4 out of 5 Stars!

This review may contain spoilers:

I ususally don't go for stories like this, because of the dark subjects that are being dealt in the stories can be too heavy for me sometimes, but for some reason I found myself becoming invested in the synopsis so I decided to give the book a try. Before the book was released I read a sneak a peak of it and I immideately knew that Heroine will be worth the read.

Heroine has been a solid four star read for me. It is the kind of book that will grip you from the beginning till the end. A kind of a story that you don't want to stop with it and constantly want to know what will happen and how things will eventually turn out.

While reading the book it reminded me a lot of the film called 'Perfect High'. The main character of that film was a lot like Mickey (the main protagonist of this book) and the plot was similar as well. Now this doesn't mean I'm comparing those two to each other, however there were a lot of similarities yet different issues as well.

I read many young adult books that drug abuse was included, but there were always a minor issue, there were never the major concentration of the book, which I didn't mind. The deal with Heroine was that it is the main focus of the book and it's told from the POV of an addict.

One of the things that was interesting to me was that Mickey the main character is adopted, and I thought: ''Well here we go again, another book about a teenager wanting to find her biological parents no matter what, and every subject in the book being ignored and only focusing about finding her real parents''. Well folks, that was not case of this book at all. I mean, she was questioning every now and then to herself who her real parents might be and if they are good people or not, meaning if there have been drug useres like her as well and was it because of them that she became an addict.

Another main thing that bothered me through the entire novel was that no one bothered to ask Mickey if she’s using drugs outright, but everyone suspects she does... Even Carolina her best friend doesn’t even try. She knows something isn't the same with Mickey and instead of being concerned about her or talking to her about it, she creates a group chat with their teammates to discuss about Mickey and her newly developed strange behaviour. They were best friends since childhood and the way she started taking back steps from their friendship just because Mickey isn't 100% herself anymore made her an awful friend.

A character that I also want to include in this review is Edith: A woman who's over than 60 sells drugs to teenagers (and ''befriending'' them) to make her ends meet. The reason why I'm writing about her was because not her but the entire world what drugs does to a person, but she still keeps encouraging them to buy it. Plus, after everything that happened in the book there haven't been any mentioning if she's been caught by the police or etc.

In conclusion: The book does provide a good overview on how the opioid crisis is hitting everyone, how addiction breaks everything apart. And it’s well-written with a good story line.
If you enjoy YA books with fast paced storylines and serious topics I would definitely recommed this book! An intense yet very realistic story with a focus on substance abuse!

Super intense but well worth the read. Mindy McGinnis does such a good job at showing how a teenager rationalises the various levels of her addiction. It's not a clear or quick path from A to B: McGinnis shows how one person gradually declines from "I just need these painkillers for my injury" to abusing heroin and facing death.

It wasn't a perfect read - I felt the chapter headers verged on spoilers, and as an international reader I understood virtually none of the softball talk. I also wish we'd got a bit more time with our protag prior to her injury, to understand her relationships and what's important to her.

4.5 stars

The first-half of this book was riveting. I couldn't stop turning pages to see what would happen next; how a young girl with so much to be appreciative for/of would devolve into a drug addict.

However, even understanding what I do about drug addiction--from working with recovering addicts and being personally involved in the lives of family members who still struggle with their own--I still detested Mickey.

She was not a likable character.

Period.

From her struggles expressing herself to others, to the resentment she carried of those who were inexplicably more comfortable in their own skin, to her relentless need to be pitied for not knowing her true genealogical roots ...it was a gigantic pity party and I was not moved.

I wanted Mickey to grow up and stop feeling as if the world owed her anything. You would think that a girl with so much would be more attuned to the ways in which the world was still at her feet, even with all she'd been through, but Mickey was never satisfied; everyone around her had it better because they were smarter, or prettier, or more talented, or had both parents, or better luck talking to boys, or ....ugh. She was just so whiny about everythingand I could not handle it.

Adding addiction, to an already insufferable personality, made for a story where I didn't care what happened to Mickey. I hate to say that but it's true. I did not connect with her in the slightest because she was annoying and problematic as heck

I felt empathetic towards Carolina (Mickey's only friend), Josie (a girl whose life was so utterly depressing she felt more comfortable around drug dealers than her own family), and Luther (collateral damage in the world of Mickey).

