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taranicolewilson's review
4.0
Cameron Birch is a geeky girl struggling to find the balance between cosplay, college applications, and a bit of romance on the side, all the while trying to overcome the interent hate on her blog. How does she deal with it? Obviously dressing up as a boy to play Dungeon and Dragons with some guys.
Ok, the entire time I had this geeky grin on my face. Whenever I saw a reference, I was like a squealing mess. There are so many great things here!
Reading how Cameron works on her costumes was so interesting, since I feel its a topic not many authors take on. Her brother is also pretty great, he’s a writer himself. Its a little disappointing they didn’t dive into that as much. The artwork was also very cool. I also really wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons after reading this.
BUT. I had two problems.
SPOILERS
1. Insta-love. So Cam has this crush on Link, which is fine, but he literally shows no particular interest in her. UNTIL THE PLOT NEEDS IT. At one point they are playing scrabble, the next they are kissing. Its threw me so much for a loop I had to reread to make sure I wasn’t missing something.
2. Ending: its so fast. Her parents are like we support you here take this phone be good k thanx bye. ???
Then she goes to the comic store and her friends are wearing their outfits, then it ends. We never see how the campaign ends. This infuriated me, it became such a major part of the story, and i don’t get to see what happens.....another thing: we don’t get to know if cameron makes it into college. I know its done purposely, but I really don’t like loose threads in stories.
It really did just need like 10 more pages to wrap this up better.
I honestly did like this a lot, please read fellow nerds!!
Ok, the entire time I had this geeky grin on my face. Whenever I saw a reference, I was like a squealing mess. There are so many great things here!
Reading how Cameron works on her costumes was so interesting, since I feel its a topic not many authors take on. Her brother is also pretty great, he’s a writer himself. Its a little disappointing they didn’t dive into that as much. The artwork was also very cool. I also really wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons after reading this.
BUT. I had two problems.
SPOILERS
1. Insta-love. So Cam has this crush on Link, which is fine, but he literally shows no particular interest in her. UNTIL THE PLOT NEEDS IT. At one point they are playing scrabble, the next they are kissing. Its threw me so much for a loop I had to reread to make sure I wasn’t missing something.
2. Ending: its so fast. Her parents are like we support you here take this phone be good k thanx bye. ???
Then she goes to the comic store and her friends are wearing their outfits, then it ends. We never see how the campaign ends. This infuriated me, it became such a major part of the story, and i don’t get to see what happens.....another thing: we don’t get to know if cameron makes it into college. I know its done purposely, but I really don’t like loose threads in stories.
It really did just need like 10 more pages to wrap this up better.
I honestly did like this a lot, please read fellow nerds!!
yuniesan's review
4.0
I'm between a 3.5 and a 4 star rating on this book. There are a lot of things that I loved but there were a lot of things that I didn't but that mostly had to do with the handling of the bullying aspect of the story. I mean how hard would it have been for her to literally report all of them for the comments????? I mean if I can do it on Tumblr then so can she.
What I loved was the geek girl meets Shakespeare trope, because there isn't a lot of crossdressing stories out there (well outside of the manga I read) I also think that she needed to grab her lady balls and message the designer.
I think that the ending should have been more fleshed out because it felt a little rushed. It also makes you wonder if she ever got her portfolio finished? Also the jump from when she's talking to Link to them making out feels really awkward..... or is it just me?
What I loved was the geek girl meets Shakespeare trope, because there isn't a lot of crossdressing stories out there (well outside of the manga I read) I also think that she needed to grab her lady balls and message the designer.
I think that the ending should have been more fleshed out because it felt a little rushed. It also makes you wonder if she ever got her portfolio finished? Also the jump from when she's talking to Link to them making out feels really awkward..... or is it just me?
aea_hobbit's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1madchild's review against another edition
3.0
A fun little romp.
