A Guide to Film and TV Cosplay is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.
Review:
This fairly short work starts by looking at what cosplay is, and its history. Then there's a section on how to choose a character to cosplay (which basically boils down to a lot of reassurance), and finally a section on the more practical aspects of creating cosplay outfits (different materials and their benefits and drawbacks, buying and modifying clothing, self-care in cosplay, etc.).
I doubt there's much here that would be of interest to veteran cosplayers. Maybe the history section? Although it sounded like, even for that section, there were probably more thorough resources out there - there's a nice "references and further reading" section that can point folks to other works. The second section, in particular, felt like it was aimed at people who were new to cosplay and extremely nervous and overwhelmed about it all. All that reassurance was nice, but I couldn't help but notice the way it neatly sidestepped even mentioning the kind of negative comments that cosplayers who make their photos public can experience. Although I suppose that's obvious enough if you've ever looked at the comment section of a set of cosplay photos. The third and final section doesn't have much in the way of specific practical tips, just some general information abut the usefulness and behavior of certain materials.
The best thing about this book is all the photographs (I'm assuming that all the proper permissions were obtained, but I did note that none of the photos mentioned the names or handles of the cosplayers depicted). There were lots of photographs, with a huge variety of fandoms on display.
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