Weapon UwU Vol 1: Godkillers

Weapon UwU

by S.J. Whitby

Spinning out of the events of Cute Mutants Vol 4, here comes a new team with a horrifying new mission.
Kinda creepy. Still cute.

Weapon UwU - who'd expect us to be a team of deadly mutant assassins with a name like that?

The Team:
- a trans boy ready for his glow-up into a leading man
- an undead sweetheart with a bellyful of acid
- a furious firebreathing girl
- a hive mind of very polite spiders
- an over-it aroace woman who knows how scared you are of her
- a group of increasingly unhinged clones

The Misson:
To cross into a parallel universe and kill a mutant as powerful as a god, then clean up any mess

The Complications:
Okay so yikes this has spiralled out of control and now there may be some other terrifying new threats to deal with! We're on it though, I promise. Weapon UwU!

"The Cute Mutants series somehow managed to mutate my jet black heart into a pink sparkling emoji. Readers will come for the quirky superpowers and electric world that SJ has created, but they will stay for the characters. Amongst the killer fight scenes and nail-biting tension is a poignant and tender story of friendship, belonging, being accepted, and most of all loved exactly as you are. Pronouns, foul-mouth words, talking pillows and all."
— Melody Robinette, YA fantasy author

"Cute Mutants is a wild electric joyride from start to finish - burning dumpster gifs and all. SJ Whitby writes the superhero genre at its best, with thrilling, vivid fight scenes, voice-y high school angst, and queer found family that grabs you by the throat. Armed with grit, guts, and a baseball bat, Dylan Taylor is the fierce, sharp-witted protagonist of my dreams. When she wakes up with superpowers after kissing a girl at a party, Dylan trades her backpack and textbooks for a fierce mutant squad of her own - where every day's a battle and survival isn't guaranteed. This series is a queer, rainbow-glitter explosion of subverted tropes and fast-paced action that leaps from the page straight into your heart."
— Jenna Voris, author of MADE OF STARS

Genres: LGBT, Queer, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Transgender, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics

433 pages, Paperback

Published July 3, 2021

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.

Reviews

[Althea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a fun start to the spin-off series to the Cute Mutants books that I'm sure you all know I adore! I knew this was horror going in but I didn't expect just how unsettling this would become - SJ managed to encapsulate so many of my own fears, such as gore, zombies and spiders (and at this point it feels like a personal attack! /j) and yet there was such a gorgeous warmth to the heart of the story as we discover more about our favourite superqueeroes! Full review to come when I get back to blogging, but you should definitely preorder this!

Thanks to the author for an eARC in return for an honest review!

Want more sapphic books? You can find me here: Book Blog | Twitter | Instagram

[ray ౨ৎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book inspired me to eat 5876 Big Macs in one day very much recommend 🫃🫃


(Help yk how people didn’t believe me when I said my sis had Face ID? Well…my phone was a victim when I was in the closet and she wrote this review in my closet)

[Dr. Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series so much.



Weapon UwU: Godkillers is a break off squad from the main series of the Cute Mutants books. This novel follows Gladdy and Maddy along with Lou, Katie, Skye, and Ye Shou. Their mission is to go into the alternate dimension and deal with Emma's parent. They've proven too dangerous to be left alive. Unluckily for them, there is more in store than just Emma's wayward parent.

I LOVED being in Gladdy's head. She is one of my favorites!! Besides Dylan of course, but it was kind of cool to see Dylan from the outside. I love how both Gladdy and Maddy default Dylan to they/them pronouns but then also alternate that with she/her and he/him pronouns. Also Dylan totally dropped in on their team to boss them around and get them ice cream. If that's not chaos demon energy then I don't know what is lmao.

I want to give Maddy the biggest hug ever. The way she looks up to Gladdy, Dylan and so many others makes my heart swell. She is just so full of love and wants someone to finally shower with all her affections. I love this bitch so much. Soft bitches club forever. I really loved seeing both Gladdy and Maddy's inner thoughts. They present such a different front that seeing how they tick internally was equal parts fascinating and frustrating. Frustrating because they deserve nothing but the best and I want them to get everything they've ever dreamed of and they don't think their worthy. *Cries forever*

I loved the chaos energy of Weapon UwU so much. I really hope we get to see these six together again. I feel like they've finally reached a point where they're all really in sync and I want to see what they'll do next. Also will someone take Skye Prime to some therapy?? She needs some help and Alyse to come be a giant pillow for her.

