Blood City Rollers (Blood City Rollers #1)

by V P Anderson (Author) Tatiana Hill (Illustrator)

Reading Level: 6th − 7th Grade

Skates on. Fangs out. Let's roll. This perfectly paranormal graphic novel about a 13-year-old ice skater who embraces the dark side and finds her light when she joins a vampire roller derby team is to die for.

Ice-skater Mina is on a one-track path to Olympic gold and glory--that is, until she totally wipes out at her biggest competition, and is kinda-sorta-kidnapped by undead kids on roller skates. Sucked into the high stakes world of Paranormal Roller Derby, she finds herself "recruited" by a squad of vampires who need a human player to complete their team--just in time to save the league from losing it all.

Between learning to play derby well enough to kick butt on the track, crushing hard on the dreamy team captain, and navigating the spooky rules of the supernatural, how can Mina go from striving to be a ten alone, to becoming one of nine chaotic bodies forming a perfectly-imperfect team? Forget being the best. Will she be enough to help her new friends survive the season?

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ALA/Booklist

Relatable and sweet.

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review

Thirteen-year-old figure skater Mina Murray's dreams of one day winning Olympic gold are forfeit when an ill-timed fall on the ice ends her career before it even begins. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for Mina, she uncovers an alternate route to athletic fame when a roving gang of young roller derby vampires called Blood City Vamps kidnap her to join their team as a last-minute jammer against the Mavens. Training with the Vamps--especially their bold, brave captain Val Halla--reinvigorates Mina's love for skating, but when a strange creature from Val's past puts Mina's life at risk, Mina must choose her own path: return to her regular life or face unknown dangers and remain with her new companions on the Paranormal Roller Derby track. In this high-octane double graphic novel debut, Anderson expertly captures the supernatural complications of tossing a human into a creature feature rivalry and the struggles of finding one's place in the world. Hill's lively illustrations, rendered in bright, eerie neon, winningly encapsulate the frenetic pace of derby, striking a refreshing balance between spectral sports romp and queer found family narrative. Characters are portrayed with varying skin tones. Ages 8-12. (Apr.)

Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes



"This hybrid-genre graphic novel rolls by on raucous wheels, its anarchic and camp tone perfectly suiting Mina's coming-into-herself as a rebel in the queer community of paranormal-derby....Defiant and joyful." —The Bulletin
V P Anderson
Veronica Park (VP) Anderson (she/they) is a neurodivergent, queer, feminist millennial writer with a resume that Victor Frankenstein would disown for being "a bit much." V's previous job titles include: award-winning community theater actor, professional lecturer on cruise ships, indie film producer, literary agent, and creative project manager; however, "writer" is the title that always fits. V plays competitive flat track roller derby as "Scarlet Five" #55 and prefers the pivot role, aka "surprise jamming." Born in Alaska and raised in Oregon, she currently lives with her partner in Upstate NY and has two cats named Skeletor and Bo-Catan.

Tatiana Hill (she/her) is a Black and Latina illustrator by day and roller skater by night. Her art journey began alongside her love for anime in the early 2000s and culminated with a BA in Animation. Receiving awards for Best Art Direction, she would later apply her skill set in color and design to illustration. Born in Los Angeles and a member of the roller skate community there, Tatiana enjoys participating in a space that celebrates diversity, identity, and found family. She illustrated The Roller World Tarot deck and Blood City Rollers, her debut graphic novel as an illustrator.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9780593485699
Lexile Measure
400
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Labyrinth Road
Publication date
April 09, 2024
Series
Blood City Rollers
BISAC categories
JUV060000 - Juvenile Fiction | LGBT
JUV008130 - Juvenile Fiction | Comics & Graphic Novels | Paranormal
JUV078000 - Juvenile Fiction | Vampires
Library of Congress categories
Friendship
Graphic novels
Vampires
Cartoons and comics
Competition
Roller derby
Sports comics
Vampire comics

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