UGH Borderline was SO GOOD YOU GUYS. Stripped down it's got a pretty standard urban fantasy crime-of-the-week plot, but everything about the execution makes it feel completely different from any other UF book I've read before. 
 "Faerie" is the sub-genre of choice for this one, and the hook is that in this world, humans have "echoes", or faerie counterparts that function as a sort of soulmate/muse hybrid. When a human and their echo meet, they establish a magical symbiotic bond, in which the flighty, chaotic fae gains some human rationality and mental stability, and the human is able to tap in to dat sweet sweet faery creativity. 
 Borderline is set in Hollywood, where this functionally translates to "famous creative people have faerie buds", and those creatives fund the Arcadia Project, a sort of diplomatic service that monitors all things fae. 
 It's a pretty neat combination of ideas! I love when diplomatic shit is involved, and the film industry stuff gives the novel a Hollywood-noir vibe that is just the best. The world-building was nicely paced and interwoven with the CotW plot (a missing persons case), which, while not totally unpredictable, kept the stakes high enough that I was always at least a little tense. 
 Really though I was 98% in this for the characters. Not that I didn't enjoy the rest of it, but maaaaan that cast<3 Millie is the main character, and my absolute favorite kind of protagonist: an "unlikable" mess with all the agency in the world and no narrative judgement around to stifle her. Millie is allowed to be clever and aggressive and vulnerable and abrasive and awkward and talented and cruel and self-destructive, to screw up royally and hit rock bottom, and then work hard to fix her mistakes, all while uncovering some faery conspiracy shit! 
 It's ~ w o n d e r f u l ~. 
 I know next to nothing about borderline personality disorder, so you know, grain of salt, but as far as I could tell the portrayal seemed reasonable and respectful. It wasn't some magical mental illness bullshit, but neither were the BPD or her physical disabilities forgotten when they became inconvenient. The book really felt like it engaged with Millie's physical and mental state. It meticulously portrayed the everyday aspects of her conditions, and the ways in which they informed her character and her choices. I really liked that. 
 Even putting Millie aside, I want novellas about like every single one of these side characters and villains. The cast got varying levels of development in this book, but even the ones with limited screen time felt real, and like a person, not a stereotype or prop. This book is also diverse as fuck, with characters of varying ethnicities, physical ability, and neuro-typical-ness, and like Millie, they all felt informed by these aspects of their identities. 
 There's not anything I hated - not even the romantic stuff, although it was sparse, so we'll see how THAT goes in book two - but I was kind of bothered by the (view spoiler)[body count in the climax. I mean, I appreciate how fucking costly it was for our heroes to save the day, but so many of those interesting, diverse characters got wiped, and it felt like a waste (hide spoiler)]. I'm hoping there will be some follow-up on that in the sequel. Fingers crossed. 
 I've gone on way longer than I intended, but the tl;dr is that this book is the kind of UF that I want to read forever and always, and I can't wait for book two. It is rad and you should purchase it immediately. 
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