Reviews

Young, Gifted & Queer by S.J. Whitby

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bookishbehaviours's review

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adventurous funny tense medium-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

3.75

hsinjulit's review against another edition

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5.0

This review contains minor spoilers to Cute Mutants Vol 1: Mutant Pride.

Content warnings: kidnapping, self injury, dismembering, reference to HP series, acid attack, misgendering, homophobia, death, death of prominent character, murder, blood, gore, forced hospitalization, forced captivity, nonconsensual medical experiment, mind control, manipulation/threats, talking people into suicide, mention of deceased family member, off-page amputation

Do you ever feel like there is something missing in your life, like, maybe an ancient, noble Japanese sword who is by your side at all times? Even if you didn’t, I’m sure you do now. In this sequel of Cute Mutants, you can live vicariously through the mutants and see Onimaru “Oni” Kunitsuna (鬼丸國綱) work his magic.

At the end of Cute Mutants Vol 1: Mutant Pride (my review here), Yaxley Corporation coerced the Cute Mutants into joining their training programs. Since we all know that powerful corporates and the government are often shady and cannot be trusted, nothing goes smoothly as the gang struggles to do what is truly right under Yaxley’s incessant tracking and fights fiercely to keep each other safe and alive.

We’re here, at their mercy, and have no power in this situation.

The story starts out in the closet, not because Dylan Taylor (17-18, pansexual, gender questioning?) isn’t out, but because she doesn’t want to make out with her girlfriend Danielle “Dani” Joo-hyun Kim (lesbian, Korean) in bed with the watchful Pillow dreamily commenting on everything. As in Vol 1, the cast is beautifully queer and racially diverse. The Cute Mutants we’ve seen previously include Dylan/Chatterbox, Dani/Marvellous, Emmaline “Emma” Jing Hall/Goddess (Kiwi-Chinese, ace), Alyse Sefo/Moodring (pansexual?, Pacifika), Lou Patterson/Glowstick (trans), and Bianca Powell/Wraith (sapphic). Each of them have mutant powers connected with their own insecurities after kissing Emma in Vol 1, and in this sequel, we see all of them grow in both their understandings of their own powers and the strength of their friendship.

One of the things I love the most about Cute Mutants is that the first-person narrative of Dylan is snarky, slangy, and incredibly relatable. I lost track of all the times I bursted out laughing because of Dylan’s perceptive yet hilarious comments. But beneath all the jokes and fun, there are also heavier themes running through the series, including figuring oneself out and dealing with grief and loss. Being a mutant is a parallel to being queer, and these teenagers are trying to understand who they are in terms of gender and sexual identities as well as their mutant powers.

All the wonderful mutants are totally lovable morally gray characters. I love that Bianca, who has little demons living in a hole in her chest, is dubbed the emotional support himbo, or Eshie (for ESH), by Dylan. I love the fact that Emma is ace and that part of her identity plays seamlessly into the bigger picture, too. There is also the open communication between Dylan and Dani that makes their romantic relationship even more adorable. And more mutants are introduced, including the fiery Kathryn “Katie” Sandhurst, Madelaide “Maddy” McLean (sapphic?), Gladiola “Gladdy”Quick (sapphic?), Alex Beaton (enby), and Charuka “Cha” Lakmal (Sri Lankan). I adore all of the interactions and cannot wait to see them bond more in future books. I am also pretty certain that all their mutant powers have more potential than they realize. With these new characters, I’m also sensing one potentially developing romance on top of one that no one wants to admit and another confirmed couple. Then there is the precious Pear (non-binary), who is Dylan’s parent, and basically all of the mutants’ human buddy and support system.

I really appreciate that there were also comments on police brutality (ACAB), disproportionate minority incarceration, racism (not seeing color & assimilation), and gun control. I love that Whitby purposefully included these conversations into the story, making sure to depict a world where not everything is rainbows and unicorns. It makes me so happy and relieved to see real-world problems reflected and discussed in the CM universe.

