Let's start this review with my view on cosplay (which is the main theme of this book). Myself, I have tried it a handful of times but it is not my thing. My body is not shaped to look like the characters in fandoms and my artistic talent does not lie in the realm of sewing. Recognition and praise would be nice, but oggling and snide remarks are not. Being completely ignored with neither praise nor criticism after putting time and effort into something hurts just as much. So I have deemed cosplay not my thing, and I've even become a bit bitter towards it. I recognize it as jealousy on my part because these people (9/10 of the time, girls) have amazing bodies and awesome outfits and the guys are all upons. It didn't help when someone in my personal life who cosplays made me think even less of the community when she did some really shitty things. Then there's those that are pretty much models that make money from modeling awesomely made cosplay but know nothing or care nothing about the fandom. Ah, and therein lies where this book hit me personally. Enter the main character: Cameron, a girl who received an award for best cosplay when she made the outfits for her group of friends to be FFVII characters. When asked "What's your favorite thing about the game?" she replied, "Oh, I've never played it" and thus begins the shit show. While I may not be as awful as the people who are ruining her life by sending her hate mail and trolling her blog and calling her with death threats, I felt incredibly guilty because in the back of my mind, that's exactly what I would have thought. "Another stupid cosplay girl who doesn't even know about the character she's dressed as." Turns out, her friends are super into it and she was nice enough to make all their outfits so they could all be FFVII characters. Sigh. I feel like a turd.

So this book was good for me because at least it let me reflect upon myself and feelings towards cosplayers and to have a moment to walk in their (personally made) shoes. It also involves D&D, comic characters, adorable comic pages of their campaign, super adorable characters, Eugene, OR where my husband's mom lives (near) so I can picture the setting, and an all around wonderfully nerdy book!

TL;DR I am a judgy person towards cosplayers and this book helped me see it from another point of view. Also full of super great nerdy references and adorable characters.

P.S. I still HATE that cosplayer I know IRL.