BLOOD CITY ROLLERS

A supernatural roller derby squad settles in to a new haunt.

Mina’s had a rough summer. The Vamps, her vampire roller derby team, had to abandon a derelict mall nearing demolition, losing both rink and home base. After finding life-changing kinship with the squad, Mina now feels adrift, and she spends her days skating around town searching for them with fellow human teammate Swan. When the Vamps reassemble at a condemned asylum, Mina’s relieved, but she senses new forces vying for the musty, mysterious territory. The ghost of an asylum inmate still drifts through the dusty halls, talking everyone’s ears off, and a scraggly team of NOMADS—“Non-recognized Otherworldly Monsters and/or Deviant Species”—are also hoping to live and skate there. The book has plenty of derby action, and contending with a band of misfit monsters also sparks much conversation about discrimination against less-definable entities in league play. Many themes collide, but everything eventually coalesces around supporting friends and finding community through good sportsmanship. Still, with monsters involved, unseen dangers are always lurking—zombies skulk in the asylum’s boiler room, foreshadowing confrontation to come. Characters have a broad variety of skin tones, and gender pronouns are noted.

Phantoms and fraught friendships fuel a spooky second outing for this reflective series.