The only "negative" thing I have for this is that I wish Gladdy used the words Aroace on page. It is on the blurb though so like, it's not a true negative. I just want all my ace and aro rep spelled out so people KNOW it's there forever!! Anyway, I loved how Gladdy explained her attraction and feelings to Maddy at the end. The slow burn QPR between these two really tried to end me. Then they finally talk and its Soft Bitches Club MAX. SO MANY FEELS Y'ALL!!! I hope we get to see more of their QPR and Maddy's developing romantic relationship. I just love it all.

Rep: Aroace female MC, white bi female MC, pansexual trans male love interest, white demiromantic pansexual genderfluid side character with anxiety, Kiwi-Chinese demisexual female side character, bisexual Pacific Islander female side character, lesbian Korean female side character with a metal arm, MLM side relationship, nonbinary side characters, Black female side characters, Maori female side characters, various queer side characters.

CWs from author: blood depiction, gore, drowning, death, murder, cannibalism, haunted house, eldritch monsters, spiders/insects, psychological manipulation, mind-control and mention of non-consensual medical experimentation.

CWs from me: Cursing, injury/injury detail, death of parent recounted, vomit.
____________________________________________________________
Until this book is in my hands, I will be this gif forevermore...

[Gabriella · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was great! I’m so glad I read this Cute Mutants spinoff and I think it’s essential reading if you’re into the series! Weapon Uwu Vol. 1: Godkillers is divided into four parts, each of which is relatively self-contained. While this book often reads like four novellas, there is definitely an overarching narrative as well. (Note that there’s a recap of the entire Cute Mutants series thus far (books 1-4) in the beginning of the book, to get you up to speed.) This one has more horror elements than the Cute Mutants series (both psychological horror and gory body horror), so be prepared for a creep fest!

This book follows Weapon Uwu, a group that has somewhat branched off from the rest of the Cute Mutants to do their own projects. The members of this group are Gladdy aka “Fetch” (aroace field leader who can see all your fears), Maddy aka “Sourpatch” (bi sunshine girl with a lot more than just a belly full of acid going on inside), Skye aka “Clone Club” (shy, anxious bi girl with six fierce, combative clones), Lou aka “Glowstick” (gentle glowing trans guy who’s getting more comfortable with leadership), Katie aka “Dragon” (little sister and literal spitfire of the group), and Ye Shou (resident Adult™ who can turn into an army of reconnaissance spiders). While the powers of these six aren’t as flashy as, say, Dylan’s sentient object friends or Alyse’s jawdropping shapeshifting abilities, Weapon Uwu proves to be a very capable team using not just their mutant powers, but their intelligence and empathetic abilities as well.

Written in dual-first-person POV of Gladdy and Maddy, we get to leave Dylan’s brain and experience the CM universe from two entirely different perspectives (one of which (Maddy) is just as chaotic as Dylan’s). I loved seeing how Dylan is perceived by two of their friends and how they view him as a charismatic, unstoppable (albeit chaotic) leader. In the Cute Mutants series, we spend lots of time with Dylan and her insecurities, so it was great to see how others view the leading hero (and refer to them with multiple pronouns: he, she, and they). It also fun seeing the rest of the inner CM team through Gladdy’s and Maddy’s eyes, and it was fun seeing them all in supporting roles. Gladdy and Maddy are entirely opposite characters so it was great having both their POVs, but even so, similar narration styles between the chapters often had me confused as to whose chapter it was.

My favorite part of the book was the messy, complicated dynamics between the Weapon Uwu members. l especially loved Maddy’s arc, which I found relatable in unexpected ways. Her desire to reinvent herself, her emotional internal monologue, her process of falling for people, and even her jealousy patterns spoke to me. I also loved getting to know Gladdy, who we discover is nowhere near as confident and unfeeling as she’s often perceived. Gladdy and Maddy each see parallels of their own lives in the problems they have to solve, which adds to this book’s emotional impact. As for the non-POV characters, I loved that Ye Shou is a woman in her thirties who acts as the voice of reason to all the chaotic teenagers. Also, Skye Prime, the clones’ host, is constantly overshadowed by her clones who joke about sacrificing her, and honestly, if I were a Weapon Uwu member, I’d probably be Prime. I really want to see a happier Prime in the future, but the anxious girl and her confident clones were an interesting dynamic.

