Name: Squad
ISBN: 9780062943156

Maggie Tokuda-Hall

Pretty Little Liars meets Teen Wolf in this fast-paced, sharply funny, and patriarchy-smashing graphic novel from author Maggie Tokuda-Hall and artist Lisa Sterle. When the new girl is invited to join her high school's most popular clique, she can't believe her luck--and she can't believe their secret, either. When Becca transfers to a high school in an elite San Francisco suburb, she's worried she's not going to fit in. To her surprise, she's immediately adopted by the most popular girls in school. At first glance, Marley, Arianna, and Mandy are perfect. But at a party under a full moon, Becca learns that they also have a big secret. Becca's new friends are werewolves. Their prey? Slimy boys who take advantage of unsuspecting girls. Eager to be accepted, Becca allows her friends to turn her into a werewolf, and finally, for the first time in her life, she feels like she truly belongs. But then things get complicated. As their pack begins to buckle under the pressure, their moral high ground gets muddier and muddier--and Becca realizes that she might have feelings for one of her new best friends. Lisa Sterle's stylish illustrations paired with Maggie Tokuda-Hall's sharp writing make Squad a fierce, haunting, and fast-paced thriller that will resonate with fans of Riverdale, and with readers of This Savage Song, Lumberjanes, and Paper Girls.

Squad

Scarlett

kelsey

rep: lesbian mc, sapphic mc/li, muslim side character, black mc

tw: gore, internalized homophobia, situations involving lack of consent (aka men being gross) 

i LOVED this! super fun quick girls-gone-feral sapphic read!

chloe rae

saw this on the pride table at barnes and noble and it was exactly as i thought it’d be: silly and fun and quick. who doesn’t love a little sapphic woman-werewolf moment?

Lara Engle

So you're the new kid in school and it's junior year. You happen to make a friend in the girls' bathroom, of all places, not realizing that this chance encounter will change everything about you. Or will it? Squad is a colorful, dramatic depiction of the complicated life of a teen girl. It's also a gruesome werewolf tale. Think those don't fit together? Give it a try anyway, because it's also a fun read.

(seriously don’t expect much from this book, and take it for the surface-level remake of the Craft and Jennifer’s Body that it is) 

Rebecca

no thoughts, just vibes. 

(seriously don’t expect much from this book, and take it for the surface-level remake of the Craft and Jennifer’s Body that it is) 

"Becca moves to an upscale Silicon Valley suburb and is surprised when she develops a bond with girls who belong to the popular clique-and even more surprised when she learns their secrets"--

Abi Baker

the art was honestly the best thing about this

Camila

Isabela H 

I went into this book completely blind and I had a lot of fun. The concept of the whole book is something really fun and new and unexpected. I will say though that I never got attached enough to the characters to be genuinely sad or upset about things that happened (although if you think about it, it’s pretty messed up)

sophia n

* 3.5 stars

this was fun and entertaining, and i originally rounded up to 4 stars because i liked what the author was going for here and letting myself put my critical-rating-and-reviewing part aside it was absolutely just a good fun time. but a month later i realize it's more realistically around 3 stars. i think where this falls a little short for me is in the execution of the main thread and driving point of the plot, which i just think was lost. there was such an interesting concept kicked off here but i felt like it just failed to fulfill on the premise. i guess i was expecting it to feel like a queer feminist revenge story, and it tried, but somehow never did. but it was still beautiful, and fun, and entertaining, and i still appreciated the attempt for what it was.

Marissa Davis

I have to say this book was a little weird but in a good way. It follows Becca as she tries to make friends in a new school and new town after her parents divorce. She makes friends thats for sure and one of them isnt the best peson to be friends with. The rest you will have to see for yourself when this bookis released later on this Fall. I highly recomment this and give it 5 STARS. I friends to lovers kind of book.

mighty dragon 

Eliza Gonzalez

lmfaoooo i love that we are supposed to just forget the awful crimes these girls committed by the end of the book. 

honestly though this novel could have made the girls a lot less morally corrupt and still gotten to the same endgame so i'm not sure WHY they even commit said awful crimes.

it should make me lower the rating, but i am nothing if not a mood reader, and i rate based on my enjoyment and i was enjoying this in a hate to love - love to hate kinda way. 😘😜

edit: actually thinking about, i almost forgot that some weird comments were made about becca being asian and nobody respected amanda's name so i actually am gonna lower this to a 3. tbf, the characters in here are NOT truly good people so its not surprising. but i wish it had been challenged and dealt with.

