The Wild Girls
Grace, Felicity, Alice, and Hannah used to be known as the "Wild Girls," but time and trauma have tempered their spirits. With Alice in the classroom, Hannah caring for a newborn, and Grace living a quiet life, only Felicity remains untamed.
Hoping to revive their fractured bond and leave a haunting, decades-old secret behind them, Felicity organizes a spectacular birthday retreat in the heart of Botswana. However, the luxury lodge quickly reveals itself to be a gilded cage. With no party in sight, no connection to the outside world, and an escalating sense of paranoia, the women realize they are utterly isolated—and their fight for survival is just beginning.
- Felicity - Leader of the friend group
- Grace - Felicity’s friend
- Alice - Felicity’s friend
- Tom - Alice’s boyfriend
- Hannah - Felicity’s friend
- Chris - Hannah’s husband
- Michael - Felicity’s father
- Diane - Felicity’s mother
- Nathaniel (Nate) - Felicity’s boyfriend, doctor
- Part One
- Felicity invites Grace, Alice and Hannah to Botswana to celebrate her 30th birthday, all expenses paid.
- Hannah, Grace and Alice arrive at the lodge and cannot find anyone else there, including Felicity.
- Felicity texts them to say she’s ill and will see them in the morning.
- Felicity leaves a note on Alice’s bed saying she put Alice in Cheetah Lodge because ‘it’s a good namesake for her.’
- Hannah’s note says she was put in Gazelle Lodge because she is good at running away.
- Grace’s note says she is in Lion Lodge because she is the bravest one, but Grace doesn’t think it was meant as a compliment.
- Grace finds a note in the library that says ‘the birthday party isn’t the only reason you’re here.’
- The next morning, the women go to Zebra Lodge to find Felicity, but she’s not there and it doesn’t look like anyone has been staying there.
- They find a note that says, ‘One of you will pay.’
- Alice goes missing and Grace finds her body in the pool at Lion Lodge.
- The next morning Grace finds Hannah’s body in the dining room of the main lodge.
- Part Two: Two years before Botswana - the night their friendship ended.
- Felicity introduces Nate to Hannah, Grace and Alice.
- Tom has been abusing Alice.
- Hannah is struggling with a recent miscarriage.
- After Felicity’s mother died of ovarian cancer, Felicity’s father forced her to undergo surgery at age fifteen to prevent the same thing from happening to her.
- Hannah ends up telling Nate that Felicity cannot have children.
- Grace tells Felicity that Nate raped her.
- Nate kisses Alice.
- Part Three: Botswana
- Grace runs away from the lodge to look for help.
- Eventually she sees a car - inside the car is Nate.
- He tells Grace how much he has missed her and that he has wanted to see her again ever since ‘the afternoon they spent together.’
- Nate tries to rape Grace, and she stabs him in the neck with a piece of glass, killing him.
- Grace finds Felicity in the trunk of Nate’s car.
- Two days later: Felicity tells the police that she and Nate broke up after he became abusive.
- She says that Nate followed her to the resort, held her captive, and that the next thing she knew, she woke up in the trunk of his car.
- What really happened is that Nate wanted to break up with Felicity, so she planned the trip to Botswana knowing he would want to come along to see Grace.
- Felicity knew about Nate’s obsession with Grace, so her plan was to sacrifice Hannah and Alice to conceal the fact that Grace was her real target, believing Nate would finally be hers if Grace was dead.
- Her plan was to frame Nate for the murders so he would go to prison and she would be the only woman in his life.
- Felicity drugged Nate while she killed Alice and Hannah.
- Nate woke up before Felicity expected him to and put her in the trunk of his car.
- Hannah and Alice are laid to rest.
- Grace is not charged in Nate’s death, and the police believe Nate murdered Hannah and Alice.
The Wild Girls by Phoebe Morgan is a deeply psychological dive into the messy, toxic dynamics of long-term friendships. Told through the alternating perspectives of Alice, Grace, Felicity, and Hannah, the narrative dedicates a significant amount of time to unpacking the complex bonds and buried secrets shared among these women. I usually gravitate toward fast-paced thrillers with short chapters, so the deliberate pacing and long chapters here were a distinct shift for me. Instead of rapid-fire action or sharp dialogue, the story relies heavily on the internal thoughts and quiet actions of the characters as their history slowly unravels.
While the deep character development works well to set the stage, the setting itself falls flat. The book takes place in Botswana, but I never got a distinct sense of the place. For all the difference the location made to the atmosphere, the events could have unfolded almost anywhere without changing the story. Morgan captures the toxic dynamics perfectly, but the suspense leading up to their initial falling out is far more compelling than the actual reveal. To make matters worse, the final twist fails to deliver a satisfying payoff - relying heavily on a massive information dump before abruptly ending without any real sense of closure.
- Alice - Dead - Drowned by Felicity
- Hannah - Dead - Stabbed by Felicity
- Nathaniel - Dead - Stabbed by Grace
- Felicity - Alive - Succeeds in framing Nate for Hannah and Alice’s murders
- Grace - Alive - Survives the ordeal and is unaware Felicity was the real murderer
- Michael - Dead - Not specified
- Diane - Dead - Ovarian cancer
- Murder
- Domestic abuse
- Miscarriage
- Infertility
- Rape
- Incest
- Child sexual abuse
- Cancer
ISBN: 9780063144835
Publication Date: April 26, 2022
Note: Details are for the original edition. Other formats, editions, and audiobook versions may be available.
