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A review by gloomreads
Roller Girl by Vanessa North
4.0
3.5 stars, rounded up for transfemme main character, general progressive thinking, and roller derby.
A good, quick read. Hot in a couple of spots, dramatic in others, but overall it's a nice sports-involved story with a happily ever after. There are definitely some areas where it could be improved, but this overall is a good time, and I'd recommend it.
I'll open this with saying I'm trans, although a different direction from Tina, and a derby player myself. I was interested in this from the second I heard about it (and read it very shortly after learning it existed!) and while I don't think I was exactly disappointed, I also don't think I was impressed. This review is lengthy, and I acknowledge that I have difficulty turning off the part of my brain that thinks "how would I have written/edited this differently", and I think a lot of that probably comes through in my review.
On roller derby: The game has changed a fair bit since 2016, but much of the stuff in here still rings true. Core rules are still accurate, and the quick blurb explaining game play was sweet and concise, too. Felt easily understandable for folks that don't already know derby, which is always nice.
That said, a team of ~6 people does not a bouting-ready team make, and I think that there was also some more high-level terminology (like seeds, and referring to the MC's team as being a part of an overarching league) that felt a bit muddy when compared with the rest of the accessibility level of the book.
I found myself raising an eyebrow at how quickly Tina excelled at derby (with the exception of jumping the sandbags) and would have liked to see more, there. Yes, she was formerly a pro athlete, but derby is an intense contact sport, and her seemingly prodigal talent almost felt like it took away from what the game is, in a way. Now that I'm mentioning it, I also don't think the sandbags issue ever came back up again, which feels like a missed opportunity, but then again I also think it may have felt too cherry-on-top cheesy for Tina to land an apex jump that quickly, too, so I don't know if there's winning there for me.
On the characters: Honestly, I think these were all probably okay given that this is a book contained in a universe and they likely exist to others in other media besides Roller Girl, but I DID find myself losing track of who was who because there were so many different side characters. I think that there were a few that we got to know and understand in a nice way (Tina, Joe, and Lauren, specifically) but I don't think I could successfully list off all of the other characters and their relation to Tina if I tried. Lauren was cute, and I would have loved to see a little more of her and Tina interacting individually.
On the romance: The sex scenes in this were hot, and I liked the characters' chemistry, but the romance itself felt extremely rushed. It is likely due to the overall pacing of the book feeling off, but it was strange to see Tina fall so quickly for Joe.
Is it the lesbian experience?
Sure, maybe a little bit, sometimes.
But I would have liked to see something different, I think. I would have liked to see a little bit more exploration into what it's like to date after prior long-term romances, especially ones where you came out as queer/trans.
I would have loved to see more trepidation and care from Tina, and less of her being grouchy and offended (and honestly, a little bit high school) about Joe trying to play it careful, especially given the fact that they have a power dynamic at play to be mindful of!
I felt like their whole thing was too fast, and too convenient, and the few falling out incidents they had felt predictable and immature. The passage of time in the book seemed to have it just skip multiple months at a time without acknowledgement, and it made it really difficult to believe the progression of their romance and their feelings until whatever month it was was mentioned, and I was able to adjust to catch up.
Another area that I think was lacking was more of a conversation between Tina and Joe about Tina being trans, or more internal monologueing about Tina's transition at all. We don't learn that she's gotten bottom surgery until after the first sex scene, which is splitting hairs but is a detail that felt like an oversight. Every single character hearing that Tina is trans and going "oh, sick, carry on" is wonderful and a dream, but especially given the nuanced conversation/experience of gender in the world (AND within roller derby as a whole over the last decade), I feel like more could have been done. Even just on the romantic level, I would have liked to see more. We could have had Tina explaining things to Joe, an opportunity for some education beyond a passing reference to dilators, things like that, and I personally felt like it was a series of missed chances.
I will say, though, I loved the progressiveness of this story as a whole. I liked Tina talking to Thomas at the end, I loved the way they handled her gender in the interview, I loved all of the queer relationships. Especially noting that this book is nearly a decade old, it feels really cool to have seen such forward thinking, and in a lot of ways I think that at least somewhat makes up for the story as a whole feeling Too Right.
Overall, I think the story would have benefitted from some overall structure changes. There were storylines that didn't feel necessary to me (although, again, I haven't read the other Lovelace books) and the whole thing felt a little too picture perfect fantasy predictable. But it was a good read, and an easy one, and I'd probably recommend it to friends in spite of my complaints.
