Book Response

Whip It
By Shauna Cross

From the get go, it's evident that sixteen year-old Bliss Cavendar is not happy with her situation in Bodeen, Texas; home of the Bluebonnet Ice Cream Factory. In fact, the book begins with Bliss writing a letter to her "real parents", because she is convinced that there is no way Brooke could be her mother.

As different as night and day, Brooke's agenda for Bliss consists of winning small pageants, then going on to be Miss Bluebonnet.

While on a disastrous shopping trip to Austin, Bliss sees something that will inspire her to come up with her own plans: an advertisement for a roller derby bout. After attending, Bliss is convinced to tryout for one of the teams in the leagues, The Hurl Scouts, where she discovers her talent as a jammer (point scorer). Plus, she even meets a guy who isn't like the mullet wearers she's come to (unfortunately) be familiar with at Bodeen High.

Sooner or later, though, life is going to put a tear in your fishnets, as our narrator discovers. When her life blows up in her face, it isn't just the fact that her boyfriend and his band are leaving for a three week tour ("[A] word of advice, [Bliss], never date a boy in a band, or a Leo--they're totally toxic"), nor is it that the derby girls have discovered she's been lying about her age, that has her terrified. Brooke taking away her skates and is dragging her to the dreaded Miss Bluebonnet Pageant (which happens to be the same day The Hurl Scouts are going to the derby championships) might have something to do with it, too.

What's a caustic misfit who's desperately itching to get out of Bodeen to do?



I enjoyed this book because of the narrator's biting humor and the way that it was similar to It's Kind of a Funny Story in how it was just like a teenager talking normally. Bliss shows that you don't have to live your life according to other people's expectations and that it'll only make you miserable in the end if you try to.

One thing that kind of gets annoying, though, is how she constantly condemns everything that is the least bit mainstream. It made me think something along the lines of, "Okay, we get that you're 'fighting the system', but you're being so non-conformist, that you're beginning to conform".

Also, yes, there is a movie of the same name, based off the book, starring Ellen Page as Bliss Cavendar.