Reviews

Squad by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

xmhughes's review

2.0

2.75

ellytheskelly's review against another edition

5.0

If <i>Jennifer's Body</i> was a graphic novel with werewolves.... 

I LOVE THIS! The art is impeccable (and some of it might be my new IPad wallpaper), the story is a refreshing and interesting take on some tropes, and I just generally really really fell in love with these characters. I just wish there could've been a continuation to this, these characters are so cool! 

essjay's review against another edition

4.0

Love a Mean Girls pastiche, especially when it's queer AND violent. Art was great, and I was really rooting for these girls. 

galacticallz's review against another edition

4.0

Rating: 7/10

I love cute little sapphic graphic novel and this did so well at that. A group of teenage girls committing crimes will always be an attention grabber for me. The sapphic relationship was adorable, especially with them having opposite aesthetics - pink and black. The ending was cute and felt complete but a little rushed. I wish the beginning was shorter and killed off thatcher earlier so would feel like the the main storyline.

wardenred's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

3.5

Being a teenager sucks. Being a woman isn’t fair. And I’m sorry that together it can be so, so stressful.

So this graphic novel is basically Mean Girls, but with werewolves and murder. Which sounds really cool as a concept, but unfortunately, I found the overall execution sort of lacking. I did like a good number of things about the book, such as how the story was constructed with the gradual build-up of suspense to every reveal, and—most notably—the art. The art was really nice to look at and conveyed all the right emotions. Also, the werewolf mythos here definitely has some cool touches.

The characters were rather hard to connect to, though. I would have appreciated some more focus on all the individual relationships in the titular squad, as well as some focus on what each of the girls were getting out of following Arianna that wasn’t connected directly to the whole werewolf thing. There were some passing mentions of her getting Becca a boyfriend for prom and such, but that was more telling than showing. 

The story includes some themes and messages that are really important, but it kind of tries to do too much at the same time. There are all those instances of racism, and while I felt like those were meant to give the reader a bit of a pause every time, the way they get shrugged off every time by the very victims of those microaggressions might send the wrong message to someone who isn’t already very consciously aware of the damage this kind of thing does. I feel like maybe the author was trying to be subtle and overplayed the angle too much. There’s also that entire tangle of peer pressure, wanting to belong, female rage, toxic masculinity, how the more privileged of the oppressed can be complicit in the oppression even when they claim to be fighting it, perhaps even allegories for eating disorders. And each of these threads definitely deserved more attention than it got.

All in all, I feel like this was supposed to be a poignant coming of age story wrapped into a campy werewolf tale, but the fun gory campiness overshadowed all that substance.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Misogyny, Blood, and Racism

Moderate: Death, Gore, and Murder

leafblade's review against another edition

3.0

a bit more rushed than i'd like but still fun!

maaariaaah's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious 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

4.5

gnomes95's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.25

gracepizza40's review against another edition

3.0

3.3
Not what I expected. The characters act like High School Movie characters. It would make more sense if they were in college. I had high expectations for this one, but it was okay. I liked the cover, but I understood it more when I read the book. I liked some parts more than others.

Spoiler

I was so shocked when Arianna turned into a werewolf! It was so sudden and didn't really have a smooth transition. Then she died at the end of the book... I liked that the group only killed boys who were bad people, but it would be mean to say they deserved to be killed. (unless they were really bad.) I wonder what it would be like if they put a terrible curse on the boys instead, but that would obviously not be as interesting. Also, Marley was slightly racist. It made me so annoyed when she was asking, "Are you Chinese or Japanese? Or, like, Korean or something?". I wonder why they always forget Korean.

Spoiler

Unlike Addison Rae

Marley also said, "You look like a mermaid, but like, Asian." She assumed mermaids are only white unless you're not. Weird, but she and Becca ended up together...

infjkiki's review against another edition

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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Murder, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Sexual harassment and Sexual assault