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Jan 24, 2012

Heather rated it:

This book inspired me to be a Roller Derby girl. Strike that, it inspired me to attempt long boarding, which was great fun, but not something I think I have any business doing. Anywho, onto the good stuff.

Bliss hates her life. She is an emo punk rocker, minus the rocker skills, stuck in small town U.S.A. No one except for her nerdy best friend Pash understands her and her mother seems hell-bent on tormenting her with her intense desire to turn her Goth obsessed daughter into a superf More...

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Oct 25, 2011

El Templo de las Mil Puertas added it

"Rebelde hasta la médula, así es Bliss Cavendar, una adolescente de dieciséis primaveras con mucho genio en el cuerpo, sin novio a la vista, bastante antisocial y pocas ganas de convertirse en la chica florero que le gustaría a su madre. Pongámonos en la piel de Bliss y su vena roquera: en el pequeño pueblo de la América Profunda en el que suspira y resopla sus días, ella y su camiseta de los Strikers son lo más raro que hay. Ah, y su mejor amiga, Pash Amini, hija de emigrantes indios, bu More...

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Jun 15, 2011

Emily rated it:

In old-fashioned, small-town Bodeen lives Bliss Cavendar. Along with her best friend Pash, Bliss doesn't fit in with the crowd of this tiny town. So she escapes to the world of roller derby as Babe Ruthless in Austin, Texas, where she finds her first love and her life goes on a roller coaster.

First of all, I will admit that this book is a little to perfect to be realistic, with the only bad thing occurring being that her boyfriend cheated on her, but even that she got over quickly. Tho More...

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Apr 21, 2011

Tuba rated it:

I could not sleep at all last night so what to do? Grab the nearest book!

It turned out to be Derby Girl by Shauna Cross. Some might know it as Whip It, it was made into a movie of that name and they consequently changed the name of the book to fit.

It is a sweet little book that takes about a night to read and though the plot is not riveting it is nice and warm and fuzzy and I cannot help having a little tear in my eye near the ending.
All in all a good go-to book when all More...

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Jan 06, 2011

Travis rated it:

Sixteen-year-old Bliss hates her smalltown life, especially the part where her mom is trying to live out her dreams of becoming a beauty queen through Bliss. Then one day she sees a poster for a roller derby match and the next thing she knows she's trying out for the team.[return][return]I really enjoyed this book. It's written in that first-person chatty style that is all the rage with YA and chicklit these days, but despite being a bit exposition-heavy in the early chapters (having read more i More...

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Aug 06, 2010

Ari rated it:

Wow. Blew my mind away. I knew that this book was going to be good. But...wow. Seriously I tried to escape reality as often as possible just to get a chance to read this book. I loved this book. Shauna Cross truly delivered in this book all about roller derby. Bliss a girl who believes her true parents are probably some indie rocking actors is stuck in the small Texas town known as Bodeen. And frankly she knows she and Bodeen are not meant to be. On a trip with her mother the pageant obsessed qu More...

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Jul 02, 2010

Jaylia3 rated it:

High school misfit Bliss Cavendar, aka Babe Ruthless, dyes her hair blue, loves indie music and wants OUT of the tiny Texas town that makes her feel like she must have been misplaced by her real family who are surely living in some cool urban setting like San Fransisco or NY City. Instead, Bliss has a beauty pageant obsessed mother who hopes Bliss will be able to win the big name crowns she never did. Bliss is going through the motions to please her mom, mostly keeping her sarcastic thoughts to More...

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Jun 10, 2010

Tiana rated it:

Whip It, by Shauna Cross, is about a gil named Bliss who lives in a small town in Texas. She constantly goes by her mothers dreams for her, and not her own. Since her mother was in a pagent, her mother enrolled her into a pagnet and Bliss agreed just to make her mom happy. But finally Bliss is done with it. She joins a roller derby team and becomes a rebel. She meets a guy, her life is great, but all of that soon turns around. Bliss's internal conflict is dealing with trying to please her m More...

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May 27, 2010

Christian rated it:

Whip it or also known as Derby Girl is just a wonderful story that made me laugh. Whip it is a story about a girl named Bliss. Her mother's dream is to have Bliss win the Texas, Bluebonnet pageant just like she did when she was young; But Bliss’s dream is to be a roller derby girl. Bliss main goal is to get out of her little town in Texas and move to Austin to beat the Holy Rollers in Derby competition. The main conflict in this book is that Bliss and her mom want two different things and they d More...

