Dreadnought by April Daniels

Dreadnought
by April Daniels
Pages: 276
Date: January 24 2017
Publisher: Diversion Publishing
Series: Nemesis (first in series)

Review
Rating: 4.26
Read: October 18 2016

*I received this book from NetGalley and Diversion Publishing in return for a fair review.*

A 15 year old is out near a mall painting toenails when a building nearby starts to explode. Danny, that 15 year old, groans when noticed that the explosions involve supers (superhero/supervillain fight).

Danny tries to hide. Office tower where the fight is occurring continues to explode. A body lands near Danny's hiding spot and Danny tries to pull him into hiding. That body being the superhero known as Dreadnought. Dreadnought shoves a glowing ball at Danny.

Danny is kind of knocked out and when comes to is . . . different than before.

Characters
Daniel/Dannielle 'Danny' Tozer is a 15 year old who has known for at least 7 years that they have been trapped in the wrong body - that of a young man. For Danny isn't a young man, but a young woman (hence the secretly hiding near a mall painting toenails that started the book). Danny has a best friend named David, goes to school, and has two living barely functional parents. It is very quickly learned, though, that the father has been quite verbally abusive of his child for a very long time and Danny has been shaped by this abuse.

Supers - Danny interacts with several supers after the 'change' - namely the ones that belong to Legion Pacifica (the same superhero team Dreadnought was on, and the one that appears to be the team in the Northwestern part of the USA (if I have the borders right)). Members of Legion Pacifica include: Valkyrja (the vaguely Wonder Woman one), Carapace (vaguely Iron Man like - based entirely on the fact the guy wears a metal suit and for no other reason), Doc Impossible, Chlorophyll (half plant, half man), Magma, Graywytch (super negative about the who transgender thing).

Grayscapes - those sups who are not white capes ('good guys') or black capes ('bad guys') and fall somewhere in between. Of these include a young woman of roughly the same age as Danny named 'Calamity' whose outfit consists of guns and looking like a cowgirl.

Black scapes - Utopia. Mistress Malice.

School-age 'Friends' - David - best friend for a while now who is kind of taken with the concept of starring at breasts; Sarah - a friendly young woman meet when Danny ended up in the women's restroom at school.

Plot
A fight occurs. Dreadnought dies. Power transfers and in the transfer a change occurs to the person who receives this power. A person trapped in the male body finds themselves in the body of a female. And they are 15. With parents. Disagreeable parents. Did I mention the 15 year old part yet? Big part - teenage-hood is hard enough, toss in feelings of self loathing (somewhat pressed inward from abusive father), feelings of being trapped (in wrong body), and then add in some changes. And positive or negative consequences of said changes.

Overall
Right off the bat the book reminds me of two other young adult superhero prose books/series I've read. The Action Figures series by Michael C. Bailey, and Not Your Sidekick. Though there's a closer parallel to 'Action Figures' - both involve young teenagers who unexpectedly come into power, come to the attention of a superhero group, and still have to deal with school, friends, and parents. Completely different 'vibe' though between this book and Action Figures.

There's a specific reason I thought of 'Not Your Sidekick' - but I can't recall what that reason is now. Though the word 'sidekick' is used once (not that 'Not Your Sidekick' is actually about a sidekick so. . . ).

And, this is the overall section after all, overall the plot that unfolds in this book is a touch .... not sure what wording to use here. A touch stronger? Than those found in the Action Figures series, and the Not Your Sidekick series.

There's a certain level of frustration, for me as a reader, since I am not sure I actually remember what the age '15' actually means. I assume, since I appear to be living life linearly, that I was that age at some point. So there were certain frustrating moments related to this book being focused on a 15 year old, yet, on the other hand, there was a certain heightened level of patience within me that I haven't allowed myself in a while - because I know I'm reading something about a character living life at an age I do not really remember. So, good and bad there. More patience, still a certain amount of frustration. (heh, I just took the time to do the quick math, I'm almost there, but I'm not actually at the point where I could have had a kid when I was 15, who, in turn, had a kid when they were 15, since that would make me 45. Or something like that).

I know I'm not wording my point very well. So let's just leave it at: events occurred in this book that I had certain issues with until I recalled that I was dealing with a 15 year old individual, and not someone a lot older. Naive comes to mind.

Right, forgot I was supposed to be doing an overall - I liked the interactions between the characters that I saw, which is, I know, a weird thing to say, considering the relationships that are revealed. Good solid lead character. Which is good since this is a first person account.

This is not my first transgender book I've read, though it is the first that I've read told from the point of view of a youngster. I believe that the issue was handled well in the book, though I'm not really in a position to say yea or nay on that.

I liked the book and look forward to more works by this author. I would give this book a rating of 4.26.

October 19 2016