My main complaint is that oftentimes there were too many things going on and too many characters to keep track of. Unfortunately, I got more and more confused as the book went on, and after giving it some thought, I’m still not sure how exactly the third and fourth parts got wrapped up. But I cared more about the relationships among the group members anyway (and liked how things ended up), so these things didn’t dampen my enjoyment much.

In short, I really enjoyed this book and am always looking forward to reading more from SJ Whitby!

Content warnings can be found at the beginning of the book.


Thanks so much to SJ Whitby for the ARC!

[Bertie (LuminosityLibrary) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book so much! Being able to hang out with the side characters of the Cute Mutants more was always going to be delightful, and I had so much fun. This book almost has an episodic feel to it as the group hunt down various powerful mutants. I loved all the situations they found themselves in. One of my highlights is that this book features a love triangle and it was handled amazingly, exactly how I wanted it to be. Even if you don't like that trope I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Thanks to the author for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

Follow me on my Blog, Twitter, and Instagram.

[Martina Weiß · Rating 2 out of 5]

CW:
Non-consensual kissing, murder, blood, death, gore, cannibalism, mind-manipulation, talking someone into suicide

2 / 5 Stars

This review containts spoilers for Cute Mutants Volume 4: The Sisterhood of Evil Mutants


This books takes place only a few days after the events of Cute Mutants: The Sisterhood of Evil Mutants . The book trys to give a summary of what happend but honestly, if I hadn't read the main series first, I would have been lost. I'll talk about that later on as well, but I just wanted you to know that before you continue reading this review, since I'll spoil the character of God for you.

Anyways:

I didn't like the way things ended in book 4 but I was still very excited for this one, because I figured

"Well, the spin-off is called godkillers, so I'm sure God will play a huge role in this one and will get the attention and love they deserve, since they got treated very poorly in the last installment given the fact that they are the most powerful mutant alive."

I was also VERY interested in the whole Maddy & Gladdy thing BECAUSE, while 99% of the fandom believed that those two had something going on, I personally thought that they were Zucchini, since it was kinda hinted at back in book 3.
In case you didn't know, I'm a huge fan of Zucchini literature (Zucchini = Partners in a Queer-Platonic Relationship) and I could not wait to read about their amazing relationship firsthand.

Now, you might have noticed the 2 star rating on this book, so clearly, something must have happend that I didn't like, which, yeah.

I'm not sure where to start so apologies if things feel out of order.

But, since the book tends to be all over the place at times as well, I guess reviewing it this way is fine.

Plot/Story:

I was dissapointed. Remember that I told you God - Heart of a Flower - was supposed to be the most powerful mutant alive? Well, it certainly doesn't feel like that. We go to where they're hold captive, tell them "Any last words?" kill them aaaaand that's it. There's the whole "They had crazy offspring and now we have to fight those too" twist, but given the fact that we defeat EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. OF. THEM. IN. ONE. BOOK, I'm not impressed. There's the B-Plot with Maddy & Gladdy, but that one's almost worse than the A-Plot, for reasons I'll get to in a second.
Some of the offspring get to show off real hard, just for our team to stumble into victory somehow. Most of the time they themselves don't really know how they managed to win, but ey, at least we get to read our team leader say "Weapon UwU" a few times. I'm sure that's gonna make up for the lack of stakes.

"But Martina, they have to fight a man-eating-house, an alien, the entire ocean and a cannibal! How can there be no stakes!!! Clearly, you're wrong!"

You see, all of that sounds cool on paper - & I really shipped the Ocean and cannibal with each other. Cute couple ♥ - but it doesn't translate into reality. Everyone who could have been a challange gets defeated way too easily. I know our team is strong, but it gets to a point where we slaughter our way through an army of zombies to fight an alien we defeat in not even 100 pages. Kinda anti-climactic :) There could have been stakes, - I'm not asking for character death left and right - but there was just no time for it. The book brings up so much cool stuff, but we sadly don't see that stuff developed to its full potential, because everything feels rushed and like the build up for the final. Instead of its own thing.

