IMPOSTOR SYNDROME by Mishell Baker – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Impostor Syndrome by Mishell Baker
Series: The Arcadia Project #3
Published by Saga Press on March 13 2018
Genres: Adult, Urban fantasy
Pages: 480
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A satisfying conclusion to one of the most inventive urban fantasies out there.

Going through international airport security with two prosthetic legs and a steel plate in your head isn’t exactly a piece of cake, but it’s easier than going through with a turban.

– Millie Roper

The Arcadia Project has been one of my favorite urban fantasy series in the last few years, and so it was with excitement and a bit of trepidation that I started the last book. And I’m happy to say it was a fitting ending for the series overall, but I did not love this book the way I loved Borderline and Phantom Pains. Baker’s books absolutely must be read in order, as she is one of those authors who literally picks up in the spot where the previous book left off. Don’t expect any helpful recaps, either. One of my big issues with Impostor Syndrome was that I felt completely lost for the first 25% of the story. I’ve read the previous two books, and yet for some reason I had forgotten the events at the end of the last book. It wasn’t until the gang had a clear plan to execute that I finally settled in and enjoyed myself.

And fair warning, there will be mild spoilers for Phantom Pains in this review, just in case you’re a purist!

After the events at the end of Phantom Pains, the British and American factions of the Arcadia Project are splintered, as Millie and her friends refuse to back someone who would allow spirits to be enslaved in order to do magic. When Millie’s partner Tjuan is framed for murder and thrown in prison, Millie concocts an elaborate plot to not only prove his innocence and rescue him, but to gain the trust and backing of several influential Seelie and sidhe characters who could help knock Dame Belinda off her seat of power. But Millie’s plans tend to go spectacularly wrong, and so the stage is set for a caper of the most chaotic kind, as Millie, Caryl and the others attempt to steal a magical artifact, infiltrate the un-infiltratable White Rose Palace in Arcadia, and bring justice to millions of enslaved spirits.

That’s the plot in a nutshell, but of course it’s much more complex than that. This is a character-driven story, and the action scenes, while exciting, aren’t really the main focus. Driving the plot is the incomparable Millie Roper, double amputee, suicide survivor, and a member of the Arcadia Project, an Earth-based organization that monitors the activities and whereabouts of the Seelie and Unseelie fey. Millie is unique in the fact that her body is riddled with iron—gifts from her suicidal jump off a building—which renders spells inactive. Millie has become a powerful weapon of sorts, and despite her impulsive behavior, the Arcadia Project cannot seem to function without her.

Millie has complicated relationships with just about everyone in this story, including Zach, her human “boyfriend,” Tjuan, her partner in the Arcadia Project, Caryl, another extremely damaged young woman who Millie falls in love with, and of course, Millie’s Echo Claybriar, the faun. (For more on Echos, check out my review of Borderline below.) Because Millie is telling the story from her perspective, everything is infused with her feelings and observations. This makes reading Impostor Syndrome a frantic experience, as you’re constantly in the head of someone who is unable to contain her opinions and ideas. I loved many of the other characters, especially a talented young fey prince named Shock who makes “facades” to hide the fey’s true appearances, and Elliot, a spirit who helps Caryl reign in her emotions. The truth is, this is a crowded story, and there are so many characters to keep track of. But no matter how much I loved or hated them, in the end this story belongs to Millie.

One of Baker’s strengths is her dialog, and it’s just as snappy and funny this time around. The fact that Millie doesn’t have a filter comes in handy as her outbursts are some of the funniest things I’ve ever read. She may be damaged in more ways than one, but when it comes to her mind, she’s smart as a whip. And that intelligence isn’t limited to funny dialog. Millie’s experiences have given her an interesting perspective on relationships that I found refreshing. Baker’s story is full of characters lusting after each other, but Millie is able to take an honest look at things like cheating and falling in love and give us wise observations on the ugly truth of romantic and sexual relationships.

However, Millie has become a double-edged sword for me, in the respect that I’ve adored her character throughout the series, even though she has a sometimes annoying and grating personality. I loved her just for those reasons, because she is unique and has such a different outlook on life than most of the characters I encounter. However, for some reason she started to get on my nerves in this book, which didn’t bode well for me. Her quirks, which I found lovable in the previous books, started to annoy me. One of those annoyances was a repetitive habit that Millie has of rating Caryl’s stress levels on a scale of one to ten (Caryl also has some mental health issues). She is constantly saying things like “I watched Caryl shoot straight to a level 7” or “Oh boy, we were at a 9 or a 10 here.” These observations went on in this vein for the entire story, and after the first five or six times I was over it.

On the flip side, I ended up feeling really sorry for Millie this time around. She’s got such a good heart, despite all her mental issues, but the bottom line is that many of the people in her life don’t really like her at all. They put up with her, appreciate her abilities, and want to sleep with her, but at the end of the day these friends and lovers are ready to put some distance between themselves and Millie for sanity’s sake. One thing’s for sure, Millie will always be one of the most interesting and unique characters I’ve ever come across, and I appreciate that Mishell Baker has given a voice to a physically and mentally disabled woman who manages to overcome most of her hurdles, and if not, to make peace with them.

The ending was so well done and wraps up many of the loose threads of the story, bringing some satisfying emotional resolutions to most of the characters. And even though this wasn’t my favorite book of the series, it had just the right blend of heart, wistfulness and emotion, which is all any reader can ask for. Baker doesn’t close the book on Millie’s adventures, however, as she leaves the door slightly ajar for possible future tales. This trilogy has been quite the ride, and I’m so thankful I had the chance to experience it.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

My review of Borderline.

My review of Phantom Pains.