Reckless Girls

Not my kind of book. I can appreciate a revenge story, and I like locked room situations, deserted islands and places that feel creepily off. But this didn't convince me at all. There was no building suspense for me, just single tense moments. The character motivations felt kind of random, it just didn't come together for me. And the whole story felt very long winded, the entire second half made me think "this takes too long". I finished it because the story still had all those elements that I like, and I was curious how it'd go. But yeah, no, this was not for me.

I did however have frustrated fun researching some of the things around this book.

I think the island is fictional (there is a Meroe Island, but it's somewhere else), and I didn't find a clear equivalent for it either. I think it might be partly inspired by Kure Atoll. The Wikipedia articles mention numerous shipwrecks (although no cannibalism), an airstrip (although not WW2, contrary to many other places in the area), thick vegetation (although much much lower, we're talking shrubs, not high trees with vines) and sharks, it's currently uninhabited, and it hasn't had nuclear or biological weapons tested on it, which wouldn't quite fit into the story.

I tried to look up the poisonous fish, but mostly found info on venomous sea creatures. However, I learned that many fish in the region have ciguatera poison in them from eating a certain microalgae.

These are two cool websites that I found on my search: www.airfields-freeman.com/HI/Airfields_W_Pacific.htm www.papahanaumokuakea.gov/visit/