#wilder girls
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Book recs: the evil fungi did it
We all know of The Last of Us, but that franchise isn't the only example of fungal invasions. We've got zombies and apocalypses, we've got gothic horror, we've got fantasy, we've got romance, we've got space - no genre is safe from having their characters become the home of fungal organisms.
For more details on the books, continue under the readmore. Titles marked with * are my personal favorites. And as always, feel free to share your own recs in the notes!
If you want more book recs, check out my masterpost of rec lists!
The Girl with all the Gifts (The Girl with All the Gifts series) by M.R. Carey
Want another fungal zombie apocalypse? Then I come bearing great news! The Girl with All the Gifts is a post apocalyptic novel following a group of characters fleeing across an infested wasteland, trying to stay alive and hoping to find a cure. One of the characters is Melanie, a young girl who carries the contagion inside of her and hungers for flesh, but like many children of the apocalypse has kept her humanity. Is she and children like her the answer to the cure we are looking for? Or are they the start of something entirely new? This book has also been adapted as a movie!
Cold Storage by David Koepp*
Years ago, a quickly growing fungal organism capable of wiping out humanity came dangerously close to spreading. It was contained and kept in cold storage underneath a military repository. Since then, a larger storage facility has been built on top, the dangers on the lower floor being largely forgotten. That is, until it makes a new attempt at escape. Now, two unsuspecting security guards might be all that stands in the way of complete extermination. This book is both funny and genuine in its characters, and genuinely creepy in its portrayal of body horror.
Salvaged by Madeline Roux
Rosalyn Devar is on the run from her famous family, and has run so far she ended up in space. Now she works as a "space janitor", being sent off to clean up the remains of failed research expeditions. But in trying to cope with her problems, she has fucked up on her job multiple times, and is now close to losing her position. Her last chance is the Brigantine: a research vessel gone silent, all crew presumed dead. But when she arrives to salvage it, Rosalyn discovers the crew isn't as dead as presumed. But are they still human - and will Rosalyn be able to keep her own humanity?
The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed
Novella. Reid is a young woman living in a small community after a climate collapse. Resources are scarce, but Reid's biggest problem is Cad, a mind-altering fungal parasite that lives inside her body. When she is offered a rare chance at attending a far-away university in a secluded dome community, Reid must decide whether to leave or stay to help support her community.
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia*
Noemí Taboada is a glamorous and well-off young woman, but when she receives a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin, Noemí must leave her glamorous life and travel to find out what is wrong. As she arrives at High Place, a mansion on the Mexican countryside, Noemí is met with mysteries and her cousin's new English family. As she tries to find out the truth behind High Place and its inhabitants, Noemí's only ally is the youngest son of the family. But will she be able to find out what so scared her cousin before it's too late for all of them?
Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon
A young pregnant woman flees a cult that left her body strange and changing in terrifying ways. Hiding from both a world wanting to oppress her and the cult seeking to force her back, she does her best to raise her children while trying to find out the truth of the cult and being pursued by a hunter in a dangerous game of cat and mouse. Bleak and scary, Sorrowland is a book that will creep under your skin with horrors both fantastical and very, very real.
What Moves the Dead (Sworn Soldier duology) by T. Kingfisher
Novella. Alex Easton, retired soldier, travels to visit their childhood friends, siblings Madeline and Roderick Usher, after finding out that Madeline is dying. In the siblings' rural, ancestral home, Madeline walks in her sleep and looks to be fading away, while around it wildlife seems to be possessed by a strange force. With the help of a mycologist and an American doctor, Alex attempts to save Madeline and reveal the truth of her illness.
Wanderers (Wanderers duology) by Chuck Wendig
A strange illness has struck the United States: with no warning, random people with seemingly no connection simply get up and start walking. They do not eat, do not sleep, do not communicate, and they do not stop - and if you try to force them, they literally explode from the inside. Teenaged Shana isn't one of these sleepwalkers, but her little sister is. Unwilling to leave her sister on her own, Shana accompanies the growing flock of walkers, protecting them as one of many "shepherds". And this protection proves necessary, as the sleepwalkers is only the first step toward what might very well be the extinction of the human race. An 800 page epic, Wanderers is a slowburn apocalypse story with a multitude pov characters and plot threads, from fungal pandemics and all-knowing AI to the all too real portrayal of radicalization and bigotry.
