Meg Richardson’s debut novel, PARADISE PAWN, revolves around two inseparable teenage best friends growing up inside a Florida pawn shop. This unique setting offers a constant tap of unpredictable people and pawned items that thrust them into the adult world of beauty norms and class dynamics as they navigate relatable woes of puberty and adolescent insecurity.

Jackie and Kayla have perfected their fake smiles of customer service, which they flash at a jittery lone customer. He prefers to wait for one of their fathers, the shop’s managers, so he doesn’t have to disclose the large, boxed item he wishes to pawn. But the girls are masters of friendly coercion and persuasion. Tactics like offering the man a glass of water so he feels indebted to them make him relent. He reveals that he wishes to pawn his sex doll. 

"Meg Richardson ensures that each page, pawn and trip to the beach has meaning for her characters. She finds an intimate way to make readers relive how big and confusing the adult world looked as teens --- and how complex and unfair it remains."

Kayla comes up with a plan to complete the transaction but not tell their fathers. They indicate on the shop's computer that the loan is for a chainsaw. Her reasoning is that she and Jackie ought to study the sex doll’s manual since they’re becoming women as their freshmen year of high school approaches. When Jackie’s father drives her home, she squirms as she lies to him about something much bigger than unbrushed teeth. But she resists fessing up, surmising that if she’s strong now, the guilt will subside over time. 

As the girls peruse the manual, pondering the beginning of the human life cycle, Jackie goes into a vicarious flashback of her conception. Her mother visits Cherry Beach, Florida, on spring break and meets her father, Devon, while partying. She later phones him from her college in Texas to announce her pregnancy. Instead of putting Jackie up for adoption, Devon opts to be the primary caretaker as he rises through the ranks of the Paradise Pawn company, eventually becoming the regional manager of the chain’s locations in central Florida. Kayla’s father is the manager of the Cherry Beach shop, and the two raise their daughters as best friends. Jackie’s mother visits when she can but passes away when Jackie is eight. She recalls an awkward funeral where her mother’s family doesn’t seem to want her in their family photos. 

While Jackie’s mind and thoughts are depicted believably for a 14-year-old --- displaying reactions that are reflective and sensitive, but still blunt --- Richardson also shows that she is immature for her age. Jackie claims that all she wants is for her and Kayla to be the same, for their friendship of slumber parties, matching “Best Friend” necklaces and tickle fights to continue forever in their shared futures of miraculous wealth and importance. Too much of Jackie’s identity and well-being is rooted in Kayla, causing her to dread Kayla making other friends. But readers can’t help but come to sympathize more with Kayla, who wants to maintain her childhood friendship and grow up at the same time. 

Part of Jackie and Kayla's day-to-day duties at the shop is winding watches to 10:10, a tactic also used by Rolex stores, so that they look like they’re smiling to subconsciously instill warmth into customers. One lady comes into the shop with what appears to be a stolen watch. When Devon calls the individual to whom the watch was sold, it’s revealed that the woman is the man’s mistress and mother of his child, and she needs money to keep her apartment’s electricity on. But the hardest introduction to the realities of class comes when Kayla is denied a scholarship to the private high school that Jackie will attend in the fall. Jackie spirals, fearing that she will be lost without Kayla at school and that Kayla will grow out of their friendship.

The story is moved by corporate interests --- specifically those of Rob, the owner of Paradise Pawn and Devon’s boss. He visits the Cherry Beach shop and mentions a Paradise Pawn manager in Pensacola who embezzled $10,000. Simultaneously, Jackie and Kayla deduce that this could be Kayla’s scholarship. They know how to look into customers’ eyes and at their body language to discern that they will not make their interest payments. They can give these people regular-rate loans for pawned items, but then tell their computer that they loaned out more to the untrustworthy patrons than they really did and keep the difference for Kayla’s tuition. 

In another visit to Cherry Beach, Rob brings his 14-year-old son, Blake. Jackie feels she needs to be pretty for him, so she shaves her legs for the first time and stuffs her bra with tissues. Her crush on Blake evaporates when he looks scared of a customer with missing teeth and says that the store is immoral, blissfully unaware of how establishments like theirs pay for the affluent lifestyle that he and his father enjoy. While Jackie throws away the tissue paper, Rob voices concerns over the shop’s rates of pawning items and getting no interest payments. 

Though PARADISE PAWN is a quick read, Meg Richardson ensures that each page, pawn and trip to the beach has meaning for her characters. She finds an intimate way to make readers relive how big and confusing the adult world looked as teens --- and how complex and unfair it remains.