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Apr 16, 2010

Kris rated it:

Picked this up for fun because Randy and I love the movie. I hadn't realized it was a book until I watched the credits all the way thru. so I decided I'd get the book and see if it was as good as the movie – and it is! It's a great story of a misfit girl (Bliss aka “Babe Ruthless” Cavendish”, in a small Texas town. She's totally indie/punk/emo and her mom is totally into beauty pageants – she wants bliss to be the local beauty queen, just as she was. Bliss just wants out of town.

By More...

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Oct 27, 2009

Lani rated it:

Full disclosure: I'm a derby girl who saw Whip It twice before it was officially released. I'm also a devout fan of Drew Barrymore, and Ellen Page. This book had to really hustle to come anywhere near a movie that I really enjoyed and believed.

Since I just recently saw the movie, of course, I'm left comparing the book. In a rare occurrence, I actually preferred the movie. Unfortunately, this means my review is a lot more about how well the movie managed things that the book didn't.
More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Oct 11, 2009

El rated it:

Yeah, that's right. I read a young adult book. Let's all gasp in unison and move on. I should also state immediately that I would not have found out about this book if Drew Barrymore hadn't just made the movie Whip It which is based on this book. While I also don't normally read books just because of the movie that's come out, I actually want to see the movie and can't bring myself to do it seriously without at least trying to read the book. And I love roller derby.

Bliss Cavenda More...

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Sep 22, 2009

Kate rated it:

Bliss Cavendar is dying in the cultural desert that is Bodeen, Tx. Bliss does not look like your average Bodeen resident, with her blue hair and 80's bands t-shirts. Her life is changed when she discovers a roller derby league in nearby Austin, and decides to try out. After a few falls on her old barbie skates, Bliss is reborn as Babe Ruthless, jammer for the Hurl Scouts. She hides her participation from her parents, and her age from the other girls on the team (must be 18 to try out). Whil More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 14, 2009

Nadia rated it:

This book is about a girl named Bliss Cavendar, a blue haired, indie-rock-loving girl. Bliss lives in the tiny town of Bodeen, Texas, which is nothing but a tourist attraction for losers to Bliss. And one thing Bliss has to keep up with is Brooke, her pageant addicted mother who always puts Bliss into pageant after pageant. And when Bliss gets sick and tiered of putting up with it she decides to go behind her parents back and go to where she belongs, to skate in a roller derby where she goes by More...

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Aug 13, 2009

Marie rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jul 29, 2009

Evie rated it:

*sigh*

I hope that Shauna Cross is a better screenwriter than an author. The book reads from the perspective of a sixteen year old girl, but the writing style is as developed as that of a nine year old girl. Somehow this book managed to make feminist rebel girl culture look lame and immature. "How could my best friend shoplift without me? That was OUR thing!"

The characters: square-peg blue-haired rebel girl, stern overbearing mother who wants daughter to be a " More...

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Oct 20, 2011

Lori rated it:

So here's my issue-- I enjoyed reading this book, but I don't really think it was really very good or anything. How do you rate a book like that? Bliss is a 16-year old self-proclaimed misfit growing up in small town Bodeen, Texas. She is looking for her niche in the world, but is forced by her evil mother to take part in beauty pageants, which is a total indie-rock no-no. Then Bliss finds roller derby, and her life is never the same. The story was fun, and the language was very realistic, More...

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Jul 29, 2011

Jonathan rated it:

“Derby Girl” is about a girl who falls in love with roller derby. Bliss Cavendar is stuck in the small town of Bodeen, Texas. She feels out of place in her family and school. She calls herself an indie-rock-loving misfit and does not fit in with her mother’s conservative beauty pageant approach to life. On a shopping trip to Austin, she picks up a flier that changes her life. It is for a roller derby league. She convinces her best friend Pash to go with her to the bout. There she is told t More...

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Mar 12, 2011

Clarabel rated it:

Bliss Cavendar, seize ans, vit dans la petite ville de Bodeen dans le Texas. Le trou du c** du monde, selon elle. Lycée minable, camarades analphabètes, misère culturelle, ennui abyssal... bref Bliss traîne son spleen, avec sa meilleure amie Pash, en attendant des jours meilleurs.
Et un jour, à Austin, Bliss rencontre des filles canons sur des rollers. Elles font le show, elles assurent et Bliss y voit là son issue de secours. Elle se lance dans cette aventure avec une énergie folle, devie More...

