I adored Gardner's other contemporary, "You're Welcome, Universe" and this book delivered another wonderful heap of girl-powered wit and charm in the form of cosplay-loving Cameron. I think this is very smartly written YA that brought up issues of sexism, girls in the "nerd" universe, and dealing with online harassment, all while balancing the heavier issues out with utterly delightful D&D scenes and cute romance (and family!) moments.
Sure, "Chaotic Good" is a little silly at times; the main plot revolves around Cameron dressing up as a boy in order to shop for comics in peace. But the book acknowledges that silliness with a couple "She's the Man" references and the whole story just becomes even more realistic. It's a great pairing of fluffy sweetness and teenage struggles, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys books like "Fangirl" or "Queens of Geek". I read the whole book in one setting and have officially added Whitney Gardner to my Favorite Authors list- can't wait to see what she does next! :) ( )

Cute and full of fandom-y moments. Cameron, who loves cosplay, is sick of being treated differently in fandom by guys because she happens to be a girl. When she goes into a comic book store, and is made fun of by the shop’s owner, she’s annoyed enough that with the help of her brother Cooper, she disguises herself as a boy the next time. All sorts of crazy nerdy fandom stuff ensues, including lots of Dungeons and Dragons and costume making. I liked the romance in this one, and the cool side characters.

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader. ( )

As a fan of D&D and other nerdy things (via my username), I found this book pretty interesting. While the story was perfectly detailed, I got some handy tips on how to be a DM. To summarize it in (number of sentences I put), it's about a girl named Cameron who is really talented at making cosplay, but doesn't know too much about the actual characters she re-creates. So on her blog that she posts her cosplay, she gets a lot of hate from jerk-randos on the internet. But then, she gets to create a portfolio of five original costumes to try and get into an art college. However, since she didn't know where to start, her dad lends her his old D&D Player's Handbook so she could get some ideas. As Cameron reads through the handbook, she gets lost into the amazing world of D&D, and within a few days, she finds herself in a campaign. ( )

Even though I didn't understand the cosplay and Dungeons and Dragons references in this book, Chaotic Good was an enjoyable novel. Cameron was a great protagonist, although she could be annoying at times. I loved that she was a talented seamstress who created her own costumes. However, the harassment she had to face on social media due to her gender was truly horrible and the sexism felt real.

Despite the serious issues of friendship, bullying, insecurity and love, I found "Chaotic Good" a quick, fun read. ( )

teen fiction (cosplay meets D&D, meets Internet trollery and IRL misogyny, with incidentally gay characters)
Huh, so that's how people play Dungeons and Dragons. Parts of this depressed the heck out of me (the hate, it's so real) and when everyone finds out the ugly mess that Cam's really been dealing with, I had to cry. But all the fandom details seemed really accurate (I can at least vouch for the sewing parts), and even the chapter number illustrations of the 20-sided die were accurate--not fudged like I'd expected the publishers to do.
Not the happiest story, but thought-provoking, and I learned about D&D. ( )