Four friends, a safari, and long-held secrets – the premise of The Wild Girls hooked me immediately and after some time on my TBR list, I finally read it.

The Wild Girls has estranged friends Grace (isolated from unmentioned past events), Alice (financial issues + abusive boyfriends), and Hannah (mother who has complicated feelings towards motherhood) reunite for an all-expenses paid trip to celebrate their friend Felicity’s birthday in Botswana. The quartet were formerly very close, until one night several years back, and for one reason or another, they are all eager to see their old friends again. That is, until they realise that they might not have been called to a party.

Honestly, the premise of The Wild Girls was what made me want to read the book. But while the plot was fast-paced and the writing generally engaging, I think the book never really lived up to its potential for two reasons:

First, the plot felt too-fast paced. In fact, it felt rushed. Once the women get to Botswana, it all goes wrong and there’s barely any time for the suspense to be built up. I was looking forward to seeing the four of them reunite and I never got to see that. In fact, I felt like I barely got to see the murders! Likewise, the backstory felt too rushed and I never understodo why these women considered each other their closest friends – I just never saw the friendship properly!

Secondly, the book missed a lot of opportunities to showcase its setting. It takes place in a safari lodge, but honestly it might as well have taken place in the British countryside. As long as the place is inaccessible and all staff have mysteriously disappeared, then there’s no reason to have the book take place in Botswana. Like with the past, the setting needed to be filled in a lot more for this book to really shine.

The characters themselves were fine. I don’t have any big issues with them, but I felt they were let down by the rushed nature of the plot; I suspect I would have sympathised with them a lot more (especially Felicity) if we spent more time with them when things were good with all four and really got to know them as they were then, not just as they are now. Some of the twists felt rather unbelievable because I never properly got to know

All in all, I have to say that The Wild Girls wasn’t as wild as I had hoped. Although it was a fast read, I wish the book took the time to pace the plot and expand on the setting (and doing the same for character development wouldn’t have hurt). If you’d like to read another opinion, check out Karen’s review over at Twisted in Pages – that’s how I originally found the book!