A friend told me about this book. I struggled a bit to get through it. Mainly for a very mundane reason- most of the pictures are quite dark (because the main character ends up on a team of vampires) with dark purple backgrounds and almost everyone wearing dark clothing, so it was simply hard for me to see well and tell what was going on! I ended up liking it more than I expected to (did almost quite halfway through) even though some of it was also hard for me to follow because I’m not super familiar with vampire lore (vampire stories just aren’t my thing).
So, Mina is a competitive figure skater who has been struggling with finding her place in that world- especially since some of her friends outpaced her with their skills and moved up a level before she was ready. She kept going but her heart wasn’t really in it . . . (much of this is revealed later on in the book) and then she suffers a serious injury at the worst possible moment during a competition, that puts her off the ice for who knows how long. She doesn’t have time to feel devastated though- because suddenly she gets kidnapped by a pair of imps who drag her to an abandoned shopping mall- the secret practice headquarters for a roller derby team made up of vampires. For some reason (I didn’t get it) they need a human on the team as jammer. And that’s going to be Mina. She has a whole new struggle in front of her- translating her ice-skating skills into derby moves. Learning how to fit in with the team (lots of unspoken rules). Making it through the brutal practices in one piece. And then facing the competition in her first bout! Plus lots of backstory and history among these teammates that slowly gets unfolded- with a lot more to come in the sequel, it looks like. In the final pages, Mina realizes that she actually likes playing roller derby, is starting to feel part of the team, and is even developing a crush on one of her teammates. There’s a lot more happens that I am not going to bother to describe- because if this at all sounds appealing, you should just read the book!
I know I’ll look for the sequel, even if it wasn’t quite up my alley. And just have to say, I’m jealous of these imaginary derby gals because I’ve always wanted (since I started skating myself) to skate through an empty shopping mall. So much smooth floor space!
Borrowed from the public library.