Borderline by Mishell Baker
IDs: Bisexual, Amputee, Mentally Ill, Neurodivergent,
Author IDs: Mentally Ill, Queer
In Baker’s novel, Millie is recovering from a suicide attempt in which she jumped off of a building. She survived, but lost both of her legs, and had a significant amount of reparative surgeries. She is approached by a mysterious young woman named Carol and asked to join the Arcadia Project, a secret organization that communicates with a parallel reality. In that reality, magic exists, and it is brimming with magical creatures. Millie must reckon with this new knowledge of a parallel reality and magic while also trying to heal herself. Millie is also a filmmaker, and the story is set in LA, so there are a lot of interesting parallels between Hollywood and Arcadia.
Millie is a complex and real character. She has experienced a significant amount of trauma, and the novel does not back down from her navigation of this trauma. Millie’s BPD is one of her largest hurdles, but she must also learn to navigate the world again after her accident. To make matters more complicated, she cannot actually enter Arcadia or touch anything magic. She has a large amount of metal in her body because of her reconstructive surgeries, and magic can be destroyed by metal. Millie soon discovers that this was a big draw for Arcadia when they were recruiting her. She also learns that nearly everyone in the Arcadia Project has serious mental health issues, and that the project tends to recruit specifically from halfway houses, psychiatric wards, and mental health clinics. They claim that this is because people with mental health issues tend to be more tapped into the magic coming from Arcadia, but Millie learns that another part of this is that they don’t want their recruits to leave. People who are coming out of psych wards or halfway housing and have nowhere to go are excellent recruits when they are guaranteed housing and food as part of their position. This book utilizes a parallel magical universe as a way for Millie to navigate her own movements through space and how her disabilities impact her movement.