Brace for Impact

A crash course in the brutal, big-hearted world of roller derby, told through the unforgettable story of one young woman's fight to find her place in the world.

Gabe Montesanti grew up queer in a working-class, Catholic family in a conservative small town in the Midwest. In this turbulent environment, she developed a severe eating disorder, learned to distrust herself, and lived in constant fear. As she enters graduate school, she vows to put the trauma of her past behind her and to learn to fully inhabit her body. She joins Arch Rival Roller Derby in St. Louis, one of the top-rated teams in the country, and instantly falls in love with the sport's roughness, intensity, and open embrace of people who are literally and figuratively scarred. Gabe soon finds community, safety, and a sense of belonging, reveling in the queer-friendly environment, tattoos, glitter, and campiness. She chooses the derby name Joan of Spark, modeling herself after the fierce and independent Joan of Arc, to signify all the ways she's left behind the baggage of her childhood.

But when Gabe suffers a catastrophic injury, her unresolved trauma catches up with her. In the aftermath of her accident, it becomes impossible to ignore the parallels between the physicality of roller derby and the emotional violence of her upbringing. Gabe's arduous physical recovery is matched only by the painful process of beginning to heal her emotional wounds. Forced to reckon with her past, she must decide if she can be Joan of Spark off the track, too--skating into a bolder, truer future.