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Jul 19, 2010

Guillermo rated it:

The book opens up in the most mild manner way - Bliss Cavendar talking about how she assumes that she is really adopted - there is no way she is the daughter of pageant mom, Brooke, or the non-confrontational father, Earl. Born and being raised in Bodeen, Texas - and hour's drive from Austin, yet vastly left behind in the modern age - Bliss thinks of nothing but escape. Her best friend Pash, a straight-A honor student, also dreams of escape in different ways. Together they wreck havoc - as much More...

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Mar 10, 2010

Aly rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jan 22, 2010

Natalie (Mindful Musings) rated it:

Just so we're clear, Whip It is the exact same book as Derby Girl. I guess after the book was made into a movie, they decided to republish the book with the movie title to sell more copies?

Whip It was a fast, light, entertaining read that I zipped right through. While it was definitely a brain candy book, it had plenty of romance, action, and music references to hold my attention. The writing style was extremely easy to read, the main character was loveable, and the plot was realisti More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 19, 2009

Sophie rated it:

Good Story, Poorly written.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 08, 2010

School is Cool rated it:

The narrator was far too obsessed with being cool by avoiding all things mainstream. Although I understand her desire to skip shopping at malls in favor of thrift stores and to swoon over boys in bands, that's pretty much all she's about. Her family is exaggerated. Her mom is a stereotype pageant mom, who has a completely out-of-character reversal at the end. Her father is a passive - your mom runs the show around here - kind of guy. Her best friend is a fellow hipster with great intelligence an More...

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Oct 24, 2010

Clementine rated it:

Sixteen-year-old Bliss Cavendar feels like a total outcast in her tiny small town of Bodeen, Texas. Her peers seem like mindless automatons, she works at the heinous Oink Joint, and even her parents are too obsessed with beauty pageants and football to take the time to understand her. If it weren't for her best friend Pash, life would be unbearable. But then she discovers a roller derby league in Austin, and before she knows it, she's a roller derby girl. Her life changes, and she's forced h More...

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Nov 05, 2010

Melissa rated it:

When I watched this movie for the first time, I imagined what a great novel this could have been. I loved the awkwardness of Ellen Page, the rich characters of Marcia Gay Harden and Daniel Stern as her parents, and the overall touching coming of age story. At the end of the movie, I saw in the credits that it was based on a book by Shauna Cross.

At that moment I had two thoughts: The first was Damn, I would've loved to write a book with this storyline. The second was, I need to get More...

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Aug 29, 2010

Amanda rated it:

Too much boys, not enough roller derby! I did think this book was fun, but I was hoping it would focus more on roller derby and less on the main character's teen romance. It didn't really help that I often found Bliss to be pretty irritating - trying too hard to be counterculture and indie.

I honestly didn't have a whole lot of sympathy for her, since she was a total bitch to anyone that didn't fit into her idea of cool. Supposedly that was how the other people in her town treate More...

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Feb 21, 2010

Susan rated it:

Whip It is a fantastic book! I wanted to read it before seeing the movie, and let me tell you it does not disappoint. From the very first page, I was laughing hard enough to embarrass myself in public. It's hard to describe to non-reading friends how something as simple as letters and words can be strung into sentences and thoughts that can have such a strong effect on a person, but if you read Whip It and don't bust out guffawing and snorting at totally inappropriate moments then you'd better c More...

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May 03, 2010

Erin rated it:

When I began reading this book, having known it was made into a film starring Ellen Page, I instantly identified the character of Bliss Cavendar with Juno's main personality, Juno MacGuff. Both share the same sense of ironic humor, sarcasm, and wit, and while reading this book, I couldn't picture anyone but Ellen Page as Bliss Cavendar. The story begins with 16 year Bliss giving us a description of how her life sucks and more specifically the lack of anything "cool" in her hick town of More...

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May 22, 2011

Ange (MarmaladeLibby of Libby Blog) rated it:

Bliss Cavender, do I have to say more? That's her name! How tragic can it get, but there's more...her mother is obsessed with beauty pageants and hoping they'll follow in the family tradition of becoming the next Miss Blue Bonnet. Blick, right!? This is exactly how Bliss feels. Lost and becoming smothered in her small town of Bodeen, Texas until one day a flyer for the Austin Roller Derby finds its way into her hands. One evening of roller derby is all it takes for Bliss to know that she has fin More...

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