Review: Troll Or Derby

Troll Or Derby by Red Tash

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Book Info: Genre: Urban Fantasy
Reading Level: Young Adult
Recommended for: Fan of YA urban fantasy that are not put off by the trigger warnings mentioned, and enjoy a funny but exciting story.
Trigger Warnings: Slang use of “r” word; (implied) rape and child molestation; drug use and pushing, murder, underage drinking

Disclosure: I received an e-book copy of this from the author in exchange for an honest review, after she had noticed I had several of her book son my shelf. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis: In Troll Or Derby, fifteen-year-old Roller Deb is singled out by town bullies for both her skates, and her sexual orientation. When her popular homecoming queen of a sister is kidnapped by a scuzzy drug dealer, Deb must flee the trailer park in which she's grown up, and rescue her. Along the way, Deb becomes enmeshed in the magical realm of trolls and fairies, and the blood-thirsty version of roller derby at which these beings excel. But spending too much time among the fairies comes with a price. Will Deb choose to save her sister, with the aid of a mysterious troll? Or will she be lost to the lures of roller derby, and the blonde temptress April, forever?

My Thoughts: After reading this authors fun series of shorts, The Wizard Tales, I couldn’t decide on what to read, so I decided to just stick with what was working and read this one, which is the one she actually sent to me for a review after all!

I don’t really know what I expected. I had run across this book several times before the author offered it to me, and I was waffling about it for most of that time. What I did not expect was to totally love it! It’s not all fairies and rainbows, that’s for sure. Dave and McJagger are some really nasty people, and do some really nasty things. Also, McJagger’s name is such a pun; while explaining the story to my husband, he did the schtick from the book when McJagger’s name was first mentioned almost exactly. I really had to laugh.

I enjoyed this book a lot. I laughed a lot. Not to say there wasn’t a serious problem—among other things, it deals with drug use and abuse in smaller communities and the danger of meth—but there is plenty of humor to break it up. If you are the type to be upset by any of the trigger warnings, please take them into account before you read this book. Otherwise, feel free to read and enjoy this book. I certainly did. Following are some of my thoughts about use of conscripted words in books. You don’t need to read this bit if you don’t want to.

Random comments about language use:
There will probably be some fallback over the use of the “r” word by one of the characters. I know this usage is considered a Very Bad Thing® nowadays, but to insist that no character ever be allowed to issue a statement that is contrary to popular fancy smacks strongly of the Thought Police to me. A person cannot control all the actions of a character in a book. Or, rather, the author could, but would it be realistic? When discussing this with my husband, I used as an example a book I read written by a Baptist pastor that contained the “f” word. While I’m quite certain the author does not approve of the word use, nor use the word himself in general conversation, he understood that the character he was creating in his book would be likely to do so, so he used it. In this case, the character in question is a 15-year-old girl in a small town in rural Indiana, and like it or not, would be very likely to speak in this way. So, while there will be some people completely enraged that is it used at all, consider this: do you honestly believe every person in the world will change the way they speak? While it could be your goal, I do not think it realistic. All we can do is speak mindfully ourselves and point it out when we see it, but not expect everyone in the world to bow to our desires.

But I’ve gone on quite long enough about that. You’ll each have your own thoughts on the matter, and if you want to share them with me, respectfully, feel free to do so.



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