The B-Plot aka Maddy & Gladdy :


OK, so, Maddy & Gladdy are not Zucchini. And they aren't lovers either. But one of them wants to be. And, given the fact that they have been portrayed as VERY close and VERY important to each other, I would have expected for them to - you know - talk and communicate about the issue. But they don't. Oh boy, they don't. There is so much misscommunication in this one it was kind of painful to read. I was also not on board with the non-consensual kissing in this one. Which is kind of a big no no on my part.
There's a huge part in the middle of the book where those two don't talk with each other at all - because of misunderstandings slash misscommuniation.
Does writing them like that cause more drama? Sure. Was it the bestest of decisions? No.

You see, I - the reader - know that Gladdy is aro ace. But Maddy doesn't. And I'm not even sure Gladdy does - which is wild given the fact that they have two aces in their team. I'm bringing this up because neither the word ace nor the word aro get mentioned once. Like, wow, ok. Not only do you not communicate, but when you finally do, you don't really.
Other people want me to believe that those two attempt a QPR at the end of the book, but in all honesty, it's not clear that they do. They are speaking in methapors, symbols and puzzles I'm just not happy with what is said and how it's said and aksjfklasjdföl.

The characters :

They don't work as well as they should, because we spend almost all of the time with the B-Plot and a romance that I was not shipping and came kind of nowhere to be honest. I would have loved to learn more about our new members, but oh well.
They also didn't feel like a team to me. Yes, they've worked together, but this is their first real own-team-kind-of-thing thing. The way the plot was strucctered was not helping, suffocating the Cute Mutants found family dynamic I've come to love so much. There's a little bit of tension between two of our members but it gets resolved in the blink of an eye which felt kind of underwelming to me. The farther I got into the story/book, the more it became clear to me, that the books main problem was caused by it's cast. They don't work and the book isn't giving them time to work and it's sad.

There is also a romance that feels very out of place. Was not on board with it and don't feel like it deserves to be talked about. Just know: Dissapointed.

Cute Mutants Volume 4.5

This book calls itself a spin-off, but the truth is, it doesn't work that way. This book does not work as a stand-alone and you feel that in every page. The book trys to be its own thing, but it can't be because it relies on you knowing stuff from other books and it's building on stuff from other books and it's throwing in stuff from other books that would make you confused if you didn't know about them from said other books.


Summary

I didn't hate everything the book did, it's not the worst book I have read either, but it's also the worst Cute Mutant book in the series and a book that could have been really cool, but sadly didn't deliver.

[moody_bookpixie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reality Warping Fun!

I am absolutely in love with Whitby's Cute Mutants books. And I have to admit I was nervous about going into another perspective besides Dylan's. But this spin-off was incredible and I loved getting to see inside Maddy's and Gladdy's heads. I love them both so much!

I am also going to take this moment to say that Lou is my new book boyfriend 😍

This book was a lot of fun. It had it's horror elements, sci-fi wildness, and all the glorious queer rep you could ask for. I loved how seemlessly it just fits with the main CM books. It doesn't feel like some weird forced spinoff writing. It just works. I can't wait to read more about Weapon UwU!

Making note that this isn't my best review, but I just finished this book, and now I'm all up in my feels 😅🥰

[ShannonXO · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Cute Mutants are breaking up! Or, at least, splitting missions. And this group is going god hunting.

This is the first in a spin-off to the queer superhero Cute Mutants series. It's definitely recommended that you read the first four CM books first because a lot of this and its characters won't make sense otherwise. That said, there is a super helpful summary in the beginning that summed up the major points of each book. After the events of the fourth book, they trapped Emma's newfound super powerful mutant parent in a different dimension that stripped them of their powers, but it's too much of a risk to leave them there. So enter Weapon UwU, the team sent to kill Heart of a Flower once and for all.

Time to meet the team!
Gladdy is the aro/ace leader of this new team. They are very much the quiet and brooding type, especially around Maddy, but that's helped along by their mutant power of being able to read other people's fears in their faces.
Maddy goes where Gladdy goes, because she's half in love with the woman. Maddy is very warm and bubbly, and I suppose the same could be said for the acid goo that she spits at everyone else.
Katie is the team's tiny dragon. An angry, disobedient little firebreather, she'll burn the whole place down before she goes slow.
Skye is terribly meek and shy on her own, so it's a good thing she can multiply. I love her power so much because each clone of herself becomes increasing chaotic and feral.
Lou is the lone boy on the team. He can glow and melt things, but only if he's horny, so that makes things tricky sometimes.
Ye Shou is last but not least. Basically a skin suit full of spiders, aka my worst nightmare.

