Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - Squad

Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Squad by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

33 reviews

wardenred's review against another edition

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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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drtx_bwt's review

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dark emotional hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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lost_reader's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense

2.0

Not very fleshed out, felt like a movie. But I did have fun with the feminist werewolf cult thing. I like the ideas brought up a lot more than the execution. It's a "the more you think about it, the more it doesn't make sense" kind of book.

Cuz basically the original werewolf pack is dedicated to only killing the bad guys, but then Arianna makes them eat just any guy basically. And the others are grouped into it and don't really have a choice or else they'll starve. Guess they can't just eat a bunch of deer? Will they die of they don't eat people or can they sort of subsist living off animals, like the vegetarian vampires from Twilight And? I guess not? And at the end of the story when Becca and Marley choose to eat Arianna's heart to not be werewolves anymore, it must have been a hard choice right? Like they've interacted with and have been threatened by so many predatory boys and men... it must have been hard to just give away your "turn into a wolf" card. And also Mandy seems to be the only one of them bothered by killing guys who weren't creepy? Like who were actually innocent? Rest in piece that one guy who actually wanted to talk to Marley and get to know her as a person, he didn't deserve to die 😢. Also I thought Mandy did the right thing honestly. The more I think about this story the more confused I get. Like I love feminist themes but things don't make sense in this book if I think about it too much 😂.

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bri_of_the_shire's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The intersectionality of if Mean Girls was a supernatural thriller, and also queer. Explores themes sisterhood, queer identity, and the righteous anger and hunger carried with femininity.

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spicycronereads's review against another edition

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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

5.0

I don’t want to say too much and give anything away, but this was such a fun read!

Diverse characters, high school drama, werewolves. What more could you want?

The love story felt a little rushed / out of left field. But then I skimmed back through the novel and there were signs if you knew to look for them. Kinda fun to re-read it that way. There are a few depictions of kissing, but I would say this is more closed door, so no real spice.

But it was a five star read for me. With graphic novels that means the story was clever or emotionally engaging (the former in this case) and the artwork appealed to my sensibilities.

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