Book Review: Mutant Pride

Dylan Taylor has always loved the X-Men. She dreams about what it would be like to have super powers and fight evil. Her dream becomes reality when a girl kisses her at a party. The next day she wakes up with powers of her own. In fact, everyone who kissed Emma Hall at the party got super powers. Maybe if they can join together, they can become a team of heroes just like in her comic books. Just one problem… how does one weaponize communicating with household items?

Cute Mutants by S.J Whitby is an interesting ride as it follows Dylan Taylor through her new life with brand new super powers. There are a lot of ups and downs throughout the plot and plenty of obstacles Dylan has to make it through. The novel is basically an origin story for Dylan and her fellow school mates as they work out their new powers and try to become a functioning superhero team. It has a lot of references to other superhero stories, especially the X-Men as it’s Dylan’s favorite stories. The plot in general had a lot of potential and starts off very interesting.

However, shortly after starting this book, it became clear that I am not the intended audience of this novel. There are many elements in the book that didn’t work for me. The first one is the level of LGBTQ+ characters and themes. As many of you may know from my previous reviews and discussions, I really encourage and like LGBTQ+ themes in fantasy novels. I think it is good to finally see more representation in the genre. However, this novel is mainly focused on this theme. Most of the characters are either lesbian, trans, non binary, or bi. Almost all the events and character interactions focus around LGBTQ+ rights or romantic relationship. I am happy to see this representation, but I feel that it overpowered the book until the story itself suffered for it. 

I also feel the X-Men theme was overwhelming in this book. The X-Men comments, jokes, and references were essential to Dylan’s character since she is such a fan of the comics. It motivates her to want to become a superhero once she has powers herself. Unfortunately, I felt that Dylan became one dimensional because her character really only focused on the X-Men and her romantic interests. There wasn’t enough depth to her to allow her character to grow and blossom or to surprise the reader. Even the other characters all know about her interest in the comics and often reference them as her motivations and main trait. I would have preferred a main character that offered more substance and depth to her wants and goals.