Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Squad by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

42 reviews

rararara12's review

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fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

Didn't like the racist micro aggressions, homophobia and fat phobia littered throughout (was never expanded upon and left a bad taste in my mouth)

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lost_reader's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense

2.0

Not very fleshed out, felt like a movie. But I did have fun with the feminist werewolf cult thing. I like the ideas brought up a lot more than the execution. It's a "the more you think about it, the more it doesn't make sense" kind of book.

Cuz basically the original werewolf pack is dedicated to only killing the bad guys, but then Arianna makes them eat just any guy basically. And the others are grouped into it and don't really have a choice or else they'll starve. Guess they can't just eat a bunch of deer? Will they die of they don't eat people or can they sort of subsist living off animals, like the vegetarian vampires from Twilight And? I guess not? And at the end of the story when Becca and Marley choose to eat Arianna's heart to not be werewolves anymore, it must have been a hard choice right? Like they've interacted with and have been threatened by so many predatory boys and men... it must have been hard to just give away your "turn into a wolf" card. And also Mandy seems to be the only one of them bothered by killing guys who weren't creepy? Like who were actually innocent? Rest in piece that one guy who actually wanted to talk to Marley and get to know her as a person, he didn't deserve to die 😢. Also I thought Mandy did the right thing honestly. The more I think about this story the more confused I get. Like I love feminist themes but things don't make sense in this book if I think about it too much 😂.

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llams's review

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

4.75


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obscurepages's review

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challenging emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

Okay so this had potential, but I feel like a couple of elements fell flat.

The sisterhood and the found family that I was initially expecting was just not there. Or it was there, but it was a skewed version. The way the MC tried so hard to fit into these girls was just not working (or maybe I'm just too introverted for this 😂) Also the fatphobia and the racist micro aggressions from your supposed "friends"?? No thanks 😭

The feminist theme was good at first too (werewolves preying on boys who manipulate and take advantage of girls). But then it got weird. I know they got desperate and they were starving and all, but still doesn't sit right with me.

That being said, the art style and the colors was just too good. I loved flipping the page and getting to see the art there. I also loved the queer/sapphic rep. That one was a lovely surprise.

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raesreadingcorner's review

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challenging medium-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? It's complicated

2.5

Did like some of the comments toward the MC WHO IS Asian and just some pf the dialogue in general made my uncomfortable

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sarafinley's review

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dark funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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sciammi's review

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

2.5


 I love the concept -clique-y girls, who are werewolves and avengers with a moral backbone. I love that there was some effort to include a sapphic storyline. Overall, I still think that the social commentary could have been more fleshed out. The art style is simply gorgeous. The best part of the graphic novel is the art style. 

However, the book felt incredibly anti-Black. So Amanda/Mandy, the Black Girl, is perpetually closed off, angry and a traitor. 

I get that Black girls don't have to be the "good" characters but the only Black character being the meanest, angriest one (other than Ri) sat really badly with me. Ew.

Also, I thought that it was kinda sad that the main Asian character ended up with a white character. As in, it would have been more innovative if she was with another person of color. Especially since Marley made tons of mean comments about her sexuality. 

In terms of racial representation, this book could have used more work. 




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starklinqs's review against another edition

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3.75

This was hard to review because depending on how much certain aspects bother me this ranges from a 3.5-4 lmao but I figured this was a good middle ground. 

The book was really interesting in the dynamics portrayed - the girls have a nuanced relationship and there’s a lot of lore and backstory that I would be really interested in reading more about. It was definitely an interesting book and I wanted to know more about each girl. 

Amanda’s treatment, however, was horrendous. Ultimately the book feels like a toxic friend group, but Amanda (referred to as “Mandy” despite her saying her name preference multiple times) gets multiple microaggressions thrown her way. The ending is treated as if she’s fully in the wrong by the other mains, and I just didn’t love it - or the fact that our main and Marley get together, despite Marley’s own racist tendencies. I wasn’t opposed to them getting together, but I thought that behavior was going to be called out, acknowledged, and that she would actually grow. It’s nice that Marley acknowledged how nice Becca is and that’s their group was toxic, but it doesn’t exactly change her underlying casual racism or the fact that she lobs these microaggressions and caused said toxicity multiple times. It didn’t necessarily feel like a conscience malicious thing on the writer’s part, moreso a poor attempt at nuance, so I’m not as harsh on these aspects than I would be for other books - hopefully the author has or will improve upon these in the future. 

It’s one of those things where it’s a great idea and I would have LOVED to have seen more nuance in it, because this was a really interesting concept, the art was great, and I was into the characters and genuinely wanted to know more about them. 

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brianneh's review

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dark fast-paced

4.0


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bookishsapphicshay's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-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

2.75


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