Chaotic Good

Reviewed by: Sarah Cropley - Scarborough Public Library, Scarborough, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: July 3, 2018

Review

The summer before her senior year, Cameron is prepping for her portfolio presentation so she can get into a great school for costume design and dealing with the fact that her family has recently moved from Portland, Oregon to the much slower paced Eugene. Still, Cameron receives the same message that's been haunting her since she won a costume contest the year before: women don't belong in nerdy spaces. With hate still pouring in online and a sexist clerk working the local comic store, Cameron sets out in disguise as a boy to prove the unfairness of the assumption. However, it's not the jerk from before, but a different guy who is working the counter, and he invites the disguised Cameron to join his Dungeons and Dragons group. Before Cameron knows what has happened, she finds herself over her head--hate bombarding her from one direction, pressure from her portfolio from another, and (to top it all off) feelings for the DM of her game. Everything crescendos until Cameron is struggling to even get by.

Gardner weaves the perfect tale of what it means to be a young girl in today's nerd spaces: combating those who think that women don't belong, those that misunderstand--willfully or otherwise--how hard it is, the liability that comes from not knowing every piece of trivia or liking the "wrong" thing too much. With the resurgence of D&D in teen communities and comics still reigning supreme for many teens, this book will surely be a hit. Gardner's easy command of Cameron's voice lives up to the hype of the subject matter.

Overall Book Score: very good