Reviews with content warning for Lesbophobia - Squad

Reviews tagging 'Lesbophobia'

Squad by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

48 reviews

annemaries_shelves's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

3.5

3.5 stars

What a fun, campy revenge horror story... all about rape culture and teen life and trying to exert a modicum of control when, as a teen girl in today's society, there's very little control.

It gave me The Secret History and Mean Girl vibes - if the teen girls were hungry werewolves preying on the worst of teen boys. The art style and use of progressively darkening colour palettes was also really effective in creating tension and atmosphere.

Despite the focus on straight relationships, there's still queer characters (their Chem teacher uses the honorific/title Mx.) and our MC is gay.

There's also a happy queer relationship between Becca and Marley and it made me so happy!

I also appreciate that the author tried to diversify what I imagine was the inspiration - a straight (presenting), majority white, rich neighbourhood/town.
And my main critique - that no one clued in on the disappearing teen boys for way too long - ended up being addressed in the second half of the text. I think the ending wrapped up nicely with a satisfying outcome for certain characters.

After enjoying Squad, I'm definitely interested in Tokuda-Hall's other works - especially any other graphic novels she may do (hopefully with the same amazing illustrator).

CW: sexual assault/harassment (nothing graphic but it's on page), violence, blood and gore, murder, underaged drinking. Disordered eating is also discussed.

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sadie_g's review against another edition

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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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deadboydoodling's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

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

4.25

It's a book where the main characters aren't inherently likable, but it goes well with the story so it was never much of an issue for me. I enjoyed the pace, and the art (especially the cover) was gorgeous.

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fox's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

3.75

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nmcannon's review against another edition

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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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benediction's review against another edition

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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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frantic_vampire's review against another edition

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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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