The Dawnhounds (The Endsong series) by Sascha Stronach
The Dawnhounds is a book where you just kind of have to let the story and the world wash over you. It skirts the line of scifi and fantasy, with a futuristic world of environmentally friendly mushroom houses and deadly fungi bio weapons next to literally god-given superpowers and near-immortality. It’s really cool and unlike anything else I’ve ever read, but also a bit confusing. Bonus: it’s also sapphic!
Agents of Dreamland (Tinfoil Dossier trilogy) by Caitlín R. Kiernan
Novella. A government agent known only as the Signalman; a cult preying on the young and vulnerable, promising to usher in a new age; a woman who exists outside of time, searching for a way to save humanity. Agents of Dreamland is short, but includes many spooky elements, among them an alien and possibly world-ending fungi. The narrative is non-linear and a bit strange, but also fascinating.
The Genius Plague by David Walton
Soon after landing his dream job at the NSA, things get weird for Neil Johns. His brother Paul, a mycologist, returns from a trip to the Amazon, carrying a nearly lethal fungal infection and a strangely sharpened mind. At work, Neil starts picking up mysterious messages originating out of South America, where cases similar to that of Paul starts occurring. And strangest of all: all the infected seem to be working towards the same goal. Recommended with the caveat that, while the fungal stuff is really cool, The Genius Plague is also happy to idolize American intelligent agencies and demonize environmentalism and anti-imperialism.
Little Mushroom: Judgement Day (Little Mushroom duology) by Shisi
An Zhe isn’t human. He’s a mushroom who absorbed the DNA of a dying man, allowing him to take on human guise and leave the wilderness. Entering one of the last human bases, a place struggling to keep out the mutated and dangerous creatures of the wilds, An Zhe must keep his identity secret as he searches for something which was taken from him. While not my cup of tea (frankly, I need more female characters), Little Mushroom is an undeniably unique m/m romance novel.
Bonus AKA these don't technically involve any fungi but have similar vibes of parasites and nature corrupting the human
Parasite (Parasitology trilogy) by Mira Grant*
In the near future, a great leap in medical science has improved human health by leaps and bounds: a genetically engineered tape worm. Within a few years, almost every human has their own personal parasite implanted. But now, something is happening to the parasites - they want more, whether their hosts want to share or not.
Annihilation (Southern Reach trilogy) by Jeff Vandermeer
For decades, Area X has been completely cut off from humanity. The only ones to enter are small organized expeditions, many of which never return, or return... wrong. We follow the latest expedition, its participants known only as the anthropologist, the psychologist, the surveyor, and our narrator, the biologist. As they enter into Area X to try to find out its secrets, only one thing is for sure: they will never be the same again.
Wilder Girls by Rory Power
Young adult. Over a year ago, the Raxter School for Girls was hit by the Tox, a strange disease that killed off many and left the survivors' bodies slowly changing in terrifying ways. The island the school is on has been in quarantine since then, and the girls dare not leave the school grounds lest they become victims of wild animals changed by the Tox. But as they wait for the promised cure, one of the girls goes missing, and her friends are willing to do anything to find her. Unsettling, spooky, and sapphic, this is a unique read featuring body horror and messy, dangerous girls.
(Second) Bonus AKA I haven't read these yet but they seem really cool
City of Saints and Madmen (Ambergris trilogy) by Jeff Vandermeer
Ambergris, a city created by a mushroom-like people, is now the home of humans, but the original inhabitants are still there, residing beneath the city.
Creatures of Want and Ruin (Diabolist's Library series) by Molly Tanzer
It’s the prohibition era, and while Ellie does fishing during the day, at night she bootlegs moonshine in Long Island. But unbeknownst to Ellie, some of the booze she smuggles has a strange source: distilled from mushrooms by a cult, it causes those who drink it to see terrible things, such as the the destruction of Long Island.
Bloom by Wil McCarthy
The inner solar system has been overtaken by fast-reproducing, fast-mutating technogenic life. Humanity has fled to the outer solar system, hiding beneath the ice of Jupiter's moon, but even here they aren't safe from possible incursion of mycospores, which lead to deadly blooms. Now a group of astronauts venture back to an infected Earth.