A good, quick read. Hot in a couple of spots, dramatic in others, but overall it's a nice sports-involved story with a happily ever after. There are definitely some areas where it could be improved, but this overall is a good time, and I'd recommend it.
I'll open this with saying I'm trans, although a different direction from Tina, and a derby player myself. I was interested in this from the second I heard about it (and read it very shortly after learning it existed!) and while I don't think I was exactly disappointed, I also don't think I was impressed. This review is lengthy, and I acknowledge that I have difficulty turning off the part of my brain that thinks "how would I have written/edited this differently", and I think a lot of that probably comes through in my review.
On roller derby: The game has changed a fair bit since 2016, but much of the stuff in here still rings true. Core rules are still accurate, and the quick blurb explaining game play was sweet and concise, too. Felt easily understandable for folks that don't already know derby, which is always nice.
That said, a team of ~6 people does not a bouting-ready team make, and I think that there was also some more high-level terminology (like seeds, and referring to the MC's team as being a part of an overarching league) that felt a bit muddy when compared with the rest of the accessibility level of the book.
I found myself raising an eyebrow at how quickly Tina excelled at derby (with the exception of jumping the sandbags) and would have liked to see more, there. Yes, she was formerly a pro athlete, but derby is an intense contact sport, and her seemingly prodigal talent almost felt like it took away from what the game is, in a way. Now that I'm mentioning it, I also don't think the sandbags issue ever came back up again, which feels like a missed opportunity, but then again I also think it may have felt too cherry-on-top cheesy for Tina to land an apex jump that quickly, too, so I don't know if there's winning there for me.
On the characters: Honestly, I think these were all probably okay given that this is a book contained in a universe and they likely exist to others in other media besides Roller Girl, but I DID find myself losing track of who was who because there were so many different side characters. I think that there were a few that we got to know and understand in a nice way (Tina, Joe, and Lauren, specifically) but I don't think I could successfully list off all of the other characters and their relation to Tina if I tried. Lauren was cute, and I would have loved to see a little more of her and Tina interacting individually.
On the romance: The sex scenes in this were hot, and I liked the characters' chemistry, but the romance itself felt extremely rushed. It is likely due to the overall pacing of the book feeling off, but it was strange to see Tina fall so quickly for Joe.
Is it the lesbian experience?
Sure, maybe a little bit, sometimes.
But I would have liked to see something different, I think. I would have liked to see a little bit more exploration into what it's like to date after prior long-term romances, especially ones where you came out as queer/trans.
I would have loved to see more trepidation and care from Tina, and less of her being grouchy and offended (and honestly, a little bit high school) about Joe trying to play it careful, especially given the fact that they have a power dynamic at play to be mindful of!
I felt like their whole thing was too fast, and too convenient, and the few falling out incidents they had felt predictable and immature. The passage of time in the book seemed to have it just skip multiple months at a time without acknowledgement, and it made it really difficult to believe the progression of their romance and their feelings until whatever month it was was mentioned, and I was able to adjust to catch up.
Another area that I think was lacking was more of a conversation between Tina and Joe about Tina being trans, or more internal monologueing about Tina's transition at all. We don't learn that she's gotten bottom surgery until after the first sex scene, which is splitting hairs but is a detail that felt like an oversight. Every single character hearing that Tina is trans and going "oh, sick, carry on" is wonderful and a dream, but especially given the nuanced conversation/experience of gender in the world (AND within roller derby as a whole over the last decade), I feel like more could have been done. Even just on the romantic level, I would have liked to see more. We could have had Tina explaining things to Joe, an opportunity for some education beyond a passing reference to dilators, things like that, and I personally felt like it was a series of missed chances.
I will say, though, I loved the progressiveness of this story as a whole. I liked Tina talking to Thomas at the end, I loved the way they handled her gender in the interview, I loved all of the queer relationships. Especially noting that this book is nearly a decade old, it feels really cool to have seen such forward thinking, and in a lot of ways I think that at least somewhat makes up for the story as a whole feeling Too Right.
Overall, I think the story would have benefitted from some overall structure changes. There were storylines that didn't feel necessary to me (although, again, I haven't read the other Lovelace books) and the whole thing felt a little too picture perfect fantasy predictable. But it was a good read, and an easy one, and I'd probably recommend it to friends in spite of my complaints.