Dreadnought, by April Daniels
Series: Nemesis Book 1
Publisher: Diversion Publishing
Release Date: 24th January 2017

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Danny Tozer has a problem: she just inherited the powers of the world’s greatest superhero. Until Dreadnought fell out of the sky and died right in front of her, she was trying to keep people from finding out she’s transgender. But then her second-hand superpowers transformed her 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 between her father’s dangerous obsession with curing her girlhood, her best friend suddenly acting like he’s entitled to date her, and the classmate who is secretly a masked vigilante, Danny’s first weeks living in a body that fits her are more difficult and complicated than she could have imagined.

She doesn’t have much time to adjust. Dreadnought’s murderer, a cyborg named Utopia, still haunts the streets of New Port City. If Danny can’t sort through the confusion of coming out, master

Trans Woman
Lesbian
Young Adult
Action
Superhero
Transformation

I loved this book. It had everything I wanted to read about in a trans superhero novel.

Danny is a girl who is painting her nails behind a shopping centre because that’s the only way she can express herself as a girl in her transphobic family. Unfortunately for her, that’s exactly where Dreadnought is killed by the supervillain, Utopia, and Dreadnought’s powers pass straight across to Danny, making her appear on the outside exactly as she has always wanted to look.

This book went into a lovely, thorough look into the history of superheroes, and the ways that cities have been rebuilt in the wake of them. There are a couple of incredibly clever twists as the plot is coming around to its end, and its incredibly believable dialogue make it an incredibly easy read.

As well as the overarching superhero vs. supervillain story, we also have the plot more personal to Danny’s life. Coming back to her family’s house after her transformation, and the far reaching consequences of that. Her meeting with the rest of the superhero team in her city. Going to school after her transformation.

I loved the character of Danny. Actually, I loved the depictions of every single character and the varying effects they had on Danny, except for Greywytch who was just too harsh to be borne even as a representation of what many trans individuals go through.

I am very much looking forward to the sequel to this book.

April Daniels was born in a military hospital just before it was shut down for chronic malpractice—in hindsight, that should have been an omen. After various tribulations in childhood and the frankly disconcerting discovery that she was a girl, she graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in literature, and then promptly lost her job during the 2008 stock crash and recession. After she recovered from homelessness, she completed her first manuscript by scribbling a few sentences at a time between calls while working in the customer support department for well-known video game console and has been writing ever since. Visit her online at http://www.aprildaniels.com.

You can purchase Dreadnought from:
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I received an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review.