A cynical, disabled film director with borderline personality disorder gets recruited to join a secret organization that oversees relations between Hollywood and Fairyland in the first book of a new urban fantasy series from debut author Mishell Baker. 
A year ago Millie lost her legs and her filmmaking career in a failed suicide attempt. Just when she’s sure the credits have rolled on her life story, she gets a second chance with the Arcadia Project: a secret organization that polices the traffic to and from a parallel reality filled with creatures straight out of myth and fairy tales. 
For her first assignment, Millie is tasked with tracking down a missing movie star who also happens to be a nobleman of the Seelie Court. To find him she’ll have to smooth-talk Hollywood power players and uncover the surreal and sometimes terrifying truth behind the glamour of Tinseltown. But stronger forces than just her inner demons are sabotaging her progress, and if she fails to unravel the conspiracy behind the noble’s disappearance, not only will she be out on the streets but the shattering of a centuries-old peace could spark an all-out war between worlds. 
No pressure.

‘Borderline‘ is an unusual book. The premise, someone joining a secret global organisation that polices the border between our world and the world of the Fae, sounds fairly traditional in an MIB-with-a-twist sort of way, so I expected either a thriller of the 24-hours-to-save-the-earth kind or something humorous or hybrid of the two. What I got was more interesting: a book focused on someone who is broken and who is trying to find a reason to keep living. The borderline that the title refers to isn’t just between Earth and Arcadia but between normal behaviour and psychotic behaviour.

Milie, our protagonist (heroine doesn’t really fit here), has Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) which, amongst other things, makes her subject to intense mood swings and impulsive behaviour. This partially explains why Millie, a film director with a couple of successful Indie productions behind her, ended her time at the prestigious UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television by jumping from a building, She failed to kill herself but succeeded in destroying both of her legs.

When, six months later, after having mastered her prosthetic limbs but not her trauma, Millie is approached by the Arcadia Project (the secret global organisation that polices the Fae border – the Brits are blamed for the classical name), she is told it is because her BPD allows her to see the world differently and makes her better able to cope with the Fae and their glamours. Only when she has started to invest her personal salvation in her new role does she learn that the Arcadia Project recruits throwaway people. People who won’t be believed if they try to reveal the Project’s secrets. People who won’t be missed if the get killed in the Project’s service. People like Millie.

I enjoyed the world-building as Millie learns about the Fae and the deal the humans have cut with them. I had to smile at the all-too-plausible relationship between the Fae and Hollywood.

I admired the character-building. I felt that I got inside Millie’s rather unusual head and saw the world through her eyes. Her relationships with the people around her, turbulent, distorted but deeply-felt, brought the book alive. 

The mystery/thriller plot around missing Fae and evil intrigue which moves the action forward works mostly to reveal the Fae/human connections and to push Millie into confronting who she is and who she’s going to choose to become.

If you’re looking for a fast-paced, high body count Urban Fantasy thriller, ‘Borderline‘ isn’t it. If you’re looking for something original and thoughtful with an emotional payload, you’ll enjoy this.

‘Borderline‘ is the first book in a series. I intend to visit Millie’s world again to see what she’s made of herself.

I recommend the audiobook version of ‘Borderline‘. Arden Hammersmith did a great job as the narrator and made Millie a real voice in my head. Click on the SoundCloud link below to hear a sample.