#the girl with all the gifts#cold storage#salvaged#the annual migration of clouds#mexican gothic#sorrowland#what moves the dead#wanderers#the dawnhounds#agents of dreamland#the genius plague#little mushroom#parasitology#annihilation#wilder girls#nella talks books
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mitski / tamsyn muir / phoebe bridgers / rory power / clairo
#mar#mitski#the locked tomb#tlt#griddlehark#gtn#gideon the ninth#phoebe bridgers#graceland too#wilder girls#rory power#clairo#web weaving#parallels
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wilder girls 🤝 hell followed with us
extremely angry extremely gorey post-apocalyptic books about fucked-up queer teens trying to survive as they slowly turn into monsters against their will while still being so painfully human
#i could write an essay about the similarities between these books#wilder girls#hell followed with us#hfwu#I LOVE THESE BOOKS#they both permanently altered my brain#if you read and liked one of them you will definitely like the other#will probably rb this immediately to go into more detail#sorry everyone i’m hfwu posting again
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every sapphic book i love → wilder girls by rory power
how will we ever survive this if we don't survive each other?
#mimimakes#meme: fsb#litedit#yalitedit#books#bookedit#dailylit#booksociety#storyseekers#chaptersnet#wlwedit#wlw#lesbian#wilder girls#rory power#hetty chapin#reese harker#byatt winsor#bisexual#usernickie#usersaima#usermansi#usercossette#useraish#body horror //#horror#byatt haters dni
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Reese gave her the blankest look I've ever seen and said "Plenty of girls, though."
#wilder girls fanart#wilder girls#rory power#reese x hetty#hetty chapin#reese harker#byatt winsor#hetty x byatt#ot3#my art#personal#oh my gooood#this book was so good!!!#body horro tw
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for the record: feel free to vote even if you are not a lesbian
obligatory I know it's 'wlw' or whatever but I'm calling it lesbian. shut up
if you haven't read any of these I strongly encourage you to do so!!!
rb and share for a larger sample size pls :)
#gideon the ninth#the locked tomb#the 7 husbands of evelyn hugo#criers war#wilder girls#honey girl#one last stop#cinderella is dead#the henna wars#the lumberjanes#last night at the telegraph club#lesbians#sapphic#wlw#gay women#radblr#radical feminists do interact#radical feminist safe#lesbian radfem
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Contemporary Dark Academia books:
Extremely close tight knit group of friends that seem separate from the outside world
University setting
Murder
Me already crying and opening my practically empty wallet: 3 meals a day is a recommendation, not a need
#Dark academia#dark academia books#books#the secret history#kill your darlings#if we were villains#the likeness#bunny#truly devious#black chalk#donna tartt#the atlas six#ninth house#wilder girls#vicious
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reading wilder girls is so funny because right after some cute fluff with hetty and reese, you get to byatt's chapters and she's like "yeah okay this one time i lied to a kid about how i made a friend and i wrote letters and even got a picture of me and my cousin to make her believe me and then one day i went to school and told that kid that my friend died and she cried lol" and "i just attacked my therapist"
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i think the locked tomb fans would all benefit from reading wilder girls. especially if you’re in it for the horror aspect
#it has sapphics!!#undying devotion!!!!#hopelessness!!!!#the locked tomb#tlt#harrow the ninth#gideon the ninth#wilder girls#rory power
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Tumblr inbox and Wilder Girls parallels.
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Night vision (1)
After lots of stress I'm finally trying to get back into the drawing game and I'm trying out some new brushes and techniques. I've grown really fond of drawing girls lurking in the dark.
#digital drawing#drawing#sketch#wild girl#lurking in the dark#like they're supposed to#wilder girls#night vibes#night vision
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I started reading Wilder Girls tonight in bed and now I'm 200 pages in and don't know how I'm supposed to go to sleep actually
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Wilder Girls Ch. 5
Today, I got through Ch. 5 of Wilder Girls. Below is my summarization and thoughts so far.
📖📚
Hetty is finding it hard to forget about all the food they threw out. She feels guilty.
Welch confronts Hetty. Telling her she needs to snap out of her funk pretty much. Get her friendship with Resse back and go back to normal, p3ople are watching. Welch doesn't wanna hear that it was Reese who started it, and why should she be th3 one to fix things. Still, Welch pretty much tells her to do it or else. Why does Welch care so much? Does she think Hetty will slip and say something? does she think people will wonder? If so, who cares.
As Welch is walking away, Hetty says, "Doesn't it bother you? Lying to everyone? Hetty says it looks like Welch wants to say "yeah it does," but all she does is shrugg and say, "So?" Is Welch really so cold? Is she hiding her emotions trying to stay tough?
When the Tox first started, they didn't really have a name for it. Hetty remembers watching Mr. Harker; Reese's dad, get sick th3n one day he's throwing up black sludge, grainy like dirty. The next day, he runs past the fence. Never to be seen again.
