Lately I've been reading a lot of books on Goodreads that have low ratings that I've been finding AMAZING, so I wasn't at all put off by the rather low 3.33 average this book has. Quite the opposite actually. And I was even more excited when my friend Heather agreed to BR this with me, since she's one of my favorite people to read books with.
THE WILD ONES is a dual timeline book that follows a pretty common recipe: girl did something bad as a youth, past comes back to bite her as an adult. That's like my favorite plotline in a nutshell and I LOVE dual timelines but it didn't work for me here, which is a shame, because I actually went to summer camp like the heroine so I was expecting this to really resonate on a deep and personal level.
I think part of the problem is the narrative. The author kind of over-explains a little and doesn't really let the reader just, you know, IMMERSE. I also really didn't like the heroine. Usually I'm down with an unlikable heroine, but she has to be unlikable and interesting. This heroine was just kind of a mean little bully who chased after more popular girls for approval. I think the author could have made that work if we had a better idea of the heroine's internal world, and what drove her, and what her passions were, but she was just boring and mean. Maybe that's a more realistic portrayal of a teen girl but I didn't like reading about it here (I'm sorry!).
2 out of 5 stars
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