Good for the car, a little bit juvenile but some nice realistic parts
Good for the car, a little bit juvenile but some nice realistic parts
xsleepyshadows's review
Got halfway, kinda disappointed since i liked whitney Gardner's last book so much. Does cover some interesting issues like incels and gatekeeping for girls...but really really really pushes IM A GIRL at you. The character for me is so hard to connect to
Just meh read for me
Just meh read for me
lost_reader's review
Just not what I thought it was going to be. Don't like the tone or style at all. And the front flap description is making me think 'nah'.
theangrystackrat's review
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
I was 100% loving this book until the last 20ish percent. I am furious about the ending of this book. It was so stupid.
runehallow's review
2.0
cute enough, but it doesn't really address the gender/sexuality issues at play in a thoughtful or nuanced fashion. the D&D comic inserts were a nice little story-within-a-story, though i didn't really care for the art style.
cam crossdresses as a boy basically so she can access male privilege, and it works EXTREMELY well, but this strategy is never examined in any way other than 'whew how nice it is to be a man and in a man's world'. this book suffers from the same problem as most YA contemporaries that incorporate nerd stuff and gender stuff and all these other complicated concepts--they take'em and they boil'em down to a bland rom-com sandwich. 'boy' cam is just a vehicle for drama, a secret thrumming beneath the surface that will eventually burst forth and cause a permanent shift in cam's relationships. you might think a fluffy rom-com doesn't need to think too hard about ANYTHING it does, but it's very strange, to me, to populate a book with multiple gay boys + one straight girl PRETENDING to be a (also straight, actually) boy without any thought as to the actual politics of the situation.
the concerns here are comfort and fear; cam crossdresses because she wants to fit in, and because she feels safe as a man. but that safety is based only on how others treat her while in the disguise; she doesn't give any serious consideration to the transformation in and of itself. she passes so completely that a gay man gets a crush on her, which is offensively weird, because she remains definitively a cis straight woman throughout the whole thing. the cis straight guy gets a crush ALSO, while still ostensibly perceiving cam as a man? idk. it's just all this thorny stuff that's elided in favor of the typical rom-com denouement in which the deception is revealed and cam has to fix all of her friendships as her Real Lady Self. she shouldn't be punished for being a girl, but it's not a great look to fuck around with a gay guy's feelings, either (or to intimate, however unintentionally, that this gay guy is REALLY just/also attracted to women).
cyberbullying is also a big theme here, and trust me, i am ACQUAINTED with anon hate and its deleterious effect on the psyche, as well as how humiliating it is to even talk about. cam's desire to escape from this harassment and her belief that just BECOMING a dude will make it stop is interesting and understandable, but even though fan entitlement and toxic masculinity and so on are the roots of her troubles, that's not really gotten into at all. instead, the most asshole dude is eventually humanized (despite him being a stereotype for 90 pct of the book), the gender politics are blithely ignored, and nothing significant is interrogated in even the most shallow way.
but, i mean. D&D is cool.
cam crossdresses as a boy basically so she can access male privilege, and it works EXTREMELY well, but this strategy is never examined in any way other than 'whew how nice it is to be a man and in a man's world'. this book suffers from the same problem as most YA contemporaries that incorporate nerd stuff and gender stuff and all these other complicated concepts--they take'em and they boil'em down to a bland rom-com sandwich. 'boy' cam is just a vehicle for drama, a secret thrumming beneath the surface that will eventually burst forth and cause a permanent shift in cam's relationships. you might think a fluffy rom-com doesn't need to think too hard about ANYTHING it does, but it's very strange, to me, to populate a book with multiple gay boys + one straight girl PRETENDING to be a (also straight, actually) boy without any thought as to the actual politics of the situation.
the concerns here are comfort and fear; cam crossdresses because she wants to fit in, and because she feels safe as a man. but that safety is based only on how others treat her while in the disguise; she doesn't give any serious consideration to the transformation in and of itself. she passes so completely that a gay man gets a crush on her, which is offensively weird, because she remains definitively a cis straight woman throughout the whole thing. the cis straight guy gets a crush ALSO, while still ostensibly perceiving cam as a man? idk. it's just all this thorny stuff that's elided in favor of the typical rom-com denouement in which the deception is revealed and cam has to fix all of her friendships as her Real Lady Self. she shouldn't be punished for being a girl, but it's not a great look to fuck around with a gay guy's feelings, either (or to intimate, however unintentionally, that this gay guy is REALLY just/also attracted to women).
cyberbullying is also a big theme here, and trust me, i am ACQUAINTED with anon hate and its deleterious effect on the psyche, as well as how humiliating it is to even talk about. cam's desire to escape from this harassment and her belief that just BECOMING a dude will make it stop is interesting and understandable, but even though fan entitlement and toxic masculinity and so on are the roots of her troubles, that's not really gotten into at all. instead, the most asshole dude is eventually humanized (despite him being a stereotype for 90 pct of the book), the gender politics are blithely ignored, and nothing significant is interrogated in even the most shallow way.
but, i mean. D&D is cool.
