BORDERLINE

RELEASED OUT NOW! 400 pages | Paperback

Author Mishell Baker

Publisher saga Press A lot about this urban fantasy novel feels familiar: the Los Angeles setting, complete with both movie stars and dive bars, the protagonist investigating a mystery (in this case, a disappearance), the fey, who are split into Seelie and Unseelie courts as usual... there’s more, but if you’re weary of reading that sort of thing, you certainly won’t want to read about it.

One thing really lifts Borderline above the herd, and that’s its central character, Millicent Roper. She’s got borderline personality disorder, and you first see her in a residential care facility months after a suicide attempt that failed, but left her a double amputee. Millie’s not your usual pretty heroine. She’s also not always someone you can sympathise with, particularly when she’s lashing out at her co-workers, though at other times you will wish you could help her, because she seems so vulnerable. Most of the rest of the cast are misfits in one way or another, too, and Mishell Baker should be credited with not making any of them sugary tokens or magical special snowflakes. They’re decently rounded characters, not stereotypes, and can’t be pigeonholed as “good” or “bad”. In all honesty, you don’t need to read Borderline for the plot – it’s generic urban fantasy stuff. But it might be worth giving yourself time to get to know a unique and diverse cast of characters.