This was a fun and gruesome tale but the characters were a bit stereotypical. Art style and color palate was very cool.

I enjoyed Squad. It is a super fun and spooky graphic novel perfect for Halloween. Squad was a super quick and enjoyable graphic novel that had so many great themes running through it. There is some Sapphic content in here which I loved. The characters were all interesting and I would say most are fairly fleshed out. I absolutely loved the artwork in the book. The style and colours fit the theme super well and was just overall gorgeous. Definitely recommend!

I'm a sucker for a beautiful graphic novel, and Lisa Sterle's art is GORGEOUS. This definitely could be described in tandem with Jennifer's Body, a personal favorite of mine, where women are able to be the powerful ones, but at the price of becoming something otherworldly and sinister. One significant area where these differ (besides the intended audience) is the solitude vs the literal pack mentality. The need to fit in hits extremely strong in here, something that most teens are constantly aware of, as well as the microaggressions and misogyny that are unfortunately present in their lives. I enjoyed this book immensely, but it's definitely a form of escapism.

Love this graphic novel and the concepts it explores in light of rape culture and patriarchy societies.

Fell in love with the beautiful artwork. Every time I pick up a graphic novel, I find myself longing for it to be... longer. This one was like Teen Wolf meets Jennifer's Body ("I'm not killing people, I'm killing boys") meets Mean Girls. Thanks so much to Literary Bound Tours and Harper Collins for sending me an early copy of Squad!

Squad is a YA graphic novel that I picked up for my classroom. It addresses the desire to fit in as well as young women's desire to feel powerful and does both with a heaping dose of the paranormal. While I understand the goal of the story, the characters are a bit too far over the line of morally gray to be likeable, even if you can sympathize with them, in my opinion.

4 stars! Thank you to Netgalley for the arc. I enjoyed this so much I had to go buy my own physical copy! Loved the story, the paranormal elements, and the art work. Cant' wait to read from this author again.

A sharp, funny, and fascinating take on the paranormal. Squad mixes werewolves and cliques and ends up with something pretty magical.

Felt like this was a great version of the werewolf trope and the horrors of high school. This also played an amazing parallel of the coming of age story and finding out who you are before college.

Twist on werewolves. Didn't really get much character development and plot was pretty straight forward. Would have liked something more.

I loved the artwork for this so much, but also the story. There's a lot of pressure to find your people, even if your people are werewolves who eat men they've deemed bad. At least their food supply won't dry up anytime soon!

This is like Jennifer's Body meets MTV's Teen Wolf. I wanted to like this a little more than I did in the end. I wish Graphic Novelists weren't so afraid of making a longer graphic novel. Fans would most definitely read them and appreciate them if there was more detail and more book to love.

This is a fun teen Halloween title. Not a lot of plot, but some teens just want monsters and this book gives that. It gives Heathers and Mean Girl vibes.

Squad is a premise I fell in love with even before I saw the gorgeous art. A group of girls who turn into werewolves to take down slimy predatory boys? Count me in. But Sterle's drawing style is able to balance the darkness and shadows with some beautiful illustrations and stunning color work. I can definitely see how Squad could have gone another direction. However, at the core of Squad is a story about friendships. Some that have rocky foundations and others that nurture.

Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s Squad is a perfect blend of horror, suspense, and believe it or not, romance. It’s sort of like if Mean Girls had a baby with Teen Wolf that grew up to be super freaking gay and not a little sarcastic. Combine that with Lisa Sterle’s vibrant art style reminiscent of the best of the Archie Comics and what you have is a delightful romp just ripe for adaptation. Does anyone have Netflix’s number?

It all starts when Becca moves with her mom from LA to Piedmont in her junior year of high school. Becca has always wanted to fit in, so when a clique of popular girls takes her in, she feels like she has a place for the first time in her life. It turns out though that Becca’s new squad is less of a clique and more of a pack. Of werewolves, that is, with bites far worse than their barks. These werewolves don’t hunt the innocent, though. Their prey are the predators. Sleazy boys oozing generational wealth and privilege who take advantage of girls at parties. Boys who know history and the law is on their side telling them they’ll get away with it because most of the time they do.

Becca discovers her friends’ secret at a party outside underneath a full moon. A skinny incel named Bart O’Kavanaugh (Tokuda-Hall’s character naming is very tongue in cheek) gets Becca away from the larger group and tries to assault her. Their exchange really is rape culture in a nutshell:

Bart: You’re hella pretty.

Becca: Okay.

Bart moves in to kiss her and Becca squirms away from him.

Bart: Don’t make it weird.

Becca: Don’t make it rapey.

Bart: Why’d you even come with me then?

Becca: Boredom? I don’t know why I even believed you when you said you were gonna show me something cool.

Bart: Yeah, my dick!

Becca tries to turn away from him.

Becca: Let’s go back to the party.

Bart puts his hand on Becca’s shoulder.

Bart: I can tell you want it.

Becca turns again, trying to dislodge his hand off her shoulder, and Bart violently grabs her by the arm while she tries to free herself. She smacks him in the face, tearing up.

Becca: Let me go, dude!

Bart grabs Becca once again and tears are streaming down her face.

Bart: Jesus, don’t be such a bitch!

There’s a rustling nearby. Suddenly Arianna, Marley, and Mandy step into view.

Marley: You know, you gotta be careful around bitches.

The three girls start transforming into wolves, growing fangs, claws, and fur, tongues lolling in anticipation.

Marley: We roll in packs.

If that scene isn’t the most patriarchy-toppling in any piece of media ever, I don’t know what is. There’s something extremely satisfying about seeing boys with names like O’Kavanaugh and Weinstein get eaten by girls-turned-werewolves. After they rescue her from Bart, Becca joins the girls’ pack and has to learn to cope with this new aspect of her identity and all it encompasses. Along with being a newly-turned werewolf, Becca also has another secret to keep that’s gurgling just beneath the surface. When you’re young, or any age, really, having to hide part of yourself to stay safe does damage that takes a long time to heal. Sometimes it doesn’t. That’s true for gay people, women, and werewolves.

Fear not, though, dear readers—Squad doesn’t disappoint and isn’t a tragedy by any stretch of the imagination. In this hybrid horror-romance story, the girls get mad, the boys get eaten, and love triumphs over all. And if only for a moment, everyone who’s ever had to say #MeToo feels just a little bit better.

I really enjoyed the artwork for this one. The concept was really fascinating to me, very much "The Craft" vibes; however, I think the execution was... not as good as I had hoped. I had a real issue with how much unaddressed fatphobia there was. It felt unnecessary and almost dated in this time were people are becoming a lot more conscientious of fatphobia and how pervasive it is. I felt like this, in combination with the super poor decision making of the characters, and the very surface level romance to leave me a little underwhelmed. All that said, the art really made the book and I will keep an eye out for more by the artist.

Thanks so much to Literary Bound Tours and Harper Collins for sending me an early copy of Squad! Please see the end of my review for content warnings.

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 her in on their secret: they’re werewolves!

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

Squad is a YA Graphic Novel that was such a fun blend of Teen Wolf meets Mean Girls with no shortage of catty teenage girls. While it was a quick read and very immersive, I felt like there were a few elements missing from this book that would have made it excellent. With only 8 chapters in the novel it’s definitely a short read and that makes it hard to pack all the necessary information inside it. However I felt like I was reading only half of a story. I also feel like this book was bordering the line between YA and Middle Grade, the content was definitely YA but the writing and banter between characters felt very middle grade. All of the main characters could have been fleshed out a bit better, they felt so one dimensional and kind of boring. There were also a few scenes within the book that kind of seemed tone deaf; such as a joke about 9/11.

There was also really no reason or lore behind the Lycanthropy either. All we knew is that teenage girls were turning into werewolves to kill/eat womanizing and shady guys. A backstory into the lore would have been really great, even if it was minimal.

There were strong themes of girl power and standing up for yourself which I really liked. I love books with strong female characters who aren’t helpless damsels. Despite the conflict and resolution being dealt with so quickly this book was still a good read. My inner highschooler would have eaten this up and rated it five stars. However, for me this still felt one dimensional and fell a little short of the mark for me. I would still recommend this to anyone who’s a fan of Teen Wolf.

Content Warnings: attempted sexual assault, teen drinking, gore, murder, 9/11 mentions.

If Mean Girls and Jennifer’s Body had a baby, that baby would be Squad. Squad follows Becca, a teenager who moves to a new school and immediately finds herself befriending the popular trio of Marley, Arianna, and Mandy. Their lives are like something out of a movie. They’re popular in an effortless way, and Becca is thrilled when they take an interest in her. But the girls have a dark secret. They are secretly werewolves who eat the obnoxious and predatory boys in the surrounding towns. When Becca is offered the chance to be one of them, she takes it, wanting to feel invincible. After all, who doesn’t want the chance to take out a few predators and gain super strength in the bargain? But soon, it becomes clear that there’s more to this crew than meets the eye. Becca’s desperate to belong, but how far will she go to remain a part of this squad?

The most interesting aspect of Squad is the way author Maggie Tokuda-Hall plays with moral gray areas and characters. While the squad’s mission of only eating the worst of the worst predators seems admirable at first, it soon becomes apparent that not everyone in the group has the same metrics for measuring culpability. Becca’s inner conflict between wanting to be a part of something bigger and wanting to stay true to herself is certainly relatable, and the werewolf twist raises the stakes.

Squad is also a victory for representation. The main group is racially diverse, and the impact of microaggressions is explored in their relations both with each other and with outsiders. Becca is a lesbian, and her romance with another character is one sweet spot in an otherwise dark story. One of the more remarkable aspects of Squad is how effective it is at subtle commentary. As it has been since the beginning of the horror genre, Tokuda-Hall uses the supernatural to explore social issues. Having female rage manifest as bloodthirsty werewolves is clever. While the feminist angle might be fairly obvious from its premise, Squad is surprisingly self aware about race and queer identity and how even “well intentioned” people can have biases.

It’s not surprising that Squad scored a television series before it was even published. The pacing lends itself to a serialized adaptation, with its twists and turns leaving readers guessing. The gorgeous illustrations by Lisa Sterle are reminiscent of the classic Archie Comics, not holding back on the more unsavory aspects of being a teen werewolf while creating a world that looks sleek and modern. You can see how Squad would feel right at home with Riverdale, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, or even Teen Wolf. It’s a worthy addition to the YA creature catalogue, a twisted and fun graphic novel that will draw readers in.

I really enjoyed this YA graphic novel! After reading the synopsis I knew I needed to read it.

The story was enjoyable. It was definitely geared towards a YA crowd, but it had me a girls and werewolves and was a ton of fun! I enjoyed getting to know the characters and the little twists it threw at me.

I was hoping for a little more, but overall, great graphic novel! It was a lot of fun.

This is a relatively quick read that has a lot going on in it, which I think was both a good and bad combination. On the one hand it was definitely easy to keep turning the pages, but on the other hand I wanted to delve deeper into some of the aspects brought up. This book is all about taking down toxic males and punishing them for their actions while also being about finding out who you are and where you belong. I'm really conflicted about the feminism/taking down the toxic males in this book. Sometimes it felt like feminism but more often than not it felt like mean girls playing judge, jury, and executioner which I just couldn't get behind. They group dynamic always felt uncomfortable to me because the girls were all very stereotypically judgy and horrible. The dialogue and overall script felt stiff and confusing at times. I really loved the artwork but it wasn't enough to compensate for the bad story, characters, and my issues with some of the messages in this book.