Reckless Girls

By Rachel Hawkins

Three young women in their carefree 20s, and one handsome young man on a boat headed to a deserted tropical island, what could possibly go wrong? Well, turns out a lot can go wrong. What goes around comes around as they say, which is exactly what Ms. Hawkins is setting to accomplish in this novel. Recklessness is a concept explored in all its facets in this novel, from reckless behavior, decision-making, and being reckless with our emotions, who would have known there are so many ways to be reckless? Turns out there are oh so many.

While recklessness is the book's main theme, Ms. Hawkins is also exploring the effects of grief on us and how it can be profoundly changing, causing some to feel lost in the vast world and look for love when it is not there. Lux lost her mother while she was working her way through college. She becomes lost until one fateful night she meets the suave and handsome Nico, son of wealthy parents wanting to live life as an adventure rather than working for a living. Lux falls for every word, lapping it all up to the point where she follows him from San Diego to Maui without much thought. She lives in a bubble of “we” and “their” dreams of traveling on their boat across the world to exotic places. Is it the island bringing out the worst in them, or is it a group of reckless girls scheming to get back at those they have deemed wrong?

While the story is somewhat predictable, the novel digs into just how unfair life is, and sometimes taking matters into your own hands is needed, while other times, nature finds a way to correct course again. Trust can be a hard thing to keep when you feel like life has done nothing to help you along the way, and not just with people.