Dreadnought: Nemesis - Book One

By April Daniels

An action-packed series-starter perfect for fans of The Heroine Complex and Not Your Sidekick.

“I didn’t know how much I needed this brave, thrilling book until it rocked my world. Dreadnought is the superhero adventure we all need right now.”—Charlie Jane Anders, author of All the Birds in the Sky

Danny Tozer has a problem: she just inherited the powers of Dreadnought, the world’s greatest superhero. Until Dreadnought fell out of the sky and died right in front of her, Danny was trying to keep people from finding out she’s transgender. But before he expired, Dreadnought passed his mantle to her, and those secondhand superpowers transformed Danny’s body into what she’s always thought it should be. Now there’s no hiding that she’s a girl.

It should be the happiest time of her life, but Danny’s first weeks finally living in a body that fits her are more difficult and complicated than she could have imagined. Between her father’s dangerous obsession with “curing” her girlhood, her best friend suddenly acting like he’s entitled to date her, and her fellow superheroes arguing over her place in their ranks, Danny feels like she’s in over her head.

She doesn’t have time to adjust. Dreadnought’s murderer—a cyborg named Utopia—still haunts the streets of New Port City, threatening destruction. If Danny can’t sort through the confusion of coming out, master her powers, and stop Utopia in time, humanity faces extinction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Diversion Books
• Release date: Jan 24, 2017
• ISBN: 9781682300671

Reviews for Dreadnought

[lavaturtle · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is really excellent. It's great to see a trans superhero, and the protagonist here is very well written. She deals with a lot of real-life problems, not all of which have to do with her being trans. Her abusive parents, and her finding out that her BFF was a misogynistic douchebag, were also handled very well.Danny's character arc in this book was compelling from start to finish, and I'm excited to see what she does next. I also loved the characters of Calamity and Doc Impossible, and hope to see more of them in the future.

[2wondery_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow! I love this book. So true to life and funny. Daniels does an expert job of humanizing the superheroes.

[whatsmacksaid · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It was PERFECT and I LOVED it. I read it in a matter of hours and can’t remember the last time I was so delighted with a novel.

[reader1009-863136 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

teen superhero fiction (with lesbian transwoman as main character)--superhero battles (lots of action) working out troubles with a non-supportive family and finding a new friend after an abrupt transition. Unlike a lot of other teen protagonists, Danny's angst here is valid and even though the reader's situation may be nothing like hers, it's so easy to relate to her. Trans kids need more heroes like Danny; in fact we ALL do.

[pwaites_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Trigger warning: Transphobia, emotional abuseDreadnought is an #OwnVoices YA superhero novel about a young lesbian trans girl.Fifteen-year old Danny Tozer is secretly painting her toenails behind the mall when two meta-humans get in a fight right in front of her. Thus she’s the only person around when Dreadnought, the greatest superhero of them all dies… and so she receives his powers. But not only does she get superpowers, her body also transforms into the one she’s always wanted. Now everyone knows that she’s a girl. Unfortunately, this includes her emotionally abusive father, who’s always tried to make her into a “manly man.” Oh, and the super-villain who killed Dreadnought is still running around. Danny’s life just got complicated.Dreadnought was a lot darker than I expected. After her superpowered transition, Danny faces a ton of transmisogyny. For one, her best friend now feels entitled to date her even as he’s being creepy. For another, her parents are just awful. She’s got all these self esteem issues as a result of her father, who’s constantly berating her. But there’s even another character who gives him a run for Worst Ever! There’s this TERF super-heroine who is just the worst. Like I don’t know if I have ever hated a character that much. Danny just goes through so much, including having all sorts of awful slurs hurled at her. There were parts I had trouble reading, and I’m cis.But Danny was probably my favorite part of the book. Even as she’s dealing with people being despicable to her, she still manages to come into her own and save the day. A lot of the time she’s uncertain, and she’s just learning how to believe in herself. I adored her growth in Dreadnought. I also appreciated her friendships with two other female characters, Doctor Impossible and Calamity, who I both liked a lot.On the flip side, Danny does seem to have accepted a lot of sexist norms. She looks like a supermodel after her transformation, but then she thinks she has to start worrying about her weight. Sometimes it feels like these things are being challenged (particularly regarding body image), but I’m not sure how successful this is in all regards.The world building wasn’t great. In particular, there’s some info dumping at the beginning regarding Dreadnought and the history of superpowered people in the world that felt very clunky. The world building also had the feel of “everything in the kitchen sink” regarding superhero tropes and story elements. Honestly, I don’t expect superhero books to have fantastic world building since they tend to be building off of messy comic book universes. However, Danny’s world could have been better conveyed and I think it played into why the tone of the book felt so weird.On one hand, you have the plot line and the world building, which both suggest fun and fluff. They’re not super serious, and they feel more like an MCU movie than one of DC’s darker films. On the other hand, you’ve got Danny’s personal life which is almost overwhelmingly dark. As a result, the overall tone feels really mismatched and off.I liked Danny enough that I will probably read the next book in the series, although I don’t think I will give it high priority. I don’t know if I would universally recommend Dreadnought given some of what it deals with. If you’re already dealing with transphobia or emotionally abusive parents, this may be too much for you. On the other hand, maybe it’s empowering to see someone else overcoming it. So I recommend Dreadnought but with a caveat – it’s not all superpowered fun.Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.I received an ARC of Dreadnought from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for a free and honest review.

