Much thanks to National Book Store for this complimentary copy that I won in a giveaway last MIBF 2018. This review is voluntary and opinions are fully my own. Also, all quotes are taken from the ARC and may or may not appear in the final published copy.

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Book Details

Title: Heroine

Author: Mindy McGinnis

Date Published: March 12, 2019

Number of Pages: 419 pages

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

📚 Series: No, Standalone.
📚 Genre: YA Realistic Fiction
📚 POV: First person.
📚 Cliffhanger: No.

⚠ Content Warnings: Graphic description of drug use, drug abuse, withdrawals, and effects. Car crash. Stealing. Being inside the mind of an addict craving for drugs. Lying. Mentions of abortion.

⚠ Read if: you are willing and able to read something about drugs so intensely. Not for people who are still recovering from addiction.

Book Blurb from Goodreads

When a car crash sidelines Mickey just before softball season, she has to find a way to hold on to her spot as the catcher for a team expected to make a historic tournament run. Behind the plate is the only place she’s ever felt comfortable, and the painkillers she’s been prescribed can help her get there.

The pills do more than take away pain; they make her feel good.

With a new circle of friends—fellow injured athletes, others with just time to kill—Mickey finds peaceful acceptance, and people with whom words come easily, even if it is just the pills loosening her tongue.

But as the pressure to be Mickey Catalan heightens, her need increases, and it becomes less about pain and more about want, something that could send her spiraling out of control.

About the Author

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Mindy McGinnis is an Edgar Award-winning novelist who writes across multiple genres, including post-apocalyptic, historical, thriller, contemporary, mystery, and fantasy.

While her settings may change, you can always count on Mindy’s books to deliver grit, truth, and an unflinching look at humanity and the world around us.

My Review

There’s just something about the writing of Mindy McGinnis that can capture and blow you away. It’s been weeks since I started reading this and a few days since I finished but everything still feels so raw and real that I feel my heart clenching while I am reading this.

I cannot deny how awesome this book is and how much I felt reading through this. This book, like the other Mindy McGinnis book I have read, is as dark as it goes. If you are looking for hope, that’s not what you will get with this one.

Mindy McGinnis does no form of sugarcoating as she tells the story of Micky Catalan. She just gets on with how addiction develops and how it can happen anyone – even the town’s star athlete. She has shown how it starts, how it intensifies, and how it can all spiral downwards.

To be honest, I know her books can be a hit or miss for many as she tends to brave topics that other authors shy away from. But for me, personally, this book is a great one, I am a forever fan, and I am looking forward to reading her other works.

My Book Rating Breakdown

🌼 Blurb:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌼 Main Character:⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🌼 Support Characters:⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🌼 Writing Style:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌼 Character Development:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌼 Thrill Factor: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌼 Pacing: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌼 Ending: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌼 Unputdownability: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌼 Book Cover:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