I loved getting closer to these characters. They have been more on the peripheral aside from Lou in the rest of the CM series, so it was great getting to know them better. Also, personally, it was quite refreshing to step into the mind of someone else in this fabulous world SJ Whitby has created. This spin-off alternates between Gladdy's and Maddy's POVs, so I really enjoyed stepping outside of Dylan's head for a while. I've come to realize that I've sort of been falling out of love with Dylan, and it wasn't until Maddy said something I agreed with that I knew why that was. So it was really timely to have a break from them and look at the world a little differently, and also to have someone else in charge with less of a tortured hero-complex.

As for the story, I'll admit this wasn't what I expected, and I mean that in a good way. I thought that they would be going into the parallel world and spend the entire book hunting down Heart of a Flower while battling weird, body-horror, eldritch beings there. Instead they kill the god pretty quick, but then hunt down the rest of his super powerful children on earth. It was a lot of fun to go down that road and it allowed a great opportunity to showcase this new team and the individual members. It's weird and gory and definitely more horror adjacent than the rest of the books.

My only problem was that some scenes went on a little too long and were difficult to follow. I'm still a little unclear on what exactly unfolded with the last sibling to be stopped. I couldn't quite keep up with every character involved and may have missed a few crucial points because of it.

Up next, Cute Mutants Five!

[aspeccharactersoftheday]

https://aspeccharactersoftheday.tumbl...

[Cat Rector · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weapon UwU is described in the trigger warnings as "cozy horror" and I think that's correct. It has a boatload of horror elements, but the underlying focus is the relationships between team members. The vibe is definitely different from the main series (Cute Mutants) but it gave us the opportunity to spend time with side characters that we may not get to know at that depth otherwise. I loved the sort of "Monster of the Week" style element, and the creativity that went into them.

Now get out of my way, I need to go read the final main series installment!

[Lucille · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great entry in the cute mutants universe! This spin-off is really interesting in that it alternates between Maddy's and Gladdy's pov ! It turns a bit more horrific than the four previous instalments but never too disturbing. Other universe, giant haunted house, water monster and cannibal, this book is packed with weirdness, mutants and cool queer characters still trying to figure their feelings out between two action scenes!

[Elinor · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love this universe and those characters SO FREAKING MUCH
and the queer rep i just
i don't even have any words just the CMU is my favorite thing ever for a reason

[Hsinju Chen]

beta read this gem. will review upon reread.

content warnings: murder, spiders/insects, blood, death, gore, cannibalism, drowning, vomit, threatening, haunted house, manipulation, mind control, mention of non-consensual medical experiment

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely adore this spin off of the Cute Mutants Universe! Told in dual perspectives of Maddy and Gladdy, we get a completely new view of the Cute Mutants, as well as glimpses into how others view our favourite characters. Following the so-called “B-Team” of the group, we get to see what the others get up to whilst Dylan and his group are off on the adventures we see.

The plot for this book is COMPLEX. You almost need to be taking notes along the way to make sure you are keeping up with all that is happening, and while I usually don’t like having to think too hard about following a plot, in this case I barely even noticed. In true typical messy teenager fashion, the characters often diverge from their tasks to have a chat about their relationships or to go and get ice cream, which is a nice break for us too, as it stops the book being too heavy.

Quote from Book: A gorgeous man holding a half-feral clone is not my exact sexuality, but it's somewhere on that messy diagram.
The highlight of this book is, as it always is with the Cute Mutants series, the impeccable character development. First off, we get to see Dylan from a different characters perspective. We get to see his messy and intuitive leadership style as it appears to others, and also how much the others in the group truly look up to and respect them. We also get to spend time with some characters that we don’t know too well, in particular Lou, Katie and Ye Shou. I found Lou to be unbearable in the first CM book, but through seeing him through a different eye, as well as how much he has grown since back then, it is clear he is no longer the whiny insecure boy he was. Much more enjoyable reading him now!

