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4.18 AVERAGE
4.18 AVERAGE
lighthearted
fast-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
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:
Yes
Reread for the September Wick & Jane Bookclub on Instagram, the theme was Indie Author!
Rep: questioning pansexual female MC with anxiety, trans male side character, Kiwi-Chinese questioning asexual female side character, bisexual Pacific Islander female side character, lesbian Korean female side character, sapphic female side character, biromantic asexual nonbinary parent side character in a relationship with a woman.
CWs: Graphic: Blood, cursing, gore, injury/injury detail, mental illness (anxiety), violence. Moderate: deadnaming/misgendering, dysphoria, medical content, self harm, bullying, sexual assault, racism, general queerphobia/queermisia, transphobia/transmisia. Minor: car accident (crashes into a building and a tree), suicidal thoughts.
___________________________________________________________
Thank you to Caffeine Tours & the author for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
I loved this book so much ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜. This book is easily in my top ten of the year, and it's tied with Felix Ever After and Sword in the Stars for my favorite book of the year. There's honestly no way to choose between these three, I loved them all so much. But Dylan Taylor is my favorite character to ever exist, I have never related to someone as much as I relate to Dylan.
This book is kind of like an X-men retelling. Dylan Taylor is an average queer person suffering from social anxiety. When she kisses Emma Hall at her party, she ends up with superpowers. Finding out Emma kissed several other people, Dylan is eager to attempt to form a mutant brigade. When an unknown mutant starts causing havoc Dylan is sure they must take care of him, but is the group really up for it?
Cute Mutants Vol 1 is one of the gayest books I've ever read. Having so many books come out this year with amazingly queer casts has been a dream come true. Also this book is truly disaster squad goals.
SAFETY ANNOUNCEMENT: THIS BOOK IS NOT A GRAPHIC NOVEL THANK YOU.
I loved every second of this book. From Dylan's relationship with her non-binary parent called Pear, to the found family of the Cute Mutants, the queer normalized society, and the themes of vigilante justice and whether it was right. The best part of this book was the relationship between this group of friends and figuring out how they could make it work, if at all possible.
Before assembling the Cute Mutants, Dylan spends most of her time at home, hanging out with Pear or with her boyfriend, Lou. But Lou has been having trouble at home due to his parents' transphobia. With this new influx of friends in Dylan's life, he is also unsure of his place in her life and starts to get pretty jealous. It doesn't help that Dani Kim, ice queen extraordinaire (and super fucking hot), is also one of the people who has developed special powers. Dylan can't help but be attracted to her charisma, but there's no way Dani could like her, is there?
Dylan also deals with social anxiety, and so many of her thoughts really resonated with me. So much so that I started to wonder if I might have some form of social/generalized anxiety (the answer was yes). Dylan also questions her gender, and it made me feel like she might be a demigirl like myself. I have so much love for Dylan, my heart is exploding.
Then there's Dylan and Alyse, the sweetest friendship I've ever seen. I love Alyse so much and her effervescence. She is just seriously the best, and I ship her so hard with Emma! Emma is an evil mastermind and I would not be surprised if she became an evil genius. Also my ace goddess! Bianca was such a weirdo, but her character surprised me with how much I loved her! Basically, I need more of this squad ASAP.
I don't know if I really said anything besides just spewing my love of this book, but I cannot recommend it enough!
Rep: questioning pansexual female MC with anxiety, trans male side character, Kiwi-Chinese questioning asexual female side character, bisexual Pacific Islander female side character, lesbian Korean female side character, sapphic female side character, biromantic asexual nonbinary parent side character in a relationship with a woman.
CWs: Graphic: Blood, cursing, gore, injury/injury detail, mental illness (anxiety), violence. Moderate: deadnaming/misgendering, dysphoria, medical content, self harm, bullying, sexual assault, racism, general queerphobia/queermisia, transphobia/transmisia. Minor: car accident (crashes into a building and a tree), suicidal thoughts.
___________________________________________________________
Thank you to Caffeine Tours & the author for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
I loved this book so much ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜. This book is easily in my top ten of the year, and it's tied with Felix Ever After and Sword in the Stars for my favorite book of the year. There's honestly no way to choose between these three, I loved them all so much. But Dylan Taylor is my favorite character to ever exist, I have never related to someone as much as I relate to Dylan.
This book is kind of like an X-men retelling. Dylan Taylor is an average queer person suffering from social anxiety. When she kisses Emma Hall at her party, she ends up with superpowers. Finding out Emma kissed several other people, Dylan is eager to attempt to form a mutant brigade. When an unknown mutant starts causing havoc Dylan is sure they must take care of him, but is the group really up for it?
Cute Mutants Vol 1 is one of the gayest books I've ever read. Having so many books come out this year with amazingly queer casts has been a dream come true. Also this book is truly disaster squad goals.
