Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Dreadnought

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Dreadnought by April Daniels

53 reviews

tamarant4's review against another edition

hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The dirty little secret about growing up as a boy is if you’re not any good at it, they will torture you daily until you have the good graces to kill yourself. [loc. 82]

YA superhero fiction. Danny, fifteen, has gone to the shopping mall to buy nail polish and is hiding out in an alleyway painting her toenails: it's the one way she can rebel against being stuck in a boy's body. Then a superhero, Dreadnought, falls out of the sky. Dying, he passes his 'mantle' -- his powers -- to Danny. And part of that mantle is changing the recipient's body to match their self-image. 'That is not the chest I woke up with', observes Danny.

She's finally herself: but her transformation is only the start of the novel. It's not easy being a fifteen-year-old superhero, but it's even harder being a girl with an abusive father who could never have accepted Danny's transgender identity, and refuses to believe that Danny can be happy about her new body. Danny quickly discovers that her best friend David is actually a complete jerk: but she makes a new friend, Latina vigilante Calamity. Calamity's a 'greycape', morally ambiguous: blackcapes are villains, and whitecapes are the good guys. The local whitecape chapter is the Legion Pacifica, who contact Danny and invite her to Legion Tower. Not all of the Legion are cool with the new Dreadnought, and TERFy Graywytch questions her gender. Danny's happier hanging out with Calamity and fighting crime, but their ambition is greater than their ability: going up against a major blackcape is not a smart move.

I enjoyed this a lot, though did feel that most of the characters could have done with more backstory, and indeed more personality. I'd have liked more world-building, too, though there are some intriguing snippets of superhero history: 'In the last great gasp of radio journalism, the whole world stayed glued to their sets to listen to the live reports as [the original] Dreadnought and Mistress Malice savaged each other...' But this gave me a warm glow and a nostalgic affection for the MCU in its heyday (the Legion are reminiscent of the Avengers: a super-strong fighter, an android, a Norse deity, a guy in a suit of armour, a witch...). Not sure I'll read the sequel just yet, but I'd recommend this as a fun read.

I bought this in DEC 2020, and finally read it as part of my 'Down in the Cellar' self-challenge, which riffs on the metaphor of to-be-read pile as wine-cellar rather than to-do list.

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ohmage_resistance's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

Closeted trans girl gets to magically transition as a side effect of getting superpowers.
I generally liked this one. However, superheroes generally aren’t my favorite genre, and so I generally didn’t like those parts about the book too much. I didn’t hate them, just didn’t find it super interesting. I think it’s often difficult to translate the kind of slap dash worldbuilding of superhero comics into a novel, and this book did an ok but not a great job (I think a lot of the more successful cases I’ve read do this by using comedy—shout out to The Meister of Decimen City—or by making the world a dystopia). Danielle was also quite difficult to physically hurt, and I feel like that took the tension away from a lot of the fight scenes.
What I think this book did really well is exploring Danielle’s experiences after she came out and transitioned, both good and bad. I’ve seen some reviews commenting on Danny’s experiences with a TERF superhero and with her sexist best friend, but I think the one that really stuck out to me was her experiences with her abusive parents. It has some really powerful examples of how strong verbal abuse can be, even without physical abuse, and how toxic masculinity leads to abusive behavior. You can really tell just how much Danny’s father has influenced how she views herself, and her struggle to overcome that was the most interesting arc in the book for me. It also shows how Danny’s mother’s more passive but still transphobic behavior just adds fuel to the fire. I will say all of these elements do make this book a lot darker than a lot of YA books, but I still think these issues are really relevant to teens. There’s also a lot more slurs in this book than I was expecting, but April Daniels is very deliberate about when she uses them. There were also examples of Danny celebrating having a body she feels comfortable in and people who accept her, so it’s not all just depressing stuff.

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corsetedfeminist's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I really don’t know why this book isn’t incredibly popular.

I loved our main character so much. She reminds me a little of Tom Holland’s Spiderman, but with a softer, more vulnerable side and an almost manic independence that comes with the abusive parents. The discussions of how her instant transition affected the way men acted around her broke my heart, but the tender moments of gender euphoria put it back together. I appreciated the struggle throughout the book of what it means to have such high powered people, the interactions between those people and the police, and the with what justice looks like.

Calamity is a delight, and I love her, and I’ve decided everyone needs a friend who runs around being a vigilantes, shooting criminals, and complaining that the police and the superheroes are useless.

The actual plot is a surprisingly refreshing turn on fairly standard superhero tropes, and the fight scenes are written incredibly well. There are occasional sarcastic digs at broader superhero tropes and characters that made me cackle.

All in all, my only question is why this isn’t a movie yet. I need this to be a movie like I have needed few things in my life

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ethana's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

While I generally really enjoyed Dreadnought, I do advise others to heed the trigger warnings, especially the ones pertaining to transphobia and emotional abuse. There were definitely parts of this book that hit a little too close to home where I had to stop and collect myself before continuing. I think a large part of that was due to the fact that I went into Dreadnought expecting a more lighthearted superhero romp only to get absolutely bodied by the amount of transphobia Danny faced, especially from her parents. In the end I did enjoy the book overall, and the premise was entertaining, just be ready for things to get rough.

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shae_purcell's review against another edition

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adventurous dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

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teyn's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I would've loved this if not for the gendered fatphobia and ableism that added absolutely nothing to the story.

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gameoftomes's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Amazing. The book really gives a payoff for its superhero genre, transgender representation, and first person POV. It uses all of these well, and towards a conclusion with physical and emotional stakes involved.

There are good action sequences, a bit of gore, and a good bit of body horror. But none of it overwhelms the novel. The supers don’t feel regurgitated and cliché. It feels like it could fit in with comic book superheroes, yet isn’t weighed down with tropes. The world of superheroes and hypertech is fleshed out without being exposition heavy.

Warning that there is a significant amount of transphobia, including slurs, deadnaming, emotional abuse, and parents kicking out their 15 year old kid. But none of this stops main character Danielle from being super, from being flawed, from being a beacon of hope. Individuals are not a monolith, and I think at the author is transgender herself helps.

This is a first person perspective YA novel that feels like you’re in the head of a real teenager. Danny clearly had reactions with a lot of self-hate because of how actively awful her dad is and how passively awful her mom is. So negative self-talk happens in stressful situations. Her journey as a superhero starts out as finally getting her body to match her gender identity, then fighting crime becomes an escape from reality, and finally starts to become a community, a newfound family.

I honestly came in thinking I would be lightly enjoyable fun, but I’m really blown away with the characters, world-building, and balance of emotional, fun, and tense moments. I might have to break my book buying ban to grab the sequel.

9/10 objectively a good time.

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