Exploring Gladdy and Maddy’s relationship is so great to see! I love when there is aro-ace representation and to me, this is written so well. We get to see how both deal with their feelings for each other as well as for others, and a trope I usually cannot stand, a love triangle, is handled so well and in exactly the way I have been looking for. I just can’t tell you how much I love this book!

Having the two point of views for this book is really interesting. As the team splits up to complete different tasks, we get to see the whole picture. Additionally, Gladdy and Maddy have a complex personal relationship and it is really great to be able to see where they are both at with their feelings. Without giving too much away, their journey through this book is so great and I love them so much!

I would definitely recommend this book, but it would be worth reading the others in the Cute Mutants series first, to avoid missing some of the details needed to make this fully enjoyable. A summary is provided at the start of the book, in case you are a little foggy on the details.

[RobinLikesReading · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Cute Mutants spin-off. I didn't enjoy it as much as the Cute Mutants books but it's still a must read for everyone who loves the Cute Mutants!

Weapon UwU is a second team but all the members are still made out of Cute Mutants members. It's kinda like a b-team but also not really. Dylan gives them a mission to kill Heart aka the villain of Cute Mutants vol. 4 and Emma's parent. After doing this, they find out they had more children so Weapon UwU goes to find them all to try to stop them/get them on their side.

This book has two narrators, Gladdy and Maddy. I always wanted to know more about them and now we do. We see what kind of relationship they actually have (something the other Cute Mutants loved to tease them about). It was also nice to see what they think of Dylan and how they view the other characters. This book also has more horror elements than the Cute Mutants book which was a nice change.

I love how Dylan still appeared frequently as a mentor/leader and they give the team missions and advice. It's clear that Gladdy really looks up to him, which we don't always see in the Cute Mutants books.

Like always, this book has amazing LGBTQ+ rep. I loved Gladdy discovering more about herself. She loves Maddy but she knows she can't love Maddy the same way Maddy loves her. And she can't give Maddy what she wants. Gladdy and Maddy end up in a Queerplatonic Relationship (it's not mentioned in the book though but the author wrote it on their twitter I believe) while Maddy starts dating Lou romantically.

While I didn't like this one as much as every other Cute Mutants book, I do hope for sequels or other spin-offs where we can explore some of the other characters. (personally, I'd love a book from Skye's POV, her and her clones are some of my favorite characters and I'd love for her dynamic with her clones to be explored more)

List of LGBTQ+ rep:
Maddy/Sourpatch: Bisexual
Gladiola/Fetch: Aromantic Asexual (who ends up in a Queerplatonic relationship with a girl who's also dating someone else)
Skye/Clone Club: Bisexual
Lou/Glowstick: Trans boy
Dylan/Chattbox: Pansexual, genderfluid
Dani/Marvellous: Korean Lesbian
Alyse/Moodring: Pacific Islander Bisexual/Pansexual
Emma/Godess: Kiw-Chinese, Demiromantic Asexual

[kory. · Rating 5 out of 5]

#1 cute mutants vol 1: mutant pride ★★★★★
#2 cute mutants vol 2: young, gifted, & queer ★★★★★
#3 cute mutants vol 3: the demon queer saga ★★★★★
#4 cute mutants vol 4: the sisterhood of evil mutants ★★★★★
#5 weapon uwu vol 1: godkillers ★★★★★
#6 cute mutants vol 5: galaxy brain ★★★★★

i just fucking love this world and these characters and i cannot fucking stress enough how much i love the queerplatonic relationship representation in this book excuse me there’s something in my eye

content/trigger warnings; blood, gore, physical violence, knife violence, gun violence, drowning, loss/grief, death, death of a loved one, murder, cannibalism, haunted house, eldritch monsters, spiders/insects, psychological manipulation, mind control, non-consensual medical experimentation discussed, alcohol consumption, amatonormativity, vomiting, kissing, non-consensual kiss,

rep; gladdy/fetch (mc) is aromantic and asexual and in a queerplatonic relationship with maddy/sourpatch (mc) who is bisexual and starting a romantic relationship with lou/glowstick (li) who is transgender and pansexual. ye shou (sc) is chinese. katie/dragon (sc) is grey asexual. skye/prime (sc) is bisexual. dylan/chatterbox (sc) is pansexual, genderfluid, and has social anxiety. dani/marvelous (sc) is lesbian, korean, and disabled (one arm amputated, uses a metal prosthesis). alyse/moodring (sc) is bisexual and pasifika. emma/goddess (sc) is demisexual and kiwi-chinese.

