Young Queer Disasters: Cute Mutants Vol I by S.J. Whitby – Blog Tour + Review + International Giveaway

Today I’m excited to participate in the Bookstagram & Creative Tour for Cute Mutants Vol 1: Mutant Pride by SJ Whitby! In this YA Superhero novel, a teenager X-Men superfan gets powers and discovers she’s not the only one. Now she’s part of a group of queer superheroes struggling to control their powers, defeat the villain and, most difficult of all, make friends. Cute Mutants Vol 1 & 2 are out now, and Vol 3 releases on December 8th, 2020!

I would like to thank MTMC Tours for having me on the tour and the author for providing me a published copy of the book. This does not influence my opinion in any way.

Note: This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from Bookswagon, I will receive a 5% commission as an affiliate, which would help me continue creating on this blog and my other platforms.

Title: Cute Mutants – Vol I – Mutant Pride
Author: SJ Whitby
Series: Cute Mutants #1
Age Category: Young Adult
Genre: Superhero
Diversity: LGBTQ+
Publisher: Self-published
Release Date: 1 August, 2020

My name is Dylan Taylor, human incarnation of the burning dumpster gif, and this is my life.

I always wanted to be an X-Man. Except people and me never got along, and apparently you need social skills to run a successful team. Cue Emma Hall’s party. One hot make out session with the host herself, and I can talk to objects like my pillow (who’s far too invested in my love life) and my baseball bat (who was a pacifist before I got hold of him). Now there’s a whole group of us with strange abilities, including super hot ice queen Dani Kim who doesn’t approve of how reckless I can be. The bigger problem is a mysterious mutant causing unnatural disasters, and we’re the ones who have to stop him. Except trying to make a difference makes things blow up in my face and the team’s on the verge of falling apart. Can I bring them back together in time to stop the villain from taking revenge? Have I mentioned I’m not a people person? Magneto help us.

Make sure to check out the rest of the series:

Add Cute Mutants Vol 2 & Cute Mutants Vol 3 on Goodreads!

My Rating: 4 stars

Content Warnings for the book: violence, body horror, misgendering, bullying, sexual assault, implied mutilation, queerphobia, implied racism, implied Islamophobia

Representation: pansexual main character, trans [boy] character, sapphic (lesbian and bisexual) side characters, demisexual side characters, nonbinary side character (parent), Kiwi-Chinese-American side character, Korean-American side character

Cute Mutants Vol 1 was a light, fluffy read that I enjoyed because of its lightness. Even though it battled with the ethical dilemmas of powers and discriminations faced by individuals, it did so in a manner that was impactful and yet did not leave you reeling with it. Even though I was invested in the book, these incidents did not put me in a state of sadness because the book is very cleverly balanced with moments of levity and intensity.

I really liked how each character had a very distinct personality. Since, the book is written in first person perspective of Dylan Taylor, who brilliantly exhibits the deprecative humour that Gen-Z/millenials possess. I really liked how her voice came off to be very authentic as a teenager. YA sometimes feels like characters in their 20s living the lives of teenagers, which is why I really liked the portrayal of teenagers in this book because they had gravity, but they also had naivete and vigor for life.

Dylan’s internal monologue definitely carries this book with its well-placed and yet awkward humour, which is filled with pop culture references and embodiment of shrug emojis. Although, I enjoyed the references made, I did feel like it made the book very momentous and specific to certain readers. I liked how Dylan as a protagonist creates a bond with her teammates, which in turn adds to their personality. The worldbuilding is simple and easy to understand, which made the reading fun.

It is pretty clear that the book has a contemporary setting, I had a difficult time visualising the location the book takes place. It feels almost everything happens in suburbs, everything else felt empty. I did not get a feeling whether we were in the suburban area of a city or a small town, or something else entirely. Even though this book has many diverse characters and I understand that Dylan is our main character, I felt uncomfortable with the amount of times she has to come to the aid of POC and queer people while those people do nothing at all to deal with whichever assault they are being subjected to.

I found this book to be a fun read with so much casual queerness that filled my heart to the brim. I am eagerly looking forward to its sequel and the adventures that await our Cute Mutants.

Applicability: International
Prize: One finished copy of Cute Mutants Vol 1 (Paperback)
End date: 28 Nov 2020

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SJ Whitby lives in New Zealand with their partner, as well as various children and animals. They are predictably obsessed with X-Men and spend too much of their free time writing.

Connect with SJ Whitby: Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Instagram