The Reckless Kind
The Reckless Kind Book Review by Carly Heath
Hello everyone! First, I wanted to apologize for the long gap between this book review and my last one. I actually finished writing my novel! A lot of my time has been spent editing and reviewing it along with other people’s manuscripts. So I’ve been reading more than ever, but just not published novels.
Hopefully one day I’ll be able to share my novel with all of you.
I also might have re-read the Foxhole Court trilogy for the fourth time but no one needs to know that…
That being said, the book I finished reading is called The Reckless Kind by Carly Heath.
This novel suffers from having wonderful ideas, but less than excellent execution.
The whole story revolves around three main characters—Fournier, Gunnar, and Asta. Asta is a young woman who suffers from being “odd” looking in a very small, traditionalist town as well as deaf in one ear. Her whole life she’s been told to obey men and that her dream is to get married and have children.
Except Asta doesn’t want that. Asta wants to act in the local theater with her best friend Gunnar and their friend Fournier, she never wants to get married, and she has no interest in anyone romantically.
Fournier is a wealthy, beloved son of French parents who moved to the town. However, he gives up everything, his inheritance, his family’s love, his future, and throws it all away to be with the man he loves—Gunnar. He uses his betrothal money to buy a small house up the road and away from the city.
Gunnar is the last of our trio. Oddly enough, even though a large chunk of the novel revolves around him, he’s the only character out of the main three that we don't get POV chapters from. The inciting incident is when Gunnar gets injured on his family’s farm, leaving him with a missing arm, a dead mother, and a concussed younger brother.
Gunnar’s life spirals into one of self-loathing, depression, and guilt over what a burden he’s become on the people that love him. Another accident involving protecting Asta leaves his legs paralyzed as well.
The three main characters deal with their own vices and woes, as well as try to navigate love and life as being cast from the town because of their “wicked” ways.
When Gunnar’s family farm is threatened, the three of them team up with other local villagers who don’t despise them in order to win the Christmas horse race, win the prize money, and save the farm.
There’s lots of ups and downs, character moments, and despair and hope throughout the novel.
That being said, what I said at the very beginning of this novel still rings true: it’s got a lot of good ideas that were presented in less than ideal ways.
The three main characters are fine. I like the representation and the understanding that no one is perfect. Everyone is fighting their own battle and that’s a powerful message, especially when you pair it up with the idea that letting the people who love you help you is not weakness. It’s strength.
All of the good things aside, the book was rather predictable and fell a little flat for me.
The time period (1900’s) made the book feel old and outdated for me personally. The characters seemed defined by their individual troubles, and the whole plot point of winning the horse Christmas Race wasn’t interesting.
Prejudice of a small town back in 1904 isn’t a new concept and I don’t think anything Carly Heath did here was anything extraordinary. Again, she has good themes and the writing was fine.
However, nothing in particular made this book stand out to me in any way that hasn’t been done better somewhere else.
The representation of different sexual orientations was wonderful, but too much of a focus, and the plot wasn’t interesting or engaging enough to pull the story forward. People in the village were either terrible homophobes or perfectly accepting and the black and white scale to me came across as unoriginal and boring.
Overall, the book was fine. It wasn’t the best read and it certainly wasn’t the worst.
I wanted more from this book, but gleaned the best attributes that I possibly could.
Recommendation: If you’re really interested in LGBTQ+ YA reads, especially representation of asexual characters, this might just fill your niche. However, if you want a story with a powerful, moving plot, engaging, complicated characters, and nuances of social perception, you’re best off looking elsewhere.
Score: 5/10
