Reviews with content warning for Cannibalism - Squad

Reviews tagging 'Cannibalism'

Squad by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

40 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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infjkiki's review against another edition

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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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dexkit10's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

alliemikennareads's review against another edition

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mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5

Loved the art in this graphic novel, it’s so beautiful! Queer werewolf teen drama with a hint of murder and mystery and an easy to follow plot.

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witcheep's review

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Content Warnings

theoceanrose's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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olivialambert97's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny reflective tense 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? Yes

2.5

2.5 - high school girl squad of werewolves who eat the hearts of the boys who've wronged them is a great concept, but this needed more room to run in order to explore the number of large concepts it tried to fit into one short novel.

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squids_can_read's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Imagine a mix of Heathers, Mean Girls, and werewolves and you get this book.

The world-building and story were super interesting and I would love to read more about it. I just thought that all of the characters fell flat. I really just didn't care about them at all. There was also a relationship that I didn't feel had any development, which I didn't like. I almost want to read more in this universe to understand more about the characters.

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sabrinalefebvre's review against another edition

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dark emotional fast-paced

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

3.75

3.75 ⭐️

I found myself really enjoying this story and the darker concept. But it ended in a way where I couldn’t bring myself to give it 4 stars

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ctara2123's review

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mysterious 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

4.0

Content Warnings

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