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Borderline: The Arcadia Project
Dec. 13th, 2018 01:49 pmThe Arcadia Project series by Mishell Baker was recommended to me by Hank Green, specifically in audiobook format, so I added the first one to my listening list and finished it yesterday.
It started out as an in-depth exploration of borderline personality disorder and dealing with the aftermath of trauma - and then the fairies turned up!
The title serves a dual purpose - referencing both the protagonist's psychological condition, and the theme of immigration between the realm of Faerie and Earth.
The first person perspective allowed me to get to know Millie better than I might have done otherwise, and was effective in preventing her from being unlikeable by showing the struggles and internal conflicts behind her antisocial behaviour.
The premise was engaging, covering the creative process, living with mental illness and physical disability, the desire to belong, abuse of power in relationships of all kinds, and the difficulties of policing the movements of supernatural beings.
The book has a range of interesting and appealing characters, and the world-building is good. It felt like Millie's social issues were focused on too much at the start and kind of stopped affecting her nearly as much towards the end, with no real development towards that goal. It also got pretty brutal in the climactic showdown.
But there are two more books already available in the series, and I'm interested enough in the set up to carry on.
It started out as an in-depth exploration of borderline personality disorder and dealing with the aftermath of trauma - and then the fairies turned up!
The title serves a dual purpose - referencing both the protagonist's psychological condition, and the theme of immigration between the realm of Faerie and Earth.
The first person perspective allowed me to get to know Millie better than I might have done otherwise, and was effective in preventing her from being unlikeable by showing the struggles and internal conflicts behind her antisocial behaviour.
The premise was engaging, covering the creative process, living with mental illness and physical disability, the desire to belong, abuse of power in relationships of all kinds, and the difficulties of policing the movements of supernatural beings.
The book has a range of interesting and appealing characters, and the world-building is good. It felt like Millie's social issues were focused on too much at the start and kind of stopped affecting her nearly as much towards the end, with no real development towards that goal. It also got pretty brutal in the climactic showdown.
But there are two more books already available in the series, and I'm interested enough in the set up to carry on.
