Cute Mutants by SJ Whitby Book Tour
Title: Cute Mutants
Author: SJ Whitby
Cover Artist: Kassio
Publisher: Self-published
Publication Date: June 2020
Genres: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Book Links: Goodreads, Bookshop, Amazon, B&N, Book Depository, IndieBound
Book Synopsis
"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."
My Thoughts
Welcome to my stop on the book tour of Cute Mutants with Caffeine Book Tours! The full tour schedule can be found here.
I have so much love for this book. I literally got four chapters into this one and decided that I was going to want a physical copy to keep forever. So of course this is another one that I loved so much that words fail me.
Dylan is a teenage X-Men super fan who wants nothing more than to develop her own superpowers, and then one day she finally does. After kissing a popular girl at a party, Dylan discovers that she and five others have developed rather unusual superpowers.
Oh wow, this one hit home. Reading this one I found myself giggling, "Oh relatable." Then the scene would sink in and it would hit me again, "Oh damn, relatable." Dylan is the last to realize that she's actually a pretty amazing human. And a lot of her internal thoughts are painfully reminiscent of my own teen years. She's also got a fantastic sense of humor that I appreciated right away. This book is about teenagers with superpowers, but it's mostly about friendship and learning to love yourself as well. The characters were fantastic and felt like real human beings, plus it felt like every character queer in some way.
I truly cannot recommend this one enough! If you want an X-Men story with a lot of snark and a really freaking adorable cast of characters, definitely pick this one up!
I received a digital copy of this book from Caffeine Book Tours and the author as part of my participation in their tour.
Representation: non-binary, Demi-sexual, bi, trans, ace, lesbian, queer, AsianÂ
Content Warnings: homophobia, transphobia (misgendering & deadnaming), sexual assault (recounted by a character), violence, language, self-harm (intentionally punching walls to feel pain), f-slur, fat jokes, incel behavior, depression, suicidal ideation, gore, dismembermentÂ
About the Author
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.