Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Squad

Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Squad by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

30 reviews

nmcannon's review

dark 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

5.0

While a sapphic werewolf romance comic is totally my wheelhouse, my impetus to pick up Squad was that our sapphic book club wanted to read it. This Mean Girls meets Ginger Snaps feminist roar of a tale was much lauded last year, even snagging a nomination for a GoodReads Choice Award. I was prepared to be impressed. And I was!

When Becca transfers to an elite, mostly white high school in Northern California, she dreads the usual new-kid struggles. But on her first day, she catches the eye of the beautiful blonde Marley. Their first interaction is Becca giving Marley a tampon, which I thought was a great detail. Marley introduces Becca to the Plastics the it girl crowd, who, turns out, are werewolves. Every month on the full moon, they must consume flesh, or they’ll frenzy from hunger and/or lose “luster” (think Jennifer’s Body lore). They have rules to keep their murder rationalized, such as be pretty, be smart, no personal boyfriends, only devour would-be rapists, and leave alive anyone from their school. When these rules are snapped, the true horror begins.

The art is stunning. Color splashes and floats across the page. Sterle’s work easily keeps up with the vacillation between pink-tinged charm and blood-drenched gore. A lot of reviews mention different comparative titles. All are helpful and true, because Squad pays dark, touching homage to many a horror story. Squad’s plot is a gorgeous, barbaric scream against rape culture and patriarchy—and a reminder that we cannot only scream. The ending reminded me of second wave feminism receding and returning as third wave feminism. While it’s cathartic as all get out to viciously dismember the future Brett Kavanaugh’s of the world, to cry and call for leaving men behind altogether, that’s not realistic. Such movements leave behind people at other intersections of identity. For example, Becca doesn’t feel safe coming out to her “sisters,” and Amanda is belittled and not called her preferred name.

If I had to nitpick, my book club’s suspension of disbelief didn’t stretch quite far enough at times. We wondered at the logistics of a devouring a whole teenage boy, clothes and all. We wondered how a fuss hadn’t been kicked up yet. In real life, my college campus was basically shut down after a death, with massive protests, calls for reform, and investigations. It was hard to imagine these repeated, semi-localized deaths/disappearances would remain under the radar for so long.

Overall, Squad is a bloody good comic. Read it to sharpen your fangs.

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frantic_vampire's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

I’m having a hard time trying to put my thoughts for Squad into words. Mostly because I’ve got mixed feelings about it. Yes, it’s a fun read and it gave me the same vibes that The Scapegracers did! It’s a perfect read for spooky season and Halloween. But it also had its issues.

I loved the sapphic werewolves mixed with the horror plot. But I really didn’t like the minor homophobic comments or the toxic mean girl clique. However I really did love the contradiction of the bright colors with the darkness of the story line in this graphic novel. The only other thing I wasn’t really a fan of was the way these girls used each other as bait for their kills. Sure, they were going after guys that were taking advantage of girls but the way they went about it felt a little…gross.

So. While I really enjoyed reading this one, I don’t think I can give this one above four stars. I’m stuck somewhere between 3.75 and 4 stars for this one. But maybe a little closer to 3.75.

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alissaryan's review

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense 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

4.5

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moontiaras's review against another edition

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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? No

5.0

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booksthatburn's review against another edition

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adventurous tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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cryptidkay's review

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adventurous emotional tense 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? No

3.75

This book moves fast. Almost too fast. I feel like it could have done some more to flesh out the characters and make me care more about them, especially given the MC's major shifts from new kid to cool kid to squad to town lesbian.

That being said, the art and story were fantastic. I love the idea of all female werewolf packs hunting in small towns!

The diverse cast and the variety of characters really fill in the average american high school.

It really was a fun read that I wish had more character development.

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zombiezami's review

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dark emotional funny tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

I describe this book as Mean Girls meets Jennifer's Body. I thought the art was great, and I enjoyed the characters. I didn't like that

the protagonist's love interest ended up being someone who kept making racist microaggressions towards her.

Still, the narrative was fun, and I liked the designs and the story.

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beesknees's review

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dark emotional funny 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? No

4.0

Squad is exhilarating, spooky, charming, and nerve-wracking. I really enjoy how the author didn't tone down the idea of "girls eat boys" and just went all out with it! I felt like for such a large and serious main conflict, the resolution was very well done. The only thing I would have wished for was some more dimension and characterization for some of the popular girls in place of more stereotypical behaviors; it would have made the intense events toward the end of the novel hurt just a little more. I'll happily be rereading Squad, especially during the spooky holiday season!

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stormywolf's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

When this one popped up for me on my Facebook newsfeed, I immediately knew I had to grab it. Between the enticing cover, the premise of hunting skeevy guys, and the fact that it featured werewolves—my absolute favorite of all supernatural creatures—it seemed the perfect fit to fill a slot in my spooky month! You know what they say about too much hype, though...

Read my full review at The Wolf's Den

Overall, this was a good story with interesting artwork, it just lacked the time and space to fully tackle all the points it raised. I'd still recommend it as a quick and interesting read, especially for those interested in werewolves, YA, vigilantism, or exploring societal issues, but it probably won't be all that memorable in the long run. So if you find the premise interesting and are looking for a bite-sized horror read, then give Squad a try.

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beforeviolets's review

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.0

Think Heathers or Mean Girls but make it sapphic and make the mean girls werewolves! Delightfully cheesy and monstrous in the way every werewolf story should be. It wonderfully embodied the hunger for justice we all crave in this shitty patriarchal society in a fantastically literal way. The illustrative style - done by the wonderful artist Lisa Sterle - reminded me of Archie comics, leaning into classic and familiar high school vibes and tropes that this book established just to break them down. It allowed the darker moments of this story to stand out even further, contrasting against a world we think we understand. It also made the story feel somewhat timeless, mixing retro styles with a modern setting.

I felt that it lacked depth in approaching some of the more important real-world topics the book brought up (fatphobia, diet culture, misogyny, r*pe culture, etc.) by just kind of dropping the themes in there without really exploring them or providing much commentary on them. (Especially with the fatphobia, there were lines from "you could stand to go on a diet" to a skinny character calling themselves "overweight" that were implied to be bad but otherwise went unchecked.)

But for the purpose of an exciting, fun read for all the "weird girls" out there, it most definitely delivered. I would highly recommend if you like monster girls (a trope that i REALLY love), morally grey characters, cheesy horror/fantasy, and revenge plots.

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