Abbey Shaffer

This was a such a cute little read! I wish there was more!!

Magda Silva

Julia Morrison

Beautiful. But, after the glowing recommendations this book is not all that it is cracked up to be. Very much girl power and fun sapphic experiences, but I wish that the plot and the relationship had been further fleshed out. I really love in-depth sapphic representation, and while the representation is there, but there isn’t really a show of that relationship.

tutti

You may have been lead to believe you don’t need werewolf sapphic graphic novels in your life, however you are utterly mistaken.

The urge to compare this to any other stories is real, but I feel like this fantasy murder plot surrounding an all women main cast is absolutely innovative, despite resemblances. I know people are comparing this to Pretty Little Liars meets Teen Wolf, however it’s more like Promising Young Woman meets The Vampire Diaries (wolf edition only). The utter disregard for human life mixed with the girl power vendetta these girls have is absolutely fantastic. No predatory stone is left unturned when we’re talking about this murder squad - and I live for it.

The romance is palpable from day one, even before the bodies of creepers start piling up with this foursome - thankfully they only eat during the full moon, or else we might’ve been looking at a new Ripper concept. Which I also would’ve lived for because at this point hating male predators is not only a part of me but the foundation of my entire personality.

In all honesty they were doing the Goddess’s work before they started straying (pun intended) from the main goal.

The ending left us with no questions at all and yet I wish I had some to write down as an excuse to why you absolutely should write a Squad Part II - The Lone Wolf.

To summarize, I absolutely devoured this story and it gave a whole new meaning to the phrase “I wolf you”. Right now, I’m just a girl standing in front of her phone asking you to howl more stories about Piedmont. I even have a list of creepy male targets for the girls so they won’t starve.

Mazdyn Miller

Literally shaking right now, I finished this in one sitting and I absolutely LOVE it. Although it was a little face paced for me, I just LOVED the characters, the concept, and the story. The art was SO SO SO gorgeous too; I’d love to get some of the panels as art prints… Just very, very pretty. 
Also sapphic werewolves? Sapphic werewolves! Can’t go wrong with sapphic werewolves.

Jane The Bookaholic

⭐️ 3.5 Stars ⭐️

I enjoyed it very much, I loved that it felt like mean girls but teeneage werewolf! It was also sapphic which is nice, and I loved the plot. 
I really enjoyed the ending, it was definitely satisfying! But I did feel like I wanted to see more and some things felt to me on a surface level. 
I’d prefer for the graphic novel to be longer with more depth of the characters and their stories.

Lisa W.

Woe is me. This has to be my biggest disappointment of 2021. I just knew I would love this graphic novel. It was giving clueless and the craft vibes but with werewolves. Problem is, the characters being so damn problematic. Ugh Marley was an insensitive ding bat, Arianna was a total bitch, Becca was absolutely spineless. Hell the only character I remotely liked was Amanda and even still she came off as subpar by surrounding herself with the aforementioned for so long. 

However I will say, the artwork was impeccable. If I could rate that alone it would be a 5! Damn good work. Too bad it couldn’t save the story for me. 

I should have know it was downhill from page four when Marley walked out that bathroom stall after having changed her tampon. She didn’t wash her hands and had the nerve to touch Becca’s hair. Hence me saying Becca was spineless, she didn’t say shit about it. Let that had been Amanda, the story would have gone completely different.