SAFETY ANNOUNCEMENT: THIS BOOK IS NOT A GRAPHIC NOVEL THANK YOU.
I loved every second of this book. From Dylan's relationship with her non-binary parent called Pear, to the found family of the Cute Mutants, the queer normalized society, and the themes of vigilante justice and whether it was right. The best part of this book was the relationship between this group of friends and figuring out how they could make it work, if at all possible.
Before assembling the Cute Mutants, Dylan spends most of her time at home, hanging out with Pear or with her boyfriend, Lou. But Lou has been having trouble at home due to his parents' transphobia. With this new influx of friends in Dylan's life, he is also unsure of his place in her life and starts to get pretty jealous. It doesn't help that Dani Kim, ice queen extraordinaire (and super fucking hot), is also one of the people who has developed special powers. Dylan can't help but be attracted to her charisma, but there's no way Dani could like her, is there?
Dylan also deals with social anxiety, and so many of her thoughts really resonated with me. So much so that I started to wonder if I might have some form of social/generalized anxiety (the answer was yes). Dylan also questions her gender, and it made me feel like she might be a demigirl like myself. I have so much love for Dylan, my heart is exploding.
Then there's Dylan and Alyse, the sweetest friendship I've ever seen. I love Alyse so much and her effervescence. She is just seriously the best, and I ship her so hard with Emma! Emma is an evil mastermind and I would not be surprised if she became an evil genius. Also my ace goddess! Bianca was such a weirdo, but her character surprised me with how much I loved her! Basically, I need more of this squad ASAP.
I don't know if I really said anything besides just spewing my love of this book, but I cannot recommend it enough!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Bullying, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Medical content, Dysphoria
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Car accident
actual rating: 3.75 rounded up to a 4
quick lil after finishing review:
this book was so much fun. it's like a completely nerded-out version of Misfits. i loved the queer found family aspect, it made me soft. i loved a) the fact that this group of girls and a trans boy all got their powers from kissing a girl [not a spoiler, it's on the back of the book lol] and b) Dylan's power was just so interesting -- i've not read or seen anything like it before. SJ has me out here caring way too much about objects like a bat *ahem ahem* if u know u know
i don't have a huge amount of knowledge about the x-men canon which is referenced often in the book but apart from a few missed opportunities, it didn't really affect my reading experience -- i think this would be super rewarding if you *are* really invested in all of that background!
there were some flaws that had my rating fluctuating up and down throughout the book. namely the writing style; it's chock-full of pop culture references to the point where it's almost like purple prose. very Lorelai Gilmore-esque. the streams of these references with indulgent inner monologuing made it a bit of chore to read at times. *BUT* on the other hand, there's some incredibly well written passages in this book -- i'd read parts and turn around going "this is some GOOD shit"
in summary, CUTE MUTANTS is just pure fun. it's pure entertainment with a fantastically diverse cast of characters. i have no doubt that the books will continue to get better and i'm excited to see where the story goes.
quick lil after finishing review:
this book was so much fun. it's like a completely nerded-out version of Misfits. i loved the queer found family aspect, it made me soft. i loved a) the fact that this group of girls and a trans boy all got their powers from kissing a girl [not a spoiler, it's on the back of the book lol] and b) Dylan's power was just so interesting -- i've not read or seen anything like it before. SJ has me out here caring way too much about objects like a bat *ahem ahem* if u know u know
i don't have a huge amount of knowledge about the x-men canon which is referenced often in the book but apart from a few missed opportunities, it didn't really affect my reading experience -- i think this would be super rewarding if you *are* really invested in all of that background!
there were some flaws that had my rating fluctuating up and down throughout the book. namely the writing style; it's chock-full of pop culture references to the point where it's almost like purple prose. very Lorelai Gilmore-esque. the streams of these references with indulgent inner monologuing made it a bit of chore to read at times. *BUT* on the other hand, there's some incredibly well written passages in this book -- i'd read parts and turn around going "this is some GOOD shit"
in summary, CUTE MUTANTS is just pure fun. it's pure entertainment with a fantastically diverse cast of characters. i have no doubt that the books will continue to get better and i'm excited to see where the story goes.
dark
funny
lighthearted
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book is "what if a teenage X-Men fan plus a random group of her classmates actually got superpowers", with all the delight and awkwardness that this description implies. The MC is nervous, not good at the whole "friend" thing and really believes that she's responsible to DO something with her newfound powers. The overall effect is earnest and extremely relatable if you've ever been really into some THING that just became weirdly relevant after years of obsession, or if you've ever dreamed about all your random knowledge being useful as more than a curiosity.
