What Inspired Rory Power To Write 'Wilder Girls'?

Rory Power drew inspiration from multiple sources for 'Wilder Girls,' blending horror with feminist themes. The book’s isolated setting, a quarantined girls' school, mirrors classic survival stories but flips the script by focusing on female resilience. Power has mentioned her fascination with body horror—think David Cronenberg films—and how it amplifies the girls' transformation struggles. The toxicity concept reflects real-world environmental fears, like pollution and pandemics, making the sci-fi elements feel uncomfortably plausible. The relationships between the girls were inspired by Power’s own boarding school experiences, where intense friendships blur into something more. Unlike typical dystopias, 'Wilder Girls' avoids male saviors, letting the girls’ raw, messy strength drive the narrative.

Rory Power’s 'Wilder Girls' is a cocktail of personal obsessions and cultural anxieties. The island setting echoes 'Annihilation,' but Power makes it distinctly hers by centering teenage girls as both victims and warriors. She’s talked about how Margaret Atwood’s work influenced her—especially the way Atwood uses speculative fiction to explore gender dynamics. The body mutations aren’t just for shock value; they mirror puberty’s chaos, turning physical changes into literal nightmares. Power also nods to Gothic literature, with the school’s decayed grandeur feeling like a character itself.

What’s brilliant is how she subverts horror tropes. The girls aren’t waiting for rescue; they’re adapting, even when it’s grotesque. The bond between Hetty, Byatt, and Reese was inspired by Power’s love of complex female relationships in books like 'We Have Always Lived in the Castle.' The environmental themes? That’s her climate change dread leaking in—the island’s rot feels like a warning. If you dig unsettling, lyrical horror, try 'The Luminous Dead' next—it’s another female-led survival story that’ll haunt you.

Power’s background in editing YA fiction sharpened her eye for pacing. 'Wilder Girls' doesn’t info-dump; it unravels secrets like a fever dream. The sparse, poetic prose was intentional—she wanted readers to feel as disoriented as the characters. For fans of this style, 'House of Hollow' offers similar eerie vibes with a urban fantasy twist.

The spark for 'Wilder Girls' came from Rory Power’s love of biological horror and female-driven narratives. She wanted to write about girls surviving without romantic subplots—just pure, terrifying autonomy. The Tox’s mutations were inspired by real parasitic infections, twisted into something surreal. Power’s interest in quarantine scenarios stems from her childhood fear of contagion, which she ramped up to nightmarish levels. The book’s queer themes aren’t tacked on; they’re organic, reflecting how isolation can intensify connections.

Power also credits videogames like 'The Last of Us' for shaping the book’s tense atmosphere. The school’s hierarchy—how power shifts as bodies change—mirrors high school’s brutal social dynamics, but with literal claws. If 'Wilder Girls' hooked you, check out 'The Girls Are Never Gone,' another horror novel where girls confront supernatural forces in a claustrophobic setting.