Cute Mutants Vol 2: Young, Gifted & Queer is a thrilling sequel and a roller coaster of emotional ride. I absolutely love the radiating queerness of the mutants and their very real dynamics and actions—they fail, they mess up, and they question themselves. None of them are perfect teens who knew what they were doing, but they are a team, and no matter what happens, they always have each other’s backs.

I received an e-ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review.

shannonxo's review against another edition

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5.0

Somehow, someway, SJ Whitby has done the impossible and one upped themselves. This was so much fun! Queer as heck and perfectly heartwarming (and heartbreaking!) The stakes have been upped deliciously and was hard to look away from. This cast of characters, already phenomenal, is back and bigger and more mutant than ever. Can’t wait for the third book!

kassogtha's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny inspiring sad medium-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

4.75

emjayreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny 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? Yes

4.25

althea's review against another edition

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5.0

Although I am yet to read the comics (fake fan, I know), I’ve been a huge fan of the X-Men films for years – they shaped my teen years and they’re so much of a comfort to me (yes, even the Deadpool ones) – so at the end of the first book when Dylan is invited to train with her team of mutants at a government-backed facility, I was so excited to dive into this second book, particularly for the X-Men First Class-esque training scenes. But this was so much darker than I could ever have expected!

The book opens with Dylan kissing her new girlfriend Dani in the closet, and no, the irony of that has no escaped her! The two of them, and the rest of the Cute Mutants make their way to Yaxley Headquarters to start their training, but from the get go things go a bit awry. Dani is instated as the new team leader and the team are quickly tested in order to figure out their abilities. After one of the Cute Mutants gets taken, Dylan is quick to try and rescue them and find out what happened, but in doing so uncovers a secret corporation set on creating new mutants who are already out there and dangerous…

Writing this review is going to be hard without this being just a giant key smash of emotions, although I feel that that is something that Dylan would greatly appreciate! The Cute Mutants themselves are definitely one of the highlights of this book for me! I love character-driven books, so having so much of a focus on the Cute Mutants is something I really appreciate! From the get go we see Dylan being put in some challenging situations and we see her struggle with being almost demoted by Yaxley. It’s so easy to empathise with her throughout the book, and though she could have gone in the complete opposite direction, Dylan is always so protective of her Cute Mutants and never grudges Dani for being chosen as leader over her. Seeing their relationship grow in this book is so so cute. It’s so great to see such a healthy relationship where they discuss their issues with each other, and I love how vulnerable they are around each other! There is another relationship which starts to blossom in this book which I would honestly die for!! I’m not going to spoil it for you but they are the softest and sweetest couple and I swear nothing better happen to them!!!! Again, without spoiling things, we get to see a new bunch of mutants and that was so cool!! I love getting to know them and their powers and seeing the fun superhero names they come up with for each other! One that is introduced quite early on is Katie who can basically breathe fire and she quickly grew on me! Another thing I really appreciated was getting to see more of Emma, getting to understand her powers and seeing her grow as a character. Sadly, there is a death in this book and honestly… I don’t wanna talk about it! SJ Whitby has just ripped my heart from my chest and slashed it to pieces courtesy of Oni (who, yes, I also love!). I am never going to be over this death, I will forever be salty about it!!!

As I mentioned, this book is so much darker than the first! We have the dodgy dealings of another corporation set on making their own mutants and the ethics of that as well as the fact that Yaxley is not as great as they may seem at first glance. There is so much more action in this one too and the whole book literally had me on the edge of my seat. I know some people may disagree on what I’m about to say (please fight me on this) but this book had similar vibes to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, aka, the best solo Wolverine movie (yep, I said it). I know I gave book one five stars but this book was literally on another level! I cannot recommend this series enough, even if you’re not a huge X-Men fan like me! If you love fast paced, high action, character driven books that are just so queer then this series is definitely for you! I’m so lucky to have an ARC copy of the next one sitting waiting for me because I can’t wait to know what’s next in store for my Cute Mutants – but only if there is no more heartbreak!!