I like how the powers kind of fit their personalities while still not being anything I could predict. It feels like the kind of sideways logic that's emblematic of a superhero origin story without being overdone or trite. It grapples with moral grey areas in a way that's generally fun to read while being appropriately grim when necessary. The characters make a pretty great ensemble, and I like how they work to make their strange powers be effective when at first glance they don't seem very useful (neither singly nor together).
The only thing I didn't like was that the characters in general and the MC in particular had a tendency to use the kind of (usually self-effacing) ableist language that's so ubiquitous that most of us don't realize it's ableist until someone points it out (lame, dumb, etc.). It's a minor quibble in an otherwise fantastic book since the language isn't directed at anyone in an actively ableist way, but it was so frequent that it was distracting for me. I hope the characters learn better soon, but it was frustrating to read something full of ableist language when it could have used other words to convey the MC's low self-esteem.
I like how the powers kind of fit their personalities while still not being anything I could predict. It feels like the kind of sideways logic that's emblematic of a superhero origin story without being overdone or trite. It grapples with moral grey areas in a way that's generally fun to read while being appropriately grim when necessary. The characters make a pretty great ensemble, and I like how they work to make their strange powers be effective when at first glance they don't seem very useful (neither singly nor together).
The only thing I didn't like was that the characters in general and the MC in particular had a tendency to use the kind of (usually self-effacing) ableist language that's so ubiquitous that most of us don't realize it's ableist until someone points it out (lame, dumb, etc.). It's a minor quibble in an otherwise fantastic book since the language isn't directed at anyone in an actively ableist way, but it was so frequent that it was distracting for me. I hope the characters learn better soon, but it was frustrating to read something full of ableist language when it could have used other words to convey the MC's low self-esteem.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood
Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Death, Homophobia, Self harm, Transphobia
Minor: Sexual assault
CW for ableism, bullying, misgendering, homophobia, queerphobia, transphobia, sexual assault (not depicted), self-harm, violence, blood, major character death.
I have so much love for this book. I literally got four chapters into this one and decided that I was going to want a physical copy to keep forever. So of course this is another one that I loved so much that words fail me.
Dylan is a teenage X-Men super fan who wants nothing more than to develop her own superpowers, and then one day she finally does. After kissing a popular girl at a party, Dylan discovers that she and five others have developed rather unusual superpowers.
Oh wow, this one hit home. Reading this one I found myself giggling, "Oh relatable." Then the scene would sink in and it would hit me again, "Oh damn, relatable." Dylan is the last to realize that she's actually a pretty amazing human. And a lot of her internal thoughts are painfully reminiscent of my own teen years. She's also got a fantastic sense of humor that I appreciated right away. This book is about teenagers with superpowers, but it's mostly about friendship and learning to love yourself as well. The characters were fantastic and felt like real human beings, plus it felt like every character queer in some way.
I truly cannot recommend this one enough! If you want an X-Men story with a lot of snark and a really freaking adorable cast of characters, definitely pick this one up!
I received a digital copy of this book from Caffeine Book Tours and the author as part of my participation in their tour.
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Rep: non-binary, Demi-sexual, bi, trans, ace, lesbian, queer, Asian-American
Content Warnings: homophobia, transphobia (misgendering & deadnaming), sexual assault (recounted by a character), violence, language, self-harm (intentionally punching walls to feel pain), f-slur, fat jokes, incel behavior, depression, suicidal ideation, gore, dismemberment
Dylan is a teenage X-Men super fan who wants nothing more than to develop her own superpowers, and then one day she finally does. After kissing a popular girl at a party, Dylan discovers that she and five others have developed rather unusual superpowers.
Oh wow, this one hit home. Reading this one I found myself giggling, "Oh relatable." Then the scene would sink in and it would hit me again, "Oh damn, relatable." Dylan is the last to realize that she's actually a pretty amazing human. And a lot of her internal thoughts are painfully reminiscent of my own teen years. She's also got a fantastic sense of humor that I appreciated right away. This book is about teenagers with superpowers, but it's mostly about friendship and learning to love yourself as well. The characters were fantastic and felt like real human beings, plus it felt like every character queer in some way.
I truly cannot recommend this one enough! If you want an X-Men story with a lot of snark and a really freaking adorable cast of characters, definitely pick this one up!
I received a digital copy of this book from Caffeine Book Tours and the author as part of my participation in their tour.
__________
Rep: non-binary, Demi-sexual, bi, trans, ace, lesbian, queer, Asian-American
Content Warnings: homophobia, transphobia (misgendering & deadnaming), sexual assault (recounted by a character), violence, language, self-harm (intentionally punching walls to feel pain), f-slur, fat jokes, incel behavior, depression, suicidal ideation, gore, dismemberment
This is the found-family superhero book I've always wanted. The characters are smart, witty, vulnerable, and real. The superpowers themselves all have wonderfully unique twists to them, some of which had me laughing out loud. I'm so glad more books are coming in this series, because I want so much more of everything this book offers.