Review of Troll or Derby

Goodreads Summary: "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?"

First off I feel I have got to warn you that if cursing isn't your thing than you might to back away from this particular read now because it curses in spades. Personally it doesn't bother me but I know some people are on the squeamish side and I wouldn't want to offend anyone's sensibilities.

We all good now? Alright. Moving on.

What Troll or Derby had going for it was that it was unlike any fey story I've ever read before. I mean, come on, fey at a roller derby? It sounds crazy, right? Until you think about it. Fey are cruel by nature. They play tricks, they steal babies and replace them with changelings, and they are often violent. Maybe using a roller derby as a setting isn't so off the wall after all. Plenty of room for mayhem and violence in that kind of arena. And that is where the story shines. Its nothing like you would expect.

Troll or Derby is narrated by Deb, also known as Roller Deb, and Harlow. Personally I greatly preferred Harlow's narration despite the fact that he was prone to tangents. There was just something about him that kept me interested. It probably helped that he understood a lot more of what was going on around them than Deb did. It was his world after all, Deb just lived in it so to speak. Deb's cluelessness tended to irk me. And how easily swayed she could be from her mission. She'd be off to save her sister than suddenly something else would come up and she would forget all about her sister for awhile until something clued her back in. Though she did come around in the end and I enjoyed her in the latter half of the novel.

One thing that bugged me about this novel was that the characters narrating often narrated their chapter through stream of consciousness, which means any old thing that popped into their mind was fair game. So there were lots of random tangents in the midst of action sequences that kind of through you off and made the story, as a whole, lose a great deal of its momentum. You'd be going along just fine, in the midst of say a chase when all of a sudden a character would think of something or be reminded of something else and off track you'd go until they chose to rein themselves in again.

As a whole the story turned the whole fantasy genre on its head. Kind of Alice in Wonderland style if you get my drift. Nothing was as it seemed. Leave all of your preconceptions at the door because this book will live up to none of them. And it will also keep you laughing until you don't think you can take anymore. The key to enjoying Troll or Derby is to not take it too seriously, just have fun with it.

Rating: 3/5

A Kindle edition of this book was given to me by the author in exchange for a fair and honest review. This in no way influenced my review.