everything i love about the cute mutants series applies here. i especially love getting to see more of the characters who take a backseat in the main books. maddy is one of my favorites so i love getting her pov. i struggled a bit with gladdy in the previous books, but getting her pov made me click with her. and her power through her pov??? it’s so cool to see a character with social anxiety through the perspective of someone who can read people’s fears. getting gladdy’s perspective of dylan’s social anxiety, their worries and thought spirals is super interesting. i wish there had been a little more of it, tbh. and lou!!! shoutout to lou!!! he deserves more spotlight. this book also gives us dylan using she/they/he pronouns, previously it was just she/they. and all the characters consistently switch between the three pronouns, even mid-sentence. so that’s great to see. the adventures and action are just as excellent as it is in the previous books.

and the relationships!!!! please!!!! until now we’ve only had dylan’s pov, so to see everyone and their relationships and friendships through gladdy and maddy’s povs is so interesting. and guys. guyssssssssssss. the queerplatonic relationship!!!!!!!! seeing maddy pining for gladdy and wanting things to become romantic but not wanting to risk rejection, and gladdy not wanting that but not wanting to risk losing what they already have............i just. the angst. perfection. once they do have The Talk, it’s emotional and big and made me super emo. i mean, just look at this shit:

“i love you.”
“like a sibling. an annoying little sister.”
“like a world, and i’m a traveller who’s been hurtling through space alone for a very long time. i’ve been to other worlds and some of them are interesting, but i never felt comfortable on any of them. they didn’t feel like home. and then i crash-landed on a plant and everything at frist was dark and terrible, but then the day dawned and i saw it was beautiful there, and it was the first place i ever wanted to stay. so i did, for longer than i’d ever stayed anywhere. when my ship was ready and i could depart, i realised i didn’t want to ever leave. the problem is. you’re a whole world, and i’m only a traveller. all i can do is scratch the surface. i can’t be everything you need, but i still want to breathe your air and walk your surface. i’ve acclimated to you and now i can’t leave. even if there were a thousand other worlds i could live on--which there aren’t--i’d still want to live on yours.”

“i’ll always be your person. we’re woven and can’t be unwoven.”
“best friends.”
“it’s more than that. best friends is ordinary compared to what we have. we’re like warriors who’ve fought a long campaign together. we’re bonded in blood and fire, and now we’ve retired together because nobody else has seen the shit we have.”

and gladdy notices maddy’s flirtation and growing crush on lou and tells her to go for it, that she wants her to be happy and just wants to continue to have a place in maddy’s life. and then her seeing in maddy the hope of the three of them “forging new kinds of love” it’s truly amazing. 10/10

notes: i do wish “just friends” and “more than friends” language hadn’t been used. relationships like queerplatonic ones that challenge the norms and boundaries of relationships shouldn’t uphold a relationship hierarchy where platonic relationships/friendships are at the bottom and everything else, even non-romantic relationships, is “more.” there’s also a lot of assumptions on their friends’ part about their relationship being romantic, which i could do without.

[chey! · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars! Compared to how quickly I powered through the other CM novels, it took me a WHILE to get through this one. I won’t lie: a lot of this went over my head. There’s a lot of philosophical waxing and parallel realities, and it kind of makes me long for the days when the biggest threat was Just Some Guy™ and not literal harbingers of the apocalypse (which also has apparently happened multiple times but everyone has just forgotten???). I started skimming through the middle chunk of the book just to finally get this out of the way and get back to the main CM lineup.

It is fun to see Gladdy and Maddy fully fleshed out, and it was also so satisfying to have them address their emotional/relationship problems by literally trapping them together in a room until they talked about their feelings. The relationship between Lou and Maddy came out of nowhere but I do appreciate that it allows both Maddy and Gladdy (who is aroace) to participate in relationships while respecting both of their respective needs!

For this being a CM-spin-off that focuses on the so-called “B team”, Dylan had a bad habit of just randomly showing up after the mission was finished (to the point where they literally just showed up in a flower field in France LOL). I also enjoyed seeing how the main Cute Mutants were perceived by their counterparts.

The events of the book, particularly the mutants recruited and defeated, make this mandatory reading before continuing with the rest of the CM series. I’m looking forward to jumping back into Dylan’s head again.

