Don't Cosplay with My Heart by Cecil Castellucci

Abstract

Reviewed by: Don't Cosplay with My Heart by Cecil Castellucci Karen Coats Castellucci, Cecil Don't Cosplay with My Heart. Scholastic, 2017 [288p] ISBN 978-1-338-12549-8 $17.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 6-9 Edan has always felt connected to the comic series superheroes Team Tomorrow, [End Page 156] but when her father is sequestered pending a trial for financial malfeasance, she really needs to feel like Gargantua, the team's literally larger-than-life female leader. When she learns about a costume contest at an upcoming con, Edan and her friend Kasumi come up with the idea of a cosplay club. Meanwhile, her mom is seriously depressed, her crush Yuri and his friends are constantly questioning her nerd credentials, and she can't bring herself to tell Kasumi the truth about her dad, especially when she learns that Kasumi's parents are in financial trouble because of what he did. Through Edan's story, Castellucci explores the ins and outs of fan culture, focusing in particular on how fans use their identification with characters and their arcs to understand their own identities and work through difficult circumstances. Edan's narration is interrupted with supposedly nonfictional accounts of the history of the Team Tomorrow comic, a history that both accounts for and corrects, to some extent, the sexism inherent in real comics history while it comments obliquely on Edan's current relationships. In the end, though, Edan learns that just as comics can be rebooted, so can shattered lives; this book makes a strong argument for the therapeutic uses of superheroes and fandoms as it shows insiders and outsiders alike that sometimes wearing a mask is what it takes to reveal who you really are. KC Copyright © 2017 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois