I love thinking about the reading possibilities for a book like Squad with young adults who have yet to find the book that captures them, but love supernatural stories focused on teens. There's a lot to enjoy in this book, from the story to the visuals, and there's some nice connecting to genre that is accomplished well here.

What a great graphic novel! The diversity, the characters, the plot, the art work, all of it worked so well together. This book gave off so many old school girl power movies like Mean Girls and Heathers but with a great modern and dark twist. I honestly can't get over how amazing this was. Please please go check this out when it comes out.

Thanks to NetGalley & HarperCollins Children's Books for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Squad follows Becca, a shy teen new to the area who feels lost and alone, until she helps a fellow classmate out and is introduced to the most popular girls in school. Of course, the girls are werewolves, and bring her into the fray. They hunt down boys who willingly abuse girls, but Becca feels remorse after each murder. How does she come to terms with her new friend squad that has certain bloody rules they must follow?

This was a really entertaining story from start to finish. I didn't realize how starved I was for werewolves that weren't just all guys until I read this wonderful story...now I want more! Monster girls are IN (Thank you, Lady Dmitrescu) so I hope we see more similar graphic novels in the future.

The artwork was beautiful and wasn't afraid to turn grotesque when needed.

I'd say the only problem I had was that the high school drama in the early sections felt too dull and stretched out when the real action was in the middle. Not a major complaint though, everything else felt smoothly woven together.

Visually appealing and horrifically entertaining!

Have you ever wanted to read Mean Girls with werewolves and lesbians? Then THIS is the graphic novel for you!! It's got punishment for shitty rapey guys, its got mean girl clicks, its got mean girl clicks of girls who are secretly werewolves, and its got lesbian romance! What more could you want?

I am torn about this book. I'd been anticipating it for awhile, and there were parts of it I did love (the art, the anger at toxic masculinity and violence, etc.). However, there were parts of it that seemed problematic and less well-thought-out, and those parts overshadowed my reading experience, to some extent. Namely, the main 'squad' is obsessed with being skinny (and their powers affect this too), as is the MC's mother. This is never overtly questioned or resisted, and though I think subtextually it's meant to be a problem, it was disturbing to see so. much fatphobia and potentially triggering material included in a YA graphic novel without being challenged. (In a way, in fact, the skinniness remained aspirational and 'idealized,' though I do not think this was the author's intention). And in terms of race: the MC (who's Asian American) and another character (who's Black) suffer an array of microagressions, but the racism is never explicitly challenged (again, subtextually it's coded as bad, but that's it). And the book ends up sidelining Amanda, the Black character, despite the fact that she seems to be the only clearsighted person in the 'mean girl' squad. It was all a bit disappointing, although I did appreciate the central sapphic relationship and the message that toxic friendships may not be all that great.

It's pretty good! There are a lot of comparisons to Paper Girls, Lumberjames, Riverdale, Pretty Little Liars, Teen Wolf, and all of that seems legit. I loved the idea of teenage girls getting revenge on jerk guys--I wish that could have lasted longer, actually. The climax gets a little muddled in the action sequence, the ending is a little too tied up neatly, but overall? Yeah, high school girls, turn into werewolves and go crazy.

I LOVED this book!!!! I felt some Heathers, The Craft, Mean Girls vibes all rolled into a queer girl power revenge story with amazing illustrations. But that's not all- this book also dealt with micro aggressions, body shaming, and relational aggression between the girls and their parents. This was very realistic, which was a juxtaposition to the story about girls who turn into werewolves to punish aggressors. I also enjoyed the message that sometimes revenge feels great until it doesn't because it's a temporary fix or a bandaid when we really have to work on ourselves at a deeper level. I believe young girls will really love this for these things.

A fun YA novel from the author of The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea. New girl Becca is adopted by a clique of popular girls including the daughter of on of the most prestigious businessmen in town. She's not entirely sure why she's being included by these not-so-nice girls, but then when she's used as bait to lure a party boy into showing his true colors, she finally understands. These girls are hungry--starving--and they're looking for predators to feast on--literally. Once a month these werewolf girls need to eat human flesh to survive. And they've chosen Becca to be the newest member of the pack. She doesn't hesitate; it's time to be powerful for once. But with ever-shifting power dynamics and an increasing hunger that leads them to get sloppier and less careful in choosing only the worst of the worst guys, their pack begins to grow apart. Maybe it's not so sweet, being at the top of the food chain.

This graphic novel played with some really interesting concepts around cliques and pack mentality as well as the ideas of preying on predators who take advantage of drunk girls. I also really loved Lisa Sterle's illustrations and the growing relationship between Becca and Marley. But some of the story felt underdeveloped and underplayed. I think maybe that was an issue of length, because some of the character choices felt abrupt to me. And I do think there is a real issue of discussions of clothing size (the girls at one point mention their specific sizes and insinuate a size 4 is too large-- I believe the point is meant to be inferred that this is a bananas toxic mindset inherited from society and media, but because it is never given more discussion or painted as an outright bac thing, I was a bit bothered) and eating / eating disorders which I don't think was developed enough. Especially for a graphic novel targeting teenagers. That just feels irresponsible to me.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the graphic novel quite a bit overall. And getting to see a group of girls being the werewolves for once was very fun.

Squad was quite an interesting read! I enjoyed Lisa Sterle's eye-catching illustrations, and the story was fun. However, it was a little quickly paced for me—I would have liked to see more of Becca's mindset and inner conflict on the page. I think that doing so could have used the comics medium in a really interesting visual way that's different from what prose novels can do. I think more character development of Arianna in particular could have also sold me more on decisions that characters make throughout the book. I feel like I was told a lot of details that I would have liked to have been shown in a visual medium.

This graphic novel is a masterful combination of "Mean Girls", meets "Heathers", meets "Twilight." With a diverse set of characters and a contemporary yet eternal theme regarding the ever-present threat of sexual harassment for women, "Squad" can be enjoyed by adults and teens of all backgrounds. Paired with detailed and eye-catching illustrations, you will not be able to put this book down. My only complaint with this work is that certain moments or scene shifts appear to b quite jumpy (something that may be fixed in the final release), leading the book at times to be somewhat confusing to follow. Such can be seen in scenes such as discussions of outfits that quickly jump to part scenes where the outfits are not found, leaving the reader to wonder if they missed any pages. I also got caught up with the name "Maris" being used to refer to a character who had previously not been called that name, leading me to wonder who the speaker was referring to.

I just wanted more from this book, or maybe wanted it to be something that it wasn't. While I thoroughly enjoyed some aspects, the shallow and superficial nature of others left a lot to be desired. And then there were some things said that I don't think had a place in this book without proper interrogation or push back against, which did not occur.

This is as such a great read. At first it was giving me hardcore Heathers vibes, which I’m pretty sure it was meant to, but then a switch was flipped and it turned into 100% feminism starring werewolves.

I had a feeling that this would have a Queer MC, but I didn’t go into knowing at all. So of course I was much more excited when the storyline veered in that direction.

I’m a huge fan of Lisa Sterle’s artwork. I have a set of her beautiful Tarot Cards that I use for witchy photos on Instagram. Having a whole book with her art is incredible and I will for sure be posting about it there once I get a physical copy.

I hope this isn’t the end of the werewolves’ stories in this world and we get another book, because I loved them and what they stand for! ✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿

I have been interested in reading this graphic novel since I saw the publishing announcement on Twitter a few months back. However, it certainly ended up being a lot darker than I was expecting. It felt a little bit like Promising Young Woman mixed with Mean Girls if either movie was about teenage werewolfs.

One thing this book does really well is highlight how a desire for punishment, especially physical violence, can only be momentarily satisfactory and can often breed guilt, anger, and bloodlust rather than strong, healthy communities. It also does an excellent job highlighting the ways in which we dehumanize people in order to feel comfortable punishing them (and once we know people, their friends, and their family, we begin to feel guilt for that approach).

However, it also felt like the book was tackling a lot at once and I felt like I was left wanting more on some pieces. There's a lot of discussion of the complexity of friendship and how that impacts the "Squads'" dynamics, but I wanted more detail (How do Amanda and Becca feel being the target of microaggression from their friends? How do you wrestle with being treated with kindness and care with friends that treat you cruelly in one moment and have your back in the next?) The characters in this book also have a complex relationship with hunger and a lot of internalized fatphobia. I felt like there was a message there, but I honestly could not figure out what it was.

That being said, the artwork is gorgeous! Folks who prefer dark storylines over likeable characters and people who want to mediate on ideas of justice and friendship will likely enjoy this graphic novel.

The perfect mix of werewolves, feminism, and learning what it means to have your friends’ backs, all wrapped in a wonderful graphic novel. I devoured this book and cannot wait to be able to scream about it to the world.

this was fantastic—feminist, queer, funny, and dark. Just all-around great. The art style was to die for, too (no pun intended). Gonna check out other stuff by this illustrator now.