[acciohaley · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

So, a brief breakdown of what this book is actually about before we go into my thoughts about it. When the superhero Dreadnought is killed by a villain, he passes on his powers to Danny. Part of Dreadnought's abilities is giving it's user their "ideal body" and essentially shaping them into what they wished they looked like. I think it's pretty important to note that this happens to anyone who carries Dreadnought's powers. So far all of Dreadnought's successors have been men but Danny, who is AMAB, is a transwoman not yet out to anybody she knows. When the powers are passed onto her, she gets the body she has always wanted and the body she has always wanted is very noticeably female (or are least what society perceives as the female form which is actually addressed in the book and I was thankful for).I'm not going to go into details of what that transformation means medically because I think the book addresses it perfectly. Danny, of course, is ecstatic. But there are definitely some people who are not, mainly a woman in the legion of superheroes in Danny's town and her own parents, and that poses a lot of issues in her life. While the book focuses heavily on Danny's gender identity and the issues that poses with her taking up Dreadnought's superhero mantle as well as her parents opinions of her, it's not the only focus. Danny and another girl she meets who also has superpowers start to hunt down the person who killed Dreadnought, without informing anyone about what they've been up to, and things get dangerous pretty quickly. A large portion of the plot is focused on their investigation and actual superhero fighting which I loved.Now, what did I think of it?THIS WAS SO GOOD AND SO IMPORTANT. I CANT STRESS THIS ENOUGH. I'm blown away by how much I enjoyed reading this and how much I loved Danny and a few of the other characters. April Daniels handles some pretty tough subjects incredibly well and I applaud her for that. I am so excited to read the next book in the series. Heads up: this book has some pretty big trigger warnings for intense transphobia, misogyny (sort of??), very minor violence (it is a superhero book after all but if you can handle a marvel movie you'll be fine) and a verbally and emotionally abusive parent. Danny is transgender and, while there are a lot of supportive characters and people who are readily accepting of her, not everyone is okay with that and their actions definitely show that. Because of the nature of the book, there were parts I found incredibly infuriating and somewhat upsetting (I am cis, just putting that out there) so if you feel as if you might not be able to handle that this book might not be for you. That being said, I do think those aspects of the book were handled well and this book is an own voices novel so a lot of Danny's internal feelings are from April Daniel's own experiences. Overall, I really enjoyed everything I read and if you find the concept interesting and you can handle the trigger warnings I highly recommend it.

[rivkat_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Danny is just an ordinary transgender kid when she comforts the hero Dreadnought in his dying moments, and he passes his powers on to her—and she gets a physical transition in the bargain. That doesn’t stop her from having to deal with her father’s mental and verbal abuse, or other normal problems like sexism and transphobia, but it does provide her with a new mission. Of course the arc of these stories is such that you know she’ll eventually take up the gauntlet, but it’s still a good YA variation on the theme.

[strider66_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Pros: complex issues, great world-building, transgender protagonistCons: a few minor complaintsWhen the superhero Dreadnought dies in front of Danny, he gives the teen his mantel, which changes Danny’s body from male to female. Now in the body she’s always wanted, Danny’s never been happier, though she feels guilty about how she got it. Her new body also causes her new problems, as her parents and schoolmates finally see the real her, and not everyone’s happy with her transition. The superhero community is different from what Danny’s always believed, and she faces several difficult choices - including whether to go after the supervillain who killed Dreadnought. The book deals with several complex issues, not the least of which is Danny’s gender transition. I appreciated that the author didn’t pull punches, and showed Danny’s conflicted emotions and real consequences for both long term and short term actions.It was great seeing a transgender protagonist, and the author showed how difficult things are: from coming out to friends and family, dealing with opposition, and learning to feel good in your skin. I especially appreciated the scenes where Danny learns about make-up and gets her first bra. While the book didn’t make me cry, I did feel for Danny on multiple occasions and was frankly shocked by a lot of the things that happened.While Dreadnought is described as being invincible - his death notwithstanding, Danny quickly realizes she has limitations and can still feel pain and hurt herself. So there was tension and actual concern during fights that things might not go well for her.I also appreciated that there was no romance in the book. There were times I thought the author was heading in that direction, but Danny had so much to deal with already, I think a love interest would have been too much. Having said that, I wouldn’t mind seeing a romance develop in later books.The world-building is quite good, with some basic history into where super humans come from and how they’ve impacted recent history. While you don’t learn everyone’s backstories, some of them - specifically Calamity’s - are very realistic. Others are brushed off as comic book style transformations (specifically ones dealing with mythological or mystical origins). The plot is great. while I saw one or two of the complications that cropped up, I was blindsided by most of the plot twists. The mystery of Utopia’s identity kept me guessing, and I enjoyed seeing Calamity teach Danny the ropes of ‘caping’.I had a few minor complaints, like Danny’s insistence that her best friend would come around to her new body quickly. Considering the fact that Danny didn’t feel she could share that she was transgender with him, something about her friend must have tipped her off to the fact that she couldn’t trust him with the news. I also had trouble picturing the action in some of the airplane rescue scenes, though the author did a great job explaining Danny’s powers in other scenes.This is a fantastic debut and I’m really looking forward to seeing how the series progresses.

[readinggeek451 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A trans superhero is cool, and Danny is an appealing character. I think I would have liked this a lot better if it weren't told in present tense. Add in that I'm not a big fan of superheroes, and this book isn't really for me.

[quondame · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

After helping the fallen superhero Dreadnought trans teen Danielle is transformed not only into Dreadnought, but into the body of the young woman she has always wanted to be - but her new problems, with family, with friends are only changed and her problems with super villains have only begun. Fast moving, but with a lot of agonizing, which while not inappropriate, never changed tone or developed. ?