Book= 256 paged short story
Rating=four out of five stars
Shauna Cross’s young adult novel Derby Girl has hit theaters with the renewed title of Whip It. Written by a roller derby athlete, Cross published the book in 2007 and then adapted it for the big screen. She was the primary screenwriter of Whip It which was released in theaters in early October of 2009.
Derby Girl is the short story of Bliss Cavendar, a blue-haired indie-lover, born and raised in the small town area of Bodeen, Texas. The sixteen-year-old girl finds herself struggling to live under the watchful eye of her pageant-obsessed mother who, more than anything, would love to see her daughter in the Miss Bluebonnet’s Pageant—Bliss’s absolute worst nightmare.
For the time being, Bliss discovers a whole different world when she comes upon the eccentric sport of roller derby in down town Austin. As an escape from reality becomes a place to belong to, she begins to take more risks such as crazy parties, hard-core boys in bands, and a few rules of independence that allow her to take fate into her own hands.
Roller derby brings out the teen’s stronger side until Bliss has to decide whether to follow her own dreams or those of her mother. But other obstacles stand in her way like tolerating mean pageant-queen girls, handling her friendship with everlasting Pash Amini, suffering through a cheesy job at the Oink-Joint, keeping her real age under wraps, and a few other challenging lessons that even Bliss (derby name: Babe Ruthless) has to learn.
Shauna Cross weaves a hilarious short-story filled with music and the world of roller derby as it is seen through the eyes of a true misfit.
Book: 352 pages= Interview with the Vampire Rating= four out of five stars
Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire is the long life-story of Louis, 200-year old vampire who decides to tell his story to a news reporter. The novel was published in 1976 and adapted as a film in 1994. The story was followed by a collection of more books but, of course, it was this first novel that started it all.
In the plantation of New Orleans, back 1791, Louis starts his life as a young human owning a plantation along with a crew of slave workers. Mourning from the death of his brother, Louis encounters a vampire named Lestat and seeks to become a vampire himself in order to cure his misery. Thus, begins the adventure of Louis and Lestat, the two vampires who destroy the plantation and all the workers in it in order to start a new life somewhere else. Louis’s personality slowly changes under the influence of his own vampiric self and Lestat’s companionship.
A six-year old girl, called Claudia, is soon stumbled upon when Louis drinks blood from the plague-ridden girl. Meantime, Lestat senses Louis’s desire to leave him and to go their separate ways so Lestat turns the young sickly girl into a vampire so she’d become a sort of “daughter” figure.
The trio embarks on many obstacles. By the end of the story, the news reporter (referred to only as “the boy” in the book) is also influenced by the story of Louis’s long life.
Anne Rice creates a rich story about the loneliness of immortality and lost idealism. Interview with a Vampire overviews the rare lesson of how even if you may live long, death and sadness can still affect you the absolute most.