Hetty goes to make up with Reese. Reese asks her what's wrong. Hetty must not hide emotions well. Saying she's okay, they start talking. Reese asks if Hetty saw him, any trace of him, or their old house. Hetty tells her no. What did Reese expect? Hetty to go out there, and oh shit there's Reese's dad?
Hetty says she's going to find Byatt that she was supposed to come out and talk with them. On her way in to find Byatt, a girl comes running out to tell her that Byatt is having a flair up. Hetty is so confused she was just with her, not even 10 minutes ago, she says.
Hetty runs through the school looking for Byatt. Finally, in the kitchen, she finds Byatt on the ground almost seezing with pain, but she can't tell what's wrong, and Byatt can't speak. Someone goes to find Welch to come help. Hetty goes to tell Byatt that Welch is coming, that she'll take care of her. Byatt goes to say something, but Reese puts her hand over her mouth. Telling her to save her voice and strength. Why would Reese do that? Are her and Byatt suspicious of Welch?
Welch has the Boat Shift girls, minus Hetty, take Byatt up to the infirmary. Apparently, the Boat Shift girls are in charge of helping with stuff like that. As they are taking Byatt up, she smashes something into Hettys' hand. Hetty sees its the crackers Byatt had when she found her. Welch sees these and tells her to put them back in rations. Food is food. Hetty can't believ3 what she just heard. Reese tells Welch nah we'll keep it. Welch doesn't argue. Is there a message in the crackers? Why the hell does Welch care so much about these, yet just tossed a shit ton of food into the ocean.
Reese and Hetty are worried about Byatt so much so that there beef they had is squashed. Using all their focus on worrying about Byatt. They end up not being able to sleep. Hettys worried Byatt won't come back down from the infirmary. Seeing as most girls don't. Resse says she will, hetty says don't promise something you can't keep. Reese then says I didn't promise.
**not my art. Art by Dri Gomez**
#books#book recommendations#book review#currently reading#fiction#my thoughts#read with me#reading#writing#love#wilder girls#rory power
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i don't write book reviews, but listen here you guys. i've just binged "wilder girls" by rory power (started it as a distraction from other books i'm reading, but couldn't tear my eyes away), and it was so fun! well, nerve-racking kind of fun. makes your skin crawl kind of fun. it's basically annihilation set in a girls' boarding school. it has female friendship that is both lovely and terrifying (there is also lesbian romance, but it's more of as a secondary storyline). it has so much body horror, with eco-horror elements. it makes you feel vaguely claustrophobic. highly recommend.
#i have qualms with certain decisions (i mean are you seriously telling me that the doctors and scientists didn't get it)#but it didn't really hinder my enjoyment so idc#jay talks#wilder girls#rory power
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Review and Spoiler - #3
Wilder Girls by Rory Power
An undescribable toxin in the air, earth, and water has mutated and morphed all the creatures surrounding the island and held within it, including the residents of the Raxter girl's boarding school. Three teen girls, Hetty, Byatt, and Reese, struggle to fight the island, the other girls, and their own bodies to survive.
A luring, spine-tingling, and horrific story. Rory Power's novel never ceases to draw you in and keep you on the edge of your seat. Her grotesque and immaculately written imagery gives the reader a vivid image of the metamorphosis the characters undergo.
(LGBTQIA+ 🏳🌈)
Spoiler: No one is coming for them.
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it's so funny to me that so many people who read Wilder Girls were SHOCKED that Hetty and Reese just left the island instead of going back to save the other girls, as if it hadn't been stablished from the beginning that all the girls at Raxter pretty much take care of their own friends and say fuck it to everybody else
like what do you mean this girl who repeatedly said she cared more about finding Byatt and protecting Reese than anything else chose finding Byatt and protecting Reese over everything else in the end???? atrocious, who could have ever seen that coming lmao
#also like.........what should they have done instead lmao fought off the bear and the planes with their own hands?#people comparing what the Headmistress did to what Hetty did as if it was the exact same thing#forgetting that the Headmistress was a whole ass adult who had a responsibility to watch over the girls and protect them#and Hetty was a 16 year-old girl whose best friend had gotten kidnapped by the authorities in power as far as she was concerned#'Hetty was such a hypocrite' she's a teenager in the apocalypse stfu#you don't have to like the ending#but you can't say it didnt make SENSE#wilder girls#wilder girls by rory powers
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