Review: New Heorine Series
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 02 4, 2013
I received this free from Library Thing to read and review. In this book, the author has portrayed a character I still am not quite sure is the good one or the bad one.  The book is the intorduction of the main character, Miki, a sixteen year old artist, who likes to drink and use foul language regularly.  I personally think the author could have portrayed her less harshly, as I immediately began to wonder where this book was taking me, and whether or not I could continue reading about a teenager who embodies many of the traits we criticize them for today.  It was clear from the outset that she was out of control and very impressed with herself. I found out as I read that her parents were not on good terms with her and lived elsewhere, and she lived with her grandfather and an openly gay teen boy. While I am sure such situations do exist somewhere, I am not sure how realistic this whole situation is, and I hope no teenager looking for a role model reads this book.  I definitely would not like my teen or any friend of my teen to act like Miki does most of the time. I am not sure I would encourage any teen to read the book either, as they could easily get ideas and fall into the same rut Miki is/was in.  Likewise, I do not understand the role of her grandfather in all this since he does almost nothing to control Miki and nothing to stop her from falling deeper into her lifestyle, save a little "chat", which she ignores (he obviously is wasting her time by "preaching" to her). In the story, Miki has the unique capability of feeling other's pain as they do, which causes her problems and some visible black and blue marks on her body (where the person is stabbed, shop, etc.). After experiencing one of these incidents, Miki begins searching for answers to why a young girl has been killed, leading her on a winding and dangerous journey. During this journey, she manages to get drunk several times (and, it seems, no one ever questions her fake ID), mix herself up with a sex site and the nefarious persons running it, and fall in love with a seemingly innocent rich boy, who ultimately helps lead her to the truth while gravely endangering her. I found this book okay but not as easy a read as others might have said it is in reviews.  The language did very little to add to the story and could easily have been toned down or somewhat eliminated.  Same with some of the incidents trying to paint Miki as a "bad" girl. As I said, I would not recommend this to any teenager or to anyone who is not adult enough to look beyond all the stuff the author has inserted in an attempt to portray Miki as a "girl of the streets" (though not a prostitute, in the conventional sense). The storyline has potential to be great and could become an enjoyable way for teens to learn more about life and how events can change things.  I just wish the author had concentrated less on painting a bad girl in a rather unrealistic situation and more about the storyline.