything. I wanted more background and I wanted more information about the Tox. I wanted more details essentially. Then the ending was just a little disappointing. It was like a fade to black, make up your own mind about what happens next which doesn't do it for me. With such a strong storyline as this one I wanted more.