As someone who has never been comfortable or really learned "how-to" put costumes and cosplay together I was hoping for a book that would be good for beginners. I do like that some of the ideas can be worn as an everyday outfit and have color schemes recommended. However some of the costumes I would not have known who they were trying to be if not for the information in the book. I did get at least a couple of quick simple costume ideas if I needed something on the fly.

As a cosplayer, I wanted to enjoy this book very much. However there are several flaws that made it quite hard.

1) The lack of diversity and inclusivity of models was disappointing. The book predominantly consisted of 95% white women.
2) The book felt more like "Character inspired fashion" rather than cosplays. I expected more "Closet Cosplays" yet a lot of the outfits were casual clothes donned with a character bag.
3) This book was 50% homage to Disney characters. I wish there were more "cosplays" from other genres and types of entertainment.

If someone was looking to do a casual cosplay, I would simply refer them to the internet over this book.

This book is fine as an introduction to casual cosplay, but it has enough flaws that I can't recommend it. First, it is not in any way inclusive: e.g., race, gender, size. It is mostly photos of white, skinny women. Second, descriptions of looks are inconsistent. Some have color schemes, some don't. Descriptions refer to model's names rather than where the picture is on the page. Some descriptions don't have a photo and some photos are not well described. Third, they grouped far too many non-villains in that villain chapter, enough that they should have renamed it or broken it up. This might just be a problem for me, but it irked me. I like seeing some looks modeled, but I prefer a collage (Polyvore-like) look for some outits also. I would also like to see art of the actual characters, but I'm guessing they couldn't afford to include those due to copyright. I like the expansion of Disneybounding to non-Disney characters, but that's not enough to make this book a buy for me.

Certainly not what I was anticipating or expecting. Let’s get some pluses out first. The outfits and looks were cute and accessible. However, there were a couple (like the Kim Possible look) that were not casual cosplays, but rather full attempted cosplays. They wouldn’t be flawless at a convention, but nobody would expect you to wear them to an everyday outing. Also, while this might be a good intro to cosplay for anyone because of the choice characters (Disney basically with a sprinkle of Harry Potter),it offered a lack of diversity. No classic anime, video game, DC, or non-childhood movie characters. This, I think, is part of the reason I also saw a lack of diversity in the models and their body types. Finally, I found it inexcusable to have the G-slur in a modern publication marketed towards young people as light, hobby-centric read. If Everdeen is Romani and discussed that when referencing Esmerelda’s character, maybe I’d understand, but there doesn’t seem to be any indication that Everdeen understands the severity of that word, so I wouldn’t recommend anyone I know to read the book.

I really enjoyed this book as I am a huge fan of Disney bounding. The looks were very cute and casual and most were easy to guess and put together. My only complaint would be for more non-Disney related characters included as well.

Arc Copy...more for the disney-bounder based on the amount of Disney Company franchise characters but pretty good source of ideas and inspirations. With some imagination can incorporated with other characters.