Derby Girl/Whip it

I absolutely love the movie Whip It and when I learned it came from a book, I devoured the book. Both are good, but the book is slightly better.

Sadly, author Shauna Cross has apparently never written anything else. Shame because I really like her writing style.

If you like the movie, definitely check out the book, but don't be surprised that there are several differences.

Bliss and her family are mostly the same, except Bliss has her blue hair for most of the book. Her little sister Shania (AKA: Sweet Pea) is younger in the book at only 4. I'm not sure how old she's supposed to be in the movie, but definitely older than 4. Bliss herself is 16 in the book and 17 in the movie.

Pash is quite a bit different. This is the one thing I really regret that they changed for the movie. Don't get me wrong. I like Alia Shawkat and she did an amazing job, but Pash Amini is supposed to be Middle Eastern. Alia is half-Iraqi, but Pash isn't supposed to be white-passing. I think that was a big missed opportunity that could have gone to a young Middle Eastern actress.

Oliver in the movie looks nothing like Oliver in the book. I'm sorry, but Movie Oliver is not hot one iota. Not even a little.

And if you're looking for Iron Maven, Maggie Mayhem, Bloody Holly and Smashley Simpson in the book, they're not there. Very few of the derby names used in the book made it to the movie.

Maggie Mayhem in the book is Malice in Wonderland, a blonde with blue streaks in her hair. She's a college student, not a single mom.

Iron Maven is Dinah Might. They're equally bitchy, but Dinah in the book actually does rat out Bliss. Maven in the movie does not. They also changed the minimum age to be a derby girl from 18 to 21 for the movie.

The Hurl Scouts did better in the book, too. They win the championship. I'm wondering if this was altered due to Iron Maven's character. She's an antagonist, but she turns out to be more of a sympathetic one, so her winning in the movie is more palatable.

Oliver is more of a dick in the book. There's more than one photo of him with the blonde girl and in one, they're making out. So Bliss was cheated on and there's no "but you didn't call" like there was in the movie. He's also written as having more personality, so the betrayal is harsher, because you actually got to like him more as a character than you do in the movie. He's okay in the movie, but he's just so goofy-looking that I was never persuaded to like him.

So yeah, if you like Whip It the movie, definitely read the book. It was originally called Derby Girl, as seen in this photo here, so you can find it under either name. I've actually reread it several times, but just realized today that I never gave it the review it needed!