Archive for the ‘Mishell Baker’ Category
Borderline, by Mishell Baker
Posted on: March 13, 2018
Borderline, by Mishell Baker
Published in 2016
Where I got it: It was a freebie at an event I attended (free book? SCORE!)
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You know the TV show Torchwood? Imagine if it was urban fantasy: swap the aliens for fey creatures, swap the alien technology for magic, swap Cardiff for Hollywood, and double up on the snark and you’re on your way to having something a little like Mishel Baker’s Borderline. I’ve got a weakness for snarky novels written in first person, so I was hooked on Borderline about 20 pages in.
Millie hasn’t got much going on these days. Her stay at a psychiatric center is paid up for another six months, and she’s gotten pretty used to her prosthetic legs. When a strange beautiful woman waltzes in and offers her a job, Millie says yes out of a combination of boredom and curiosity.
Upon arrival at what is known as Residence Four, Millie learns the first rule is “don’t ask”. Everyone here has some kind of medical, physical, metaphysical, or mental health condition, and it is and disrespectful and rude to assume, presume, or make light of someone’s predicament. You wait until someone feels comfortable enough with you to tell you about their personal life. And if they never feel comfortable enough? Well, that’s your problem, not theirs. Oh, and all these people work for a group that helps control the traffic between our world and the Fey world by ensuring Fey glamours are functioning, and that only authorized Fey are here on Earth and that there is no violence between the two groups. Part of the pact is that if we harm any Fey, they will slaughter us. Hmm… so I guess a little more like Men in Black than Torchwood? Also, how come no one will tell Millie who Elliott is?
Millie brought a lot more than her physical baggage to Residence Four. She has Borderline Personality Disorder, she’s still working through the events that led to her failed attempt at suicide, she’s still getting used to her scarred and battered body that doesn’t look like how she feels, and now that she’s free of both film school and a psychiatric center she’s also interested in some end result based flirting. None of which jives with the ad hoc family at Residence Four, so things are pretty awkward for her right from the get go. Through her first person perspective, we get a lot of “because of my Borderline Personality Disorder, I often . . . “, giving me just enough information to be really dangerous. I do some of those things, sometimes. Does that mean I have BPD?
the Little Red Reviewer 
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