Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins

Hello everyone.  I hope you are having a great day.

When you're in school, you learn about brave people that did unique things.  Sometimes when you become an adult you learn bad things about those same people.  Poor Amelia Earhart, experts think she may have landed on a deserted island, one that has crabs that eat you...literally.  How terrifying is that? That feeling of being on an island bothers me.  Now I don't mean areas like parts of the Outer Banks of NC.  Some parts of OBX are actual islands, but they are connected by bridges.  What about when the bridges wash out in a hurricane or worse yet, an island out in the middle of the ocean where a bridge to mainland is a faraway dream.  Now that is the stuff of nightmares.   Who knows what could happen there.

I recently read Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins.  Rachel also wrote The Wife Upstairs, which I enjoyed, and The Ex Hex under that name Erin Sterling, also fun.  Reckless Girls is about six people than end up on an adventure on a deserted island.  Meroe Island with its legends of murder, mystery, shipwrecks and cannibalism, sits out in the Pacific...all alone...surrounded by nothing but water.  When things start to go awry with the six new friends there is no one to call for help, no authorities to turn to.  When secrets are discovered and mistakes made, they can't be buried by the busyness of life.  It's an island, there is no "busy".  And when you discover people are truly evil...there is no escape. 

This book was an interesting read.  It's like when you are reading about someone underwater, and you find yourself holding your breath.  In this case, reading about people on an island makes me want to stay away from the water forever. While I found some of the characters a bit gullible initially, I found them surprising when the mayhem began. Some of their actions were predictable and others a great twist. Totally fun yet creepy, this story will leave you unwilling to get closer to the water than the freezer section at the grocery store to buy your kids fish sticks.  

If you have a devilish sense of humor, this would make a great gift for your friend to take on their cruise.