“People call them all kinds of names—creeps, jerks. But the right word is predator. And that’s who we hunt. Becca wants what every high-schooler does: to have a group of friends, a squad. But Becca’s new friends are more than a clique, they’re a pack, and this pack is hungry. SQUAD is a fast-paced and feminist horror story for every girl who’s ever felt like prey, and asks how far a girl should go to hunt the hunters.”—Laura Ruby, author of National Book Award Finalist Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All Pretty Little Liars meets Teen Wolf in this sharply funny, and patriarchy-smashing graphic novel from author Maggie Tokuda-Hall and artist Lisa Sterle. When the new girl is invited to join her high school’s most popular clique, she can’t believe her luck—and she can’t believe their secret, either. When Becca transfers to a high school in an elite San Francisco suburb, she’s worried she’s not going to fit in. To her surprise, she’s immediately adopted by the most popular girls in school. At first glance, Marley, Arianna, and Mandy are perfect. But at a party under a full moon, Becca learns that they also have a big secret. Becca’s new friends are werewolves. Their prey? Slimy boys who take advantage of unsuspecting girls. Eager to be accepted, Becca allows her friends to turn her into a werewolf, and finally, for the first time in her life, she feels like she truly belongs. But then things get complicated. As their pack begins to buckle under the pressure, their moral high ground gets muddier and muddier—and Becca realizes that she might have feelings for one of her new best friends. Lisa Sterle’s stylish illustrations paired with Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s sharp writing make Squad a fierce, haunting, and fast-paced thriller that will resonate with fans of Riverdale, and with readers of This Savage Song, Lumberjanes, and Paper Girls.

Dana

Okay this book. I’m not sure if this was the intent but It came off as more of a study in self righteousness and hypocrisy than anything else (which isn’t completely bad). 

These protagonists are not the girls you want to be friends with lol. The main character moves to a posh new school and is instantly accepted into the popular girls club with a bunch of new friends and people fawning over her. It’s every high schoolers wet dream. Little does she know her new friends have secrets that rise with the full moon. 

It’s a graphic novel so it’s a pretty quick read and the art was gorgeous. That much I liked.

My initial response to this book was like wtf did I just read. Honestly. These girls are not kind, I mean they are *rabid* and the peer pressure is heavy.  But after sitting with it for a few minutes I found myself liking it more and more. 

I think the author effectively conveyed the absolute exhaustion of being a woman and a person of color and having to deal with the micro aggressions that come with this. Exhausted by constantly being preyed on by men who can’t understand the word ‘no’ the protagonists make a pact to prey on the predators, but how far is too far? And how many monsters can you depose before you become one yourself ?

My only gripe with this book was that I felt like it was juggling so many issues that some of them were left unaddressed especially the constant mention of one character’s Asian-ness. It just felt weird. The rest though, was fine. I wouldn’t not recommend it, I think the best thing to do with this is take the characters at face value, know that they are incredibly flawed and not expect too much emotional depth from some of them (one in particular). 

Otherwise this is a quick easy read, it’s Gossip Girl meets Scream Queens and the main character is season one Jenny Humphrey so go figure.


Rebecca McKay

Easy Halloween read. Felt like it was trying to make a point but doesn't really get there. It seems to jump from panel to panel and it left me confused at some points. A few extra pages would have made it easier to follow from scene to scene. It seemed rushed and the narrative was a bit confusing. Ending was unsatisfying but predictable. Would recommend for a quick read if you like graphic novels or if you have a teenage girl in your life who likes things a little edgy. The art is amazing and dynamic so I will definitely keep it for that.

Chelsea Hogg

Thanks so much to literary bound tours and Harper Collins for sending me an arc for review! Please see the end of my review for content warnings.

I’m not sure if this is a 2.5 or 3 star read for me.

Becca is the new girl at Piedmont and when the Squad takes an interest in her, Becca’s life changes completely. One night under a full moon, the Squad lets Becca in on their secret: they’re werewolves!

Things are going great for Becca, people are noticing her, she’s going to all the hot parties and finally, for once she finally feels like she’s found her people. Until Thatcher dies. Then things get complicated. 

Squad is a YA graphic novel that is a fun blend of Teen Wolf and Mean Girls. It was a quick and immersive read however it didn’t quite hit the mark for me. With only 8 chapters in the novel, I felt like the main characters and the plot line could have been fleshed out a little better (no pun intended). Some themes presented within this story felt a little tone deaf as well (a “comical” mention of 9/11 really did not sit right with me). 

There was no reasoning or lore behind the lycanthropy. Girls just changed into werewolves and killed/ate fuckboys. 

I did like the strong girl power message and the fact that women are taking a stand against pervy guys but at the end of the day this was really kind of one dimensional. 

It was still an entertaining way to kill an hour. 

CW: attempted sexual assault, teen drinking, gore, murder, brief 9/11 mention.