Reviews

The Sisterhood of Evil Mutants by S.J. Whitby

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essjay's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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

Four books in and I genuinely love this series, but this might be my least favourite so far. Not bc it's darker than the others (although it is, and it wasn't a surprise), but bc the whole thing felt rushed and chaotic, and not in a fun way. The last 50 or so pages felt cheap, and I understand that it's setting up the spinoffs and the final CM book, but...yeah.

jacemchale's review

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adventurous challenging emotional sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

smartie_chan's review

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4.0

4 / 5 Stars

First things first:

I loved the previous books. I loved this book. And I'd recommand them all.

Now, onto the review.
I finished the book, gave it 5 stars, and have now returned to reduce my rating, because the ending bothered me.
There were other things in there as well, that I didn't like as much, but the ending was the one thing that pushed me in the 4 star direction.

So anyways, this entry is the most dark & brutal one as of yet. There was one scene in there, were Dani was soaked in blood and killing people like a godess of death and it made me stopp because - for one, the scene was hella badass, but also: It's crazy to think how our team has changed over time. Remember back when fighting someone took all of the team coming together? When one dude had the power to kill them all? When killing someone was actually a big deal?

I'm not complaining about the darkness of the book. That's not really my issue. If Dylan wants to become Magneto and slaughter all of humankind, good for them. Good for them. It's just that this book felt - at times, not always - more like a settup for what's to come - aka Galaxy Brain & Weapon UwU. I was kind of missing one big uniting enemy. Someone the team was actually struggling against. It feels like we're kinda fighting everyone and noone. Which might have been what the book wanted me to feel. Since change isn't happening over night after all.
Still. I've had that issue in the past, - see: Dylan killing that one big bad guy they were fighting all book long in one chapter - but in this one, were it's fight after fight after fight, it has started to bother me more. I guess since Galaxy Brain is the last book in the series, I won't have to fear that something like this happens again, but I still wanted to bring it up.
Especially since there WAS some kind of big bad guy that we fought and struggled against. And yet, at the same time, there wasn't. Because: the ending.
I liked the settup, the plot twist(s) & the enormous power this person was holding.
Since the next part might be too spoiler-heavy, I'll hide my complaints. But, in a spoiler-free-complaint format: The ending felt cheap. Dylan was making mistakes and they didn't get punished for them. The ending we got didn't feel earned and I wasn't happy with how things turned out. Dylan isn't perfect and they are allowed to make mistakes. Even horrible, PTSD-inducing mistakes. But, if that's the route the author wants to go, they should stick to that route. And not

Spoiler

Kill 10+ people, just for Emma to level-up in power and bring them all back. I also didn't like how Dylan behaved. Like, they knew they wanted to join God, God knew they wanted to, the reader knew they wanted to but they didn't because reasons. And then, when God slaughters them and Dylan just throws one mutant after another at them- while they complain how God did the exact.same.thing - they just... don't stop. They saw Gods power. And God offered them time after time again, to just stop being a rebell for 5 seconds. But no. They'd rather all of their friends get murdered. Which was clear was gonna happen. I would have prefered if Dylan had joined God. They don't have to be #TeamGod or anything. They can calm down, think about it for a while and wait for the perfec oppurtunity to attack. But no. They were turning off their brain and going at it. Until half the team was dead. Which, you know, was a lot to take in. And I would have cried a lot and moved on with it. But then the death gets undone and I'm left sitting here and saying: "wow. ok. :/ I guess, that just happend."

We meet a lot of knew mutants and they are all really cool. It's funny how the book ended and I felt like I had spent way more than one book with them. But no, it was truly just one.
Emma is amazing in this one. And I'm very happy for her. She deserves all the love.
The world-building & backstory is also very amazing in this one. We get a lot of shocking answers to stuff. The human vs. mutant thing is heating up and war is this close to happening, I can literaly feel it on my tongue allready.

I'm very excited for the next book(s) and I can't wait to see how everything is going to unfold.

We meet a lot of

jennieartemis's review

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adventurous emotional funny fast-paced

3.25

TL;DR: Queerness, fun, and complex morality, but the weight of plot is perhaps getting too heavy for these books

I cannot fault Volume 4 for ambition, both in the amount of suphero ideas it weaves together and also in its interest in moral issues and the state of the world. But as the series has gone on, I have felt an increasing tension between my fondness for the characters and my dissatisfaction with how hectic the storytelling is. This entry had a few too many strange worldbuilding choices for me to feel as satisfied as before, and, while I appreciate the ethical aspect, I worry it has overstretched itself, coming out more muddled than profound. The climax has some odd beats, and the spinoff set-up is a little blunt, as generally the comic-booky serial feel is growing, which probably is perfect for some readers, but not me. I still find the queer cast so wonderful, and the pages fly by, but this is not quite the same series I fell in love with.

5/10 in personal rating system

sannesbookshelf's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional

4.5

mslanna's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

4.5

ceilidhnewbury's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

5.0

THE CUTE MUTANTS UNIVERSE JUST KEEPS GETTING BIGGER AND BETTER!!!!!!! I once again had the best (and most terrifying omg I was so scared for the gang) time with this series. Every time I think I knows what's going on, I don't. And every time I think this series is at its best, I was wrong because the next book knocks it out of the park. I literally don't think I can say anything other than I loved it because SPOILERS! AND OH MAN ARE THERR SOME JUICY ONES IN THIS BOOK!!!!