McGinnis does a great job showing how easy it is to progress from a pill to relieve your pain, to a needle to feel better: so much of addiction is about escapism and, though there is no one route to it, much of it does center on a need to fill whatever empty space exists within. A way to make all the cogs fit and allow us to not be so awkwardly ourselves within a world we perceive as not belonging to us.

From that understanding, it was easy to see how Mickey, with all her insecurities, could fall down the rabbit hole so easily.

A read that will bring you into the world of an addict, from the addict's point of view, so be careful picking this one up if you are recovering. It's not for the faint of heart.

*Thank you to Edelweiss+ and Katherine Tegen Books for this Advanced eGalley of Mindy McGinnis's work. Opinion is my own.*

3.5/5, rounded up

This book is powerful. It made me think about addiction in ways I had never imagined. Use caution going in that this feels real, but believe me, it's worth the read.

2.5 stars-
really interesting, important story about addiction, ruined by the main character's "I'm not like other girls" attitude.

“You’re my hero, Mickey Catalan,” Lydia says into my ear, over the roar of
the crowd.
“Heroine,” I correct her.
“Hoo—fucking—ray!” Bella Right screams at me when I get into the
dugout.
Everyone is yelling my name.
Right now, everyone loves me.
Right now, I even love myself.”

Wow, this was just an amazing book, it's been a long time since I last truly enjoyed a YA book so much. Yes, really. A few years ago this would have been unbelievable. I read YA left and right and enjoyed most of it. But these days I mostly stay away from YA, and am excited when I find a YA that I love. Wow.

This one was just pure amazingness. Yes, I had some issues with the MC, and some things just seemed a tad coincidental, but maybe that is just a difference between my country and the US.

For instance I found it really strange to see so much drugs use everywhere. That it was that easy to get drugs. That prescription pills were so easily gotten and then taken to drugs users. That apparently the papers were full of condolences for people who died of drugs abuse. I was wondering what kind of city/town our MC lived in that it was this bad...

I also thought it was a bit weird that the mom didn't question things sooner. I guess she was just delighted and euphoric her daughter was doing so well, but still. Eventually sure she noticed, but by then our MC was so far away from it all that it was just too late.

I did like how the author wrote the descent to addition for our MC. How it starts with an accident which leaves her in enormous pain, and also with the future that she may not make it for the very important last season that she needs to be in. How she starts with prescription pills, first just what the doctor prescribed but quickly becoming reliant on them, and then having to get them somewhere else, and then it got only worse. It was quite heartbreaking to see a sweet girl who, despite the accident still has a future, yes she will have to work for it and get used to the pain, slide of the edge so much that it requires several shocking events to happen before she starts to see that maybe she needs help. At times I just wanted to shake the MC, at other times I wanted to hug and hold her. Tell her to stop. Tell her to get help. Tell her to talk to someone. Yes, I understand you want to play in your sport, I get that, but this is just not going to work, it will only cause more damage than the accident ever did.

We also see her, thanks to the drugs, find new friends. While I wasn't a fan of Josie due to how she acted and how she dragged everyone with her to the deep end, I was a fan of Luther and I was actually hoping that our MC and him getting together in a way would maybe mean them trying to fight the addiction. And at times it seemed that Luther had a bit more of a fight in him.

What happened in the first chapter comes back later in the story and while it was already shocking the first time, the second time it is even more shocking to read. Holy crap. While I don't approve of what our MC did, I can imagine. She was afraid as hell.

I wasn't really a fan of how our MC treated the girl who could take her place. I can understand that you think you are the only one for the job, but in reality there is someone else who is also good and also deserves a chance to play. Stop hogging the place, give her some room, and stop being a bitch. Besides, after a while the MC crashed so much that she had no right to complain in my opinion. But instead she kept pushing and being a bitch about it. Girl, really. It doesn't help your team one shitty bit if you take that place. Instead things would just crash and burn, and you don't want that... right?

I wonder why no one stopped the MC from pushing herself so far. Instead everyone just complimented on her doing so well, when in actuality the girl was just pushing her body over the limits to get to a goal. She should just have taken her time, and someone should have kept a closer eye on her.

One last thing, because I could probably talk about this book much more and how awesome and beautifully written it is, the ending was a really wonderful one. I won't spoil anything, but I wish our MC a lot of luck. Fight! You can do it!

I would highly recommend this book to everyone.

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/

I come from a family of alcoholics, so it was amazing to get inside someone's head at the beginning of the addiction process. I loved the writing, and the style, and the plot. 10/10 would recommend.