Reckless Girls: A Novel

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness, death, and cursing.

“‘No worries, babe,’ He says, a phrase I hear so often I nearly mouth it along with him.”

Nico’s easygoing nature is a key facet of his characterization, but it is also part of what initially drew Lux to him. Nico represents stability and happiness to Lux. He is calm in the face of everything that comes his way, and Lux feels more grounded when she is around him. Over the course of her arc, she moves from seeking stability in Nico to trusting her own instincts and abilities.

“I hitched onto Nico’s dream because coming up with my own felt impossible.”

Lux begins the novel without goals and desires of her own. She’s drawn to Nico because he has a sense of direction, which makes Lux feel like she has more purpose. Hawkins moves Lux from being content to share his dreams with him to charting her own path with intention and purpose, highlighting the novel’s thematic engagement with Female Agency and the Reclamation of Power.

“The photo is one of the few keepsakes I’d brought with me from San Diego, and it’s been sitting in my suitcase the entire time we’ve been crashing on the living room floor. I was excited to finally have a place to put it on the boat.”

Lux’s photograph of her mother symbolizes the grief of losing her mother to cancer and the pain that she feels as a result of this loss—a key aspect of her characterization. Nico’s dismissal of the photograph indicates his disregard for Lux’s feelings— one of the first few cracks in the veneer of Nico’s affable, supportive personality that hints at the novel’s thematic exploration of