Mishell Baker: The Arcadia Project trilogy

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=Tamar

Lieutenant
May 20, 2012
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#1
Mishell Baker: The Arcadia Project, trilogy.
[Borderline (2016) 390 pgs, Phantom Pains (2017) 406 pgs, Impostor Syndrome (2018) 469 pgs]

Millicent Roper is a survivor. She even survived her drunken attempt to not survive a fall from a seven-story building. Now she's a double amputee who still has her Borderline Personality Disorder. Her inheritance is running out, and her psychotherapy isn't going well. The offer of a job complete with a place to live (but with a probationary period) seems like a lifesaver - as long as she doesn't have a meltdown and wind up on the street. Good luck with that. Some of her co-workers even go to the same psychiatrist. Finding out that there are beings called fae (for lack of a better word) wasn't so bad at first, but the layers of treachery and double-dealing go deep, among humans as well.

The basic premise is that there has (probably) always been a connection between the worlds, that humans need fae and fae need humans. They are our muses, we stabilize them and more or less give them intelligence.
That part kind of bothered me personally, but I put it firmly in the "author's world building" and kept on with the story because it is well written, definitely a page-turner.

The story has lots of ambiguity, intricate intrigues, subtle politics, untrustworthy alliances, sympathetic characters, and a heroine who has to think her way out of trouble because she can't do the wonder-woman thing, but thinking is hard when you're brain damaged and have an impulse disorder. And, of course, there are several mysteries to solve, not least the mystery of her own character, and no, it isn't the usual. An additional difficulty is that, since most of her bones were put together with steel plates and titanium screws, the fae have a very real issue with her.

There's a bit of s*x but not much, and easily skipped. It's more angsty. YA, mild horror, good ending.
I would say borrow it from the library, but you may have to renew it several times, because it's complex.
Oh, and it has decent sized print - no magnifying glass needed -
 

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