I think you're right about encountering McKinley as a child rather than later. I admit, when I re-read Hero, the mean-girl stuff at the beginning seems like wearisome, like having my arm twisted to love Harry Potter because everyone is mean to the boy under the stairs instead of finding out first off what's good about Harry himself.
But having a girl who deduces the recipe for kenet, doggedly, painstakingly - that made me love Aerin. And seeing her realize how inadequate kenet was against Maur but doing her best anyway, and then doing her best again when killing Maur still didn't defeat him, cemented this story's place for me.
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I think you're right about encountering McKinley as a child rather than later. I admit, when I re-read Hero, the mean-girl stuff at the beginning seems like wearisome, like having my arm twisted to love Harry Potter because everyone is mean to the boy under the stairs instead of finding out first off what's good about Harry himself.
But having a girl who deduces the recipe for kenet, doggedly, painstakingly - that made me love Aerin. And seeing her realize how inadequate kenet was against Maur but doing her best anyway, and then doing her best again when killing Maur still didn't defeat him, cemented this story's place for me.