Reckless

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2024

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 11

Chapters 12-24

Chapters 25-34

Chapter 35-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Character Analysis

Paedyn Gray

One of the two protagonists in the Powerless series, Paedyn Gray narrates some chapters, alternating with Kai and Kitt. She lives in the kingdom of Ilya, where Elites with supernatural abilities rule over powerless Ordinaries. At the end of Powerless, she killed the king of Ilya in self-defense and is now attempting to flee the country and find refuge in Dor. After the events of that book, Paedyn’s lack of abilities was discovered and made her a target.

Paedyn is very beautiful. She has blue eyes and long, silver-colored hair, which she cuts short later in the novel. She had an ambiguous friendship with Kitt, who is now intent on bringing her to justice for his father’s murder. In addition, Paedyn struggles to resist her attraction to Kai, at times giving in to her impulses and kissing him before remembering that he’s duty-bound to kill her. However, Kai and Paedyn’s relationship grows stronger, and they eventually confess their love for each other. At the end, Kai takes Paedyn back to Ilya to help her get justice for her father and her kingdom. However, in the last chapter, Kitt declares that Paedyn is to be his wife.

Paedyn is a strong, skilled, and brash character. Her relationship with Kai relies mostly on banter and playful flirting. The novel frames them as complementary symbolic forces, which suggests that they’re bound by fate. Their chosen aliases, for instance, reflect their bond: Paedyn is Shadow, whereas Kai is Flame. Emotionally, Paedyn still feels traumatized by the loss of her loved ones, namely her father and her best friend Adena, who were both killed in front of her. In addition, after being forced to kill in self-defense, Paedyn struggles to reconcile her actions with her deep sense of morality, at one point reflecting, What have I become? (52). In addition, her identity is in question when she learns that her father adopted her after his wife and baby died. She eventually realizes, through Kai’s support, that “[y]ou cannot be nothing when you are everything to someone else” (303). By the end of the book, Paedyn embraces her identity as an Ordinary, her inner strength, and her love for Kai and her father.

Kai Azer

One of the two protagonists in the Powerless series, Kai narrates some chapters, alternating with Paedyn and Kitt. Because he’s the second-born son of the king of Ilya, he acts as the kingdom’s Enforcer, a commander and assassin. Kai is handsome, with wavy dark hair and a dimpled smile. He’s characterized by his ability to switch masks, thus appearing cruel, flirty, or authoritative at will. His brother, Kitt, bitterly reflects:

Kai was the king Father wanted. It was as clear as the obvious distaste they shared for one another. Kai is every bit the brutal, the bold, the foreboding—every bit the king’s son. And I think that was exactly the problem between the two of them. Father hated that […] the king he wanted was thwarted by the son he had first. I wasn’t Kai, and it killed him (83).

Although Kai has a close bond with his brother in Powerless, their new roles as the king and his Enforcer put distance between them that leaves Kai ambivalent about Kitt. In addition, Kai is in love with Paedyn but is tasked with hunting her down after she murders the king. In a symbolic parallel that highlights the two protagonists’ fated relationship, Kai himself killed Paedyn’s father years earlier.

The only other person that Kai cares about is his younger sister, Ava, who was born with an illness and kept hidden until she died. In the Prologue, Kai visits her grave on her birthday. He eventually tells Paedyn about his sister and notes that she and Ava share similar qualities, which partly explains why he’s drawn to Paedyn. Kai’s emotional growth, which Paedyn influences, is further evident when he buries one of his dead soldiers. Although he accepts his duty as an Enforcer, Kai resents his role in taking other people’s lives. As Paedyn challenges his understanding of the social order, Kai realizes that he has been murdering innocent people. Unable to justify his actions, the prince resolves to learn the truth and eventually returns to Ilya with Paedyn to bring justice to Ilya. In addition, Kai confesses his love for Paedyn after struggling to resist his attraction to her throughout the book. The Epilogue concludes with Kai’s shock and dismay as he witnesses Kitt’s proposal to Paedyn.

Kitt Azer

Although Kitt was a significant character in Powerless, the series explores his perspective for the first time in Reckless as he narrates several chapters. Kitt is Kai’s older brother and the newly crowned king of Ilya. In the previous installment, he was kind and friendly toward Paedyn and wanted to please his father. After Paedyn betrays his trust, however, Kitt is heartbroken. In addition, he feels overwhelmed by his new position. Without his father to guide him, Kitt slowly grows crueler and more paranoid: “He is gone, and I don’t even know how to breathe if he does not command me to do so. Command me to eat. To live” (132). Kitt’s mental state degrades as he stops eating and sleeping, and in the weeks after his ascent to the throne, he lives as a recluse in his study. This prompts his cousin Andy, who first appeared in Powerless, to indirectly offer him help. She offers to help fix the broken window in his study, and the window becomes a metaphor for his broken state of mind: “‘Let me help you fix the window. Please. It doesn’t have to stay broken’” (133). He responds, “ ‘I’m afraid it’s beyond repair’” (133).

Eventually, the rumors spreading about the new king’s mental health condition prompt Kitt to take charge. He fakes confidence to keep up appearances and leaves his study. Kitt rejects his father’s influence due to his cruel and authoritarian nature and instead embraces the counsel of Calum, the Resistance leader he took prisoner during the uprising at the end of Powerless. Calum advises him to follow his father’s motto and appear “brave, benevolent, and brutal” (179), which he argues are the qualities of a great king. As a result, Kitt decides to marry Paedyn once she’s back in his custody at the end of the novel. However, his true motives and morality remain unclear, leaving the ending somewhat open to resolution in the next installment in the series.

Lenny

A secondary character, Lenny first appeared in Powerless as an Imperial working at the palace. In this novel, when he rescues Paedyn from Kai in the Scorches, she describes him: “His hair blends in with the ring of firelight he’s just stepped into. It’s a curly mess falling over his forehead, while the face below is splattered equally with dirt and freckles” (153). In reality, Lenny works for the Resistance and is one of the few who survived the uprising at the end of the first book. Two other survivors, Leena and Finn, accompany him. Of Leena, Paedyn states: “Her long black hair is tied at the nape of her neck and flung over a shoulder. She’s tiny and terrifying and I’m tearing up just looking at her” (153). Finn is friendly and is a skilled archer.

Lenny leads Paedyn and Kai to a group of misfits who further challenge their understanding of Elite abilities. The group’s leader is Meredith, Lenny’s mother, and his younger sister, Luna, is also a member. They’re all Partials, or “the outcome of Elites and Ordinaries. Some have more power than others, but all of them [have taken refuge in Dor] because they belong nowhere else” (163-64). Luna, for instance, has a fire-wielding ability that manifests only through her fingers.

Although he only appears briefly in the novel, Lenny has a significant role in the series. He adds nuance and complexity to what the series reveals about the Elite social order, providing background information that contributes to the series’ worldbuilding and to the protagonists’ character arcs. In the first book, for example, he leads Paedyn to the Resistance and enables her to connect to her father’s work. In Reckless, he tells her about the Partials and updates her on the situation back in Ilya. These discoveries lead Kai to a revelation about Paedyn’s parentage and to challenge his view of supernatural abilities. In turn, Paedyn learns about other oppressed groups living in Ilya, which informs her desire to fight for social justice.