[Tyerone Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

So much wasted potential

Set between the events of Cute Mutants Vol. 4 & 5, Weapon UwU Vol. 1 follows Lou, Maddy, Gladdy, Ye Shou, Katie, and Skye as they set out to kill Heart of a Flower, then his children. However, it did not live up to the hype of its subtitle: God Killers.

Lou and company killed Heart of a Flower with ease and then persuaded his children to either stand down or join their side. And at no point did I fear for the characters’ safety, as they were never in any real danger.

While it was nice to see the other Cute Mutants interacting with each other, sans Dylan and their inner circle, Whitby dedicated so much of this book to the middle-school-level soap opera of who liked who, complete with the obligatory love triangle.

This wouldn’t have been such an issue had the characters in question not been in their late teens/early twenties and the extermination of mutantkind weren’t looming over everything. It just felt to me like everyone was acting so immature given the grave situation they were facing.

I also thought this book was very repetitive: Weapon UwU would learn about strange events somewhere in the world, go investigate, meet one of Heart’s offspring, fight minor enemies, then turn said offspring to their side or find some nonlethal way to neutralize them.

Overall, this was just an okay book. It was nothing special, and I suggest you either rent it or buy it when it’s on sale. I give Weapon UwU Vol. 1 3.0 out of 5.0 stars.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to give this one five stars just like I have the rest of the Cute Mutants books, but I just couldn't bring myself to do so.

That's not to say this is a bad book, far from it. But to me, this is less a cohesive narrative and more a collection of parts held together by character development. And it's that second part that gets this book to four stars.

While the plot of the book and its connection to the Cute Mutants series as a whole was fairly interesting, it was the relationships between Gladdy, Maddy, and Lou that kept me reading. I already loved Gladdy and Maddy, and Lou has come such a long way from the first Cute Mutant book that he's hard not to like. For me, this book was all about those three developing further, both as characters and in their personal relationships. The rest of the titular B team have their moments as well- Katie is always fun to have around, and the reactions to Ye Shou's power were great, but this book clearly belongs to Fetch, Sourpatch and Glowstick.

So yea, as a whole, worth reading for the love of the characters if nothing else, as well as plot threads that will likely be picked up in Cute Mutants Book Five when it's released in a few days.

[ceilidh · Rating 5 out of 5]

YES. JUST. YES!!!!!!!!! I cannot begin to explain just how!!!! Good!!!! This book is!!!!!! There is some really REALLY beautiful representation of relationship dynamics, two new POV characters from the Cute Mutants to fall in love with voice wise. Literally earth shattering stakes and of course the Cute Mutants signature love and friendship winning the day. Just?? Read this and all the CM books!?! They are a joy!!!!

[Zena Bates-Zellers · Rating 5 out of 5]

SJ has nailed the art of raising the stakes in every book. I'm always surprised, going into each book thinking I know what BBEG to expect, but then that big baddie is quickly defeated to reveal an even bigger, badder evil guy. That's exactly what happens in Weapon UwU and I was so impressed with the way the story grew from and entangled with the core cute mutants series.

[Trigger Warning Database]

Trigger & Content Warnings

Blood depiction
Cannibalism
Emesis
Murder
Drowning
Loss of autonomy (mind control)

[Maxima Aelwyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Minus the spiders on the cover I loved this.

[Aitana Ocaña · Rating 5 out of 5]

im the alpha im the leader i,m th4 one to trust 🐺🐺🐺

[Senf · Rating 3 out of 5]

"We are not randomly killing humans who offend us."
- "Have you considered that perhaps you should?"

They are all so unhinged. What the fuck is even happening at this point in the series.

[Julie Bouchonville]

Yeeaah nope. Way too many exposition way too soon. I get you gotta bring me up to date but this was both infodumpy and still unclear.

[Charlotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weapon UwU lives rent free in my heart <3

This book has so many of my favourite things - grump/sunshine dynamics, creepy but still strangely lovable monsters, queer disaster kids, and YEARNING. Oh the yearning. Maddy's arc gave me all the feels. We also get cameos from all our favourite mutant disaster queers from the main Cute Mutants series, and get to see Dylan through the other characters' eyes, which was SO fun. And, of course, my favourite boy Lou finally gets his moment to shine <3