jaydoesitup's review
5.0
This book was everything I could have ever wanted. This is the kind of book I wish high school me could have read after coming home from the comic book store d&d games upset because non of the guys took me seriously. I LOVED this book. It was sweet, geeky, lgbt inclusive, and the main character made costumes! I borrowed this book from the library, and you can guarantee I will be buying a copy for my own shelves so I can re-read it when I need a pick me up.
caitlin_lore's review
4.0
📚 @kidlitexchange #partner review 📚
—all opinions of this book are my own
•
Oh my readers—this March 2018 release by is a must have for your Spring #tbrpile
•
Cameron has one goal: use her artistic cosplay talents to get into CalTech. Last summer, her cosplay finally garnered some attention but not all of it was what she hoped for as it set off a firestorm of angry comments from male fans.
When her family moves the summer before senior year, she hopes she can complete her portfolio in peace. That is until she realizes the only comic store in town—her source of inspiration—is dominated by a male owner who challenges every woman who walks into the shop.
Disguised as boy Cameron (from the suggestion of her twin brother) she finds herself pulled into a world of acceptance, D&D, and everything she’s fighting for.
Except— it’s getting harder and harder to reveal her secret, especially when she starts falling for the Dungeon Master.
•
I had no idea what to expect when I picked up CHAOTIC GOOD, but I’m so glad I finished it right before the New Year. It was a feel-good novel that left me encouraged and feeling great for 2018. I’m a sucker for contemporaries with quirky romances, and this one did not disappoint. Cameron’s journey is emotional, heart wrenching, and joyous all at once. I found myself crying with her and rooting for her with every turn on the page.
•
Even though I’m a self proclaimed nerd, I’ve never *gasp* played Dungeons and Dragons. Oddly enough, I’ve found myself curious about the game so finding out it was a big plot point really excited me. D&D is woven throughout the story and adds so much depth and fun, especially when the characters’ storylines come alive in surprise comic pages that are interspersed throughout several chapters.
•
Overall, CHAOTIC GOOD is a story about a girl finding herself in a man’s world—so ultimately, isn’t it the story of us all?
For that, I highly recommend this book for anyone who’s struggled with finding their place. It’s a read for the artists, the nerds, the D&D fans, and anyone else who wants a light-hearted comedy about the importance of being yourself and fighting off the haters.
•
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
•
📚Ages 15+
📚coming of age & LGBTQ 🏳️🌈
📚Dungeons and Dragons flair, some language
—all opinions of this book are my own
•
Oh my readers—this March 2018 release by is a must have for your Spring #tbrpile
•
Cameron has one goal: use her artistic cosplay talents to get into CalTech. Last summer, her cosplay finally garnered some attention but not all of it was what she hoped for as it set off a firestorm of angry comments from male fans.
When her family moves the summer before senior year, she hopes she can complete her portfolio in peace. That is until she realizes the only comic store in town—her source of inspiration—is dominated by a male owner who challenges every woman who walks into the shop.
Disguised as boy Cameron (from the suggestion of her twin brother) she finds herself pulled into a world of acceptance, D&D, and everything she’s fighting for.
Except— it’s getting harder and harder to reveal her secret, especially when she starts falling for the Dungeon Master.
•
I had no idea what to expect when I picked up CHAOTIC GOOD, but I’m so glad I finished it right before the New Year. It was a feel-good novel that left me encouraged and feeling great for 2018. I’m a sucker for contemporaries with quirky romances, and this one did not disappoint. Cameron’s journey is emotional, heart wrenching, and joyous all at once. I found myself crying with her and rooting for her with every turn on the page.
•
Even though I’m a self proclaimed nerd, I’ve never *gasp* played Dungeons and Dragons. Oddly enough, I’ve found myself curious about the game so finding out it was a big plot point really excited me. D&D is woven throughout the story and adds so much depth and fun, especially when the characters’ storylines come alive in surprise comic pages that are interspersed throughout several chapters.
•
Overall, CHAOTIC GOOD is a story about a girl finding herself in a man’s world—so ultimately, isn’t it the story of us all?
For that, I highly recommend this book for anyone who’s struggled with finding their place. It’s a read for the artists, the nerds, the D&D fans, and anyone else who wants a light-hearted comedy about the importance of being yourself and fighting off the haters.
•
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
•
📚Ages 15+
📚coming of age & LGBTQ 🏳️🌈
📚Dungeons and Dragons flair, some language