Review: Geekiness, Yes. Drama, No
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 27, 2014
Had The Cost To Play been strictly about two people--Jayne and Toshio--who loved comics, cosplay and other forms of awesome geekdom (and who eventually fall in love) I would have rated it a full five stars. Instead it got bogged down (unneccessarily I might add) with family drama, stereotyped black female "friendships" and the "I'm Black, you're fill-in-the-blank" face-palming conversation that no sane person would EVER have in the midst of a sensual massage.I wanted more geekery, and it was quite clear the author has a nerd streak more than a mile wide. Anyone who knows about 'Record of Lodoss War' has got to be cool. That's why I wanted more cosplay. More discussions about Storm of the X-Men. I wanted more con scenes, especially Anime Expo (a con I've been attending for over eight years). I wanted to be immersed in that scene--the cosplays, the excitement of Artists' Alley, the musical performances (how can anyone write about AX and NOT mention the kick-ass J-Rock/Visual Kei groups who've played there)? And while cons can be fun, there are also issues of sexual harrassment and assault (check out the group Cosplay Does Not Equal Consent) which the author admirably did not shy away from.Mostly I wanted Jayne to act like a freaking grown-up, not a little girl still needing the approval of her family and friends to be happy.If I could have skipped the BET-style drama, I would have been loving this book six ways til Sunday. I would have been holding it up as an example of fresh ideas in IR. I love geek heroines--Black ones especially. Jayne dressed up as Misty Knight was awesome. So was Jayne and Toshio developing their own comic book. The fact that both were into cosplay. All of that would have been sufficient.I did like Toshio. His tendancy to say exactly what he thought was refreshing. Like most heroes in IR books, he knows what he wants and isn't afraid to go after it. Granted, his initial attraction to Jayne (dressed as Gambit nonetheless) left a LOT to be desired. As I posted in a status update, Gambit is a smooth-talking Cajun with a definite chivalrous streak. He would NEVER (as far as I can recall) be so vulgar as to oogle a woman's ass (or at least say it out loud). If you cosplay Gambit, do it all the way. And unlike Jayne's girlfriends, his guy pals were multiracial and one was gay. They didn't seem to have an issue with Jayne. They just liked seeing their friend happy.Contrast that with Jayne's dysfunctional bunch. A collection of every bad Black woman stereotype out there. Doesn't matter that they're successful, educated and financially independent. One likes being the "other woman". Another isn't happy with the decent, hard-working Black man she has. The last one I don't remember because I was too busy facepalming over the other two. Oh wait, the last one was a "gold-digger". It's like Tyler Perry wrote that part of the book. And of course, once Jayne has the man who makes her happy, who gets her love of all things geeky, the one jealous "best friend" decides to go Afrocentric and start spewing the whole "race-traitor, you need a good black man" line. Can there ever be a book in which Black female friendships aren't frought with so much adversarial drama? Maybe I haven't been reading the right books.Then. There's. Jayne. This is the Jayne I loved:"However, getting a chance to don a costume and become the character changed the way she felt about herself. She loved how the costumes made her feel. In costume she was powerful and pretty. Commanding. Admired. Loved. None of the things she exhibited in real life. In real life she was a petite weird black woman with crazy hair, a gap in her teeth and dreams that men did not understand. Even her mother didn't understand her. She felt at times that her friends were humoring her when they listened to her stories."The Jayne who decides to have a cross-cultural conversation while the man she's in love with is turning her into a puddle of warm goo needed to go far away. As did the immature game-playing Jayne who decides to go on a date with "tall sexual chocolate with fancy car" for no damn good reason at all since she's supposed to be dating Toshi. I've (sadly) read a few IR's in which the black heroine pulls this kind of 'let me date a brotha because I'm too stupid and weak to do what's right for me instead of worrying what everyone else thinks'. I always hope such heroines (including this one) end up lonely and miserable. But since we're talking romance, Jayne finally had a V-8 moment.Granted it can't be easy being into a scene most people still don't understand. Granted she didn't fall in TWU WUV at her first sight of Toshio (in fact sh thought he was obnoxious). I did get that and definitely sympathized with it. When she was in geek mode she was great. I did enjoy their courtship (at least from his POV). They took the time to be friends and co-creators. When they finally became intimate, it made sense (though the purple prose was also facepalm-worthy--"the queen in the tower"? Really? Call it a "clitoris" and move on). I've said this too many times before, but it's vitally important for me to love the heroines as much as I do the heroes. I had a hard time with Jayne.And why was her family dysfunctional whereas Toshio's was intact? Traditional in many ways, but intact.The Cost To Play was not a total loss. It just did not fully live up to my expectations. There were definitely some editing hiccups (not spelling but scene breaks and an occasion of character mis-naming). Still, it was a quick read.