Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Squad, by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

16 reviews

danaslitlist's review

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adventurous emotional funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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allebasi80's review

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adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

art was gorgeous and expressive, so full points for that. story-wise, starts with strong premise but plot is odd and message is unclear. goes for a feminist vibe but clearly devolves into hypocrisy. moments of body-shaming and racism are startlingly frequent and almost entirely unquestioned. the story was interesting but the ending seemed sudden and drastic without much reasoning or satisfaction. the mc was somewhat relatable, but most of the characters were just nasty for no reason.
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msradiosilence's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Tldr; supporting werewolf women’s wrongs are right up my alley.

Read my full review at: https://www.rainyreader.com/single-post/squad/.
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kingrosereads's review

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adventurous tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

A sapphic paranormal upper YA about high school mean girls with werewolves! 

Becca is a new girl in her junior year of high school and she catches the eye of the three popular girls: Amanda, Ariana, and Marley. In a quick “Mean Girls”-esque montage, they dress her up and give her rules to follow by. Then one night, the girls show Becca their secret: they’re werewolves and every month they have to feed on human flesh. They choose to eat “bad guys” only. Becca agrees to join their pack and things are going well until a boy from their school dies and ruins everything. 

As a short YA graphic novel, it was an interesting fast pace story. It’s definitely predictable but still entertaining. I kind of wished it was a short series rather than a short stand alone so it could expand on the story and characters. 

The basic storyline is entertaining and interesting to me and the artwork is just beautiful. The art style reminds me of the Archie comics. 

The girl power feminism is very surface level with the anger for toxic masculinity and using murder to avenge the actions of predators. I’m kind of over the story line of women killing abusive and predatory men and the leader of the women ends up just painting all men with the same brush and they end up killing innocent men. Just let women kill rapists and abusers in these books! (For legal reasons, this is a joke). Also, the story is filled with micro-aggressions against the main East Asian character and the Black side character. These micro-aggressions are just ignored or brushed off. Also, Amanda (the only black character) is the one character that’s brushed aside despite playing a very important role. Not addressing the micro-aggressions just felt weird and pointless. 

Also, in stereotypical mean girl fashion, dieting and obsession with one’s weight was also prominent and never challenge. Literally they were criticizing one of the girls for being a size 4 and not a size 0 or 2. It made it even more obvious there was no mid to plus size representation. 

The bones are there but the execution was problematic and lackluster. 
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melliedm's review

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dark funny hopeful sad fast-paced

4.0

A fun, fast take on coming out, identity and belonging, but like: with werewolves. I generally enjoyed Squad, though found the pace a little strange in some places, and there were times where panels and speech bubbles were difficult to parse the proper order of. 
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amberinpieces's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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the_crooked_neighbor's review

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adventurous dark fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was a fun quick read. I think it really should have been a bit longer to flesh out (no pun intended) the plot. I love the premise of the book and always appreciate a sapphic love story. The art style was amazing and worth spending time just gazing at.
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sadie_g's review

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Becca is a teenager who recently moved to a new city and high school, where she meets Arianna, Amanda, and Marley. She becomes friends with them, and then they let her in on their secret: they’re werewolves. 

Very cool book, and I really enjoyed the drawings. Also I liked that they went after guys who were predators. I didn’t know coming into this book that it was sapphic but I’m so glad it was and sapphics in supernatural books are just so great. 
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benediction's review

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challenging dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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gothbaby's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Absolutely stunning artwork! Wow! A treat to read with a more mature take on high school friendships. 

My only two critiques are the very fast plot as I wish there would have been a slower built up, and the homophobic connotations of some dialogues. There was no obvious or implied character growth thus not something I’m willing to consider important to the plot or character development as a whole. 
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