Cesar's Reviews > Heroine
Mindy McGinnis (Goodreads Author)
Cesar's review
2.5 stars.
Heroine was an underwhelming book. With the premise of an athlete spiraling into the world of drug abuse, it should've invoked strong feelings of how someone can be fine one day but everything goes south when they start taking drugs. Except, it wasn't.
Being that Heroine tackles drug abuse and how it affects the individual taking the drug and the people around them, I was expecting more from it. And what I got, as a result, was a story that feels... adequate. It's a shame because I wanted to like Heroine but what I was left with was a story that didn't even feel complete.
CW: Drug abuse.
Heroine is about Mickey who starts to abuse prescription drugs after getting into a car accident with her best friend which resulted in her getting major surgery on her leg. The story follows her as she becomes more addicted to drugs as she deals with family issues and her competing in softball.
Heroine is one of many tales of athletes who start to abuse drugs when they get into an accident. Mickey may be a fictional character, but her story is grounded in the painful reality of drug abuse. But if I'm being honest, I did not care at all for Mickey or even the story.
Let me explain. Mickey is not a likable character. That isn't to mean I hate her because she's dislikable because I do end up liking dislikable characters more often than not. But Mickey was unlikable because she was mean and acted bitchy to her teammates and mother. She has this sense of pride that comes off as rude and arrogant instead of honest and grateful.
She does and says things that made me dislike her as a person. Even when she's suffering, I can't say I really sympathized with her because of her past actions. It's not because of her abusing drugs but how she acts and thinks. It got to the point where I just stopped caring about her. I don't know if this is what Mindy had in mind for Mickey but I couldn't like her. Even if you argue that not all characters are supposed to be liked, that doesn't excuse the character if they start acting mean or if their behavior does a complete 180 in the wrong direction.
The biggest disappointment would be the story itself. Heroine just feels incomplete. It was a mishmash of Mickey during her softball games and her drug use that when the story shifted from one subplot it doesn't flow right. The last 10% was rushed and that didn't help with the pacing at all. Everything about the story was artificial that I couldn't tell if the story was trying to be thought-provoking. It was just a bland story.
I was let down by the story so much.
When I got to the ending, I felt nothing. I didn't hate the time I spend reading Heroine because 90% of it was paced pretty good and the ending I thought was a perfect ending to Mickey's character.
Heroine disappointed me in several ways. From a dislikable main character to a plot that had no payoff, it was just not a good book. Not bad enough to give it 1-star, but bad enough but with a few good things about it.
Thanks for reading my review!
-Cesar
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June 28, 2018 – Shelved
June 28, 2018 – Shelved as: to-read
June 10, 2019 – Started Reading
15.28% "Either I have to wait until I get further along to the story or I'm not in the mood, but I feel detached from Mickey."
38.66% "Am I the only one who isn't connected to Mickey as a character? She isn't bad, but she doesn't stand out either."
71.06% "I can't find this story to be that engaging. It isn't bad, but I'm not too invested in Mickey or the story that much."
Comments Showing 1-1 of 1 (1 new)
message 1: by Kristy (new)
Sorry this one let you down, Cesar! :/