Some Reckless Abandon
Barely eighteen. Sick of her wailing mother at the departure terminal, the unbearable high school dramas, her lying boyfriend. Her prairie town is marked by girls who never get out, and Madeleine cross is determined not to be one of them. Her only means of escape: signing up for Evangelical Bible camp in the heart of Honduras. But there is inevitable trouble in Paradise.
Madeleine arrives to a Teenage Jesus crazed summer camp. Shunned by teachers and alienated by campers, Madeleine is increasingly cagey and resentful of the gated compound. The promises from her hometown Cowboy far from materializing, their escape together seems impossible. As her disdain for the Church grows, Madeleine is faced with intense isolation, loneliness and fear of a bleak and sinful future.
Her only allies are undependable at best. A virulent preacher, a saucy Chicana and a scolding Utah den-mother all contribute to Madeleine’s unraveling. Her desire to escape smolders as her fascination with the surrounding culture increases, and when the final straw is drawn, a dark and sexual encounter sparks Madeleine’s undoing. The result: a fiery climax of biblical proportions, leaving Madeleine shattered, shaky, yet defiant of all limitations, certain she has finally arrived.
