Chaotic Good

January 1, 2018

Gr 9 Up-Cameron Birch, rising high school senior, has just made the move from Portland to Eugene, OR with her family. She's eager to escape before even arriving, but cosplay and CalArts, the art school of her dreams, may be her ticket out. She needs the comics from the local comics shop in order to continue her designs, but sexist employee and owners' son Brody makes things difficult. Cameron dons a male disguise to avoid Brody's prejudice, and boy-Cameron is welcomed into the world of comics, fandom, and Dungeons & Dragons. This book realistically explores the pitfalls of modern girl geekdom, and how women must prove the legitimacy of their geek cred to a higher standard than their male counterparts. It also unapologetically touches on the emotional harm that accompanies online harassment and doxing that is often targeted at women. Love interest Lincoln serves as a progressive and open-minded counter to Brody. Lincoln isn't perfect but learns from his mistakes, and is used to explore gender and agency issues, including a compelling scene illustrating the concept of consent. While the writing is generally solid, occasional instances of clumsy storytelling and overly silly situations can detract from the underlying message. In particular are six sets of comic panels (representing in-story D & D play) interspersed in the prose that try to add character depth, but largely come across as superfluous. VERDICT This mostly charismatic, sometimes frothy but overall hopeful story largely succeeds in highlighting gender issues while leaving some issues realistically unresolved. A recommended purchase for those hoping to enlighten and empower teens.-Alea Perez, Westmont Public Library, IL

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2017
White cis girl Cameron Birch defeats trolls in the dungeons with a roll of her dice, but online the attack from anonymous haters never ends.Seventeen-year-old Cameron wants vengeance for the cruel comments spamming her cosplay blog. Disguised in her twin brother's clothes, she visits the only comic-book shop in town with the plan to reveal her true identity the moment the white, male clerk accepts her. Like magic, no one detects her, but she doesn't count on making friends with Why, a boy with brown skin and a golden Afro, who invites her in her male guise to join a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. On top of the stress of keeping up the lie that she is a boy, Cameron's future hangs in the balance with the upcoming portfolio review for her dream college. The story transitions between first-person prose and comics to represent shifts between Cameron's real life and the role-playing fantasy. The comics add a deeper level of immersion by providing readers with visual representation of Cameron's imagination. While the book rightly champions issues of consent and inclusion for cisgender girls in geek culture, Gardner's choice to have Cameron dress as a guy for a prank perpetuates a dangerous association between gender expression and deception--a choice that undercuts her point.Although cleverly formatted with a high-stakes plot, cis-normativity taints this feminist critique of toxic masculinity in geek culture. (Fiction. 14-18)

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December 15, 2017
Grades 9-12 Cameron loves cosplay, or at least she did until it earned her some seriously negative online attention. After admitting her ignorance of a particular fandom during a costume contest, she becomes the target of online harassment. After facing negative attention at her local comics shop (Atomix Comix), Cameron decides to dress up as a guy to escape the label of fake nerd. Post-transformation, she finds herself easily accepted by other male nerds around her. Of course, nothing is so simple, and in typical girl-pretends-to-be-boy confusion, one of the boys (Wyatt, her brother's crush) falls for Cameron, blocking her brother from possibly finding true love. Though the climax feels a bit predictable, the engagement with issues of toxic masculinity and the inclusion of complications around sexuality make the novel timely and captivating. Gardner (You're Welcome, Universe, 2017) has written a delightfully diverse, feminist, and realistic narrative that explores the pitfalls of dishonesty and the sometimes terrifying reality of being a woman in a culture dominated by toxic masculinity.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)