Dreadnought by April Daniels

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 276

Publisher: Diversion Publishing

Released: 24th of January 2017 

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 much 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. 

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Transphobia, horrific transphobic slurs, language

What I Have to Say 

I don't know how to even start expressing the love I have for this book. It's a such a touching tale of a young girl fighting transphobia and her abusive father. Oh and she's also a superhero. 

This book is filled with scenes that are heartbreaking and show the true extent of the hate that some trans people experience. I was shocked and disgusted by some of the things show. To have Danny's parents and friends turn on her so badly just because she's actually a girl, let alone all the comments and actions of Graywytch and other members of the Legion who were against having a trans superhero on her team. It  overwhelmed me almost in tears to see the kind of language and insults that were being throw at a character who I loved from the first page of the book.

It's just so wonderful to see a book where it's not all about the issues involving transgender. Because guess what, trans people are more than just trans. They have other problems that don't relate to their gender. Problems like having to fight a supervillion intent on taking over the world. There's so many books that are condensed down to one issue that it's just so refreshing to see the message that these characters can do so much more than just fight to be seen. I hope to see this trend continue both in books about transgender and other diverse characters. 

It's clear from the way the book ended that Danny's fight both to save the world and to defend her status as the first transgender superhero. 

My thanks go to Diversion Publishing and Netgalley for providing me with this copy to review.