Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - Squad

[Note on content warnings: eating disorder refers to Becca's mom, who is overly concerned about her own weight; she does not make any comments about Becca's weight or eating habits.

Does it count as cannibalism if they're werewolves? I think so, hence the tag.]

Content Warnings

jackieyvette's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious 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? No

4.0

This is probably the quickest read of my life. Then again it is a graphic novel. I finished it in 45 minutes and it was a fun little story.
The sorry is quick, but fun and the dialogue isn’t flat like some graphic novels.
I’m not really the biggest GN fan, but I think I would read more that are similar to this.
Rape revenge is one of my favorite film genres, and this is kinda a watered down version of that.

Crying score: none

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sciammi's review against another edition

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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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kalira's review

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emotional tense medium-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

4.25

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katiethepenguin's review

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dark 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? No

5.0

Perfect parts horror and monstrous teen friendships. Read in one bite.

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