Have you read Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins? Need a plot summary? Want the ending of Reckless Girls explained? Looking a place to discuss the ending? Check out my Spoiler Review and Plot Summary for Reckless Girls!
Spoiler Review and Plot Summary for Reckless Girls
Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins
To be published on January 4, 2022 by St Martin’s Press.
There was a LOT going on in Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins. A past/present narrative, some characters who weren’t who they seemed, and, to top it all off, one of those unresolved epilogue situations. Let’s talk about all of it!
First, I’ll have a plot summary for those of us who were like huh? what? After that, I’ll discuss the ending and then my questions about the book. After that I want to know what YOU think!
Plot Summary for Reckless Girls
I’m marking this plot summary past and present and keeping things in the order they were revealed in the book.
Present: Luz and her boyfriend Nico are living in Hawaii, trying to save enough money to repair his boat. One day she gets fired and he tells her he’s just been hired by two American girls, Brittany and Amma, to sail them to Meroe Island, an atoll in the South Pacific. He convinces Lux to come.
Past: Brittany and Amma are traveling in Europe. They were brought together by a shared tragedy but agree to tell people they met in college.
Reckless Girls: The Group Reaches Meroe Island
Present: After sailing through a storm, the group on the boat finally reaches Meroe Island. There is a larger boat, Azure Sky, anchored there already. They meet Jake and Eliza, the couple from the Azure Sky. Amma seems upset when she meets them.
Past: In Italy, Brittany and Amma meet a British girl named Chloe.
Present: Amma still seems a little nervous around Jake and Eliza. She tells Lux about her boyfriend. The group explores the island and finds a deserted airstrip and a skull.
Past: Amma is guilty that she’s never told Brittany that Amma went to a grief support group seeking to meet Brittany. Brittany’s family was killed in a car accident by a guy named Sterling Northcutt. The two of them also realize that Chloe steals money from unsuspecting tourists.
Present: Eliza tells Luz that she and Jake have known each other for years but have only been a couple for a month.
Past: Eliza’s mom is Jake’s dad’s cleaning lady and Eliza and Jake realize their parents are sleeping together. Eliza’s mom ends up in jail after getting caught with Jake’s dad’s drugs.
New Boat Arrives on Meroe Island
Present: A new boat arrives at Meroe Island, sailed by Robbie. Lux has a bad feeling about him. Jake and Lux walk in the jungle and Jake teaches Lux to shoot with his gun. Robbie menaces Lux and Jake offers to talk to him.
The two argue and Jake shoots at Robbie, who disappears into the jungle.
Amma tells Lux the truth about how she and Brittany met.
The group discovers that both boats’ radios have been destroyed.
Lux catches Nico and Amma having sex. Distraught, she flees to Jake and Eliza’s boat, where she finds a bag of money and drugs.
Brittany tells Lux that she’s done with Amma as a friend. Jake announces that they can get new radios delivered in ten days.
Past: Eliza runs into Jake and he invites her onto his boat. She finds a bag of drugs. She’s furious as he has no remorse about what happened to her mother.
Present: Brittany, Jake and Lux are living on the Azure Sky and Amma and Nico on the Savannah.
Jake invites Lux for a walk and they have sex on the beach.
Afterwards they stumble on Robbie’s body. Jake finds Lux’s passport in his pocket. They decide he died from eating poisoned fish.
Amma apologizes to Lux and says that Nico reminds her of her ex-boyfriend Sterling.
Past: Amma feels guilty as she’s the one who convinced her drunk boyfriend to go out for more beer, which was when he hit Brittany’s family’s car. She suspects Chloe of murdering a guy they stole from.
Reckless Girls: Things on the Island Take a Turn!
Present: Lux wakes up to find Nico and Savannah missing. Lux is shocked when Eliza suggest that maybe Nico left because he found out about Jake and Lux.
Amma confronts Eliza and then Brittany starts yelling at Amma.
Brittany tells the group that Amma’s boyfriend isn’t dead, but in prison. There’s a big struggle on the deck and Lux wakes up to find herself in the water with Amma who is dead.
Past: Chloe tells Brittany that Amma is the girlfriend of the boy who killed her family. Chloe then disappears.
Brittany tells Amma she’s ready to go home, but then she gets a text from Chloe, asking them to meet her in the Pacific.
What Was the Ending of Reckless Girls?
Present: Lux stumbles around the island looking for Nico and finds his body, with Jake’s machete nearby. Luz takes the machete. She also finds Nico’s boat.
Eliza and Brittany show up and want to explain. Eliza is really Chloe.
Both Eliza/Chloe and Brittany wanted revenge on the men who ruined their lives. They planned to kill Jake and Amma and steal Jake’s money and drugs.
Brittany confesses to killing Nico, explaining that Lux would never be “free” until Nico was gone. Just then Jake emerges from the jungle. Startled, Eliza accidentally shoots Brittany. Then Eliza shoots Jake in the leg.
Eliza gives Lux the gun and tells her to shoot Jake. Then they’ll sink the Azure Sky with the drugs in it and escape in the Savannah with the money.
Instead, Lux shoots Eliza and then Jake.
Another boat finds the bodies of Robbie, Jake, Amma, Brittany, Eliza and Nico. Lux is considered missing.
What Happens in the Epilogue of Reckless Girls?
Lux meets a sad American tourist in Thailand and convinces her to rob her cheating boyfriend and come off with Lux.
Spoiler Discussion for Reckless Girls
My #1 theory was that Nico was actually Sterling, Adam’s boyfriend. But I was wrong.
I am not really sure why Brittany and Eliza thought they should kill Nico. Because he cheated on Lux?
Were you surprised that Lux quickly joined the ranks of the “Reckless Girls” and went on to recruit other wronged women? I don’t know if that was 100% believable to me.
If you’ve read The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins and want to discuss that, you can come on over to my Spoiler Post for The Wife Upstairs!
Did you enjoy Reckless Girls? Here’s more books with a similar vibe (murder-y girls on vacation!)
Have you read The Weekend Away (or watched the Netflix movie) and want to discuss? Come over to my Spoiler Discussion Post for The Weekend Away.
And yes, if you’ve read this, please come join my Spoiler Discussion for We Were Never Here.
Love the review. I loved the book so much I couldn’t put it down. One thing kept bothering me; how come Amma didn’t recognize Eliza / Chloe that entire time?
That’s a good point. Maybe she changed her appearance or just changed over the years as she grew up? There’s that scene in the past where Chloe runs into Jake in a bar and he doesn’t recognize her either at first.
That was my question too!!
That’s my only issue with the book too. Why wouldn’t Amma recognize Chloe??
Exactly!
i Believe Amma was upset due to Chloe/Eliza being in the island that’s why she went straight at her to find out what she do to Nico. As she was suspicious of her for what happened to the guy at the bar overdosing after her encounter with him. She was keeping up the presence just like Britney did when she asks Jake if that’s his wife when she aleatory knew it was Cloe.
Thanks – that makes a lot of sense!
I just finished. Great review. How did Lux escape?