Dreadnought: Britain,Germany and the Coming of the Great War

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And just before we get started I want to emphasize that this is an ownvoices book - which is something that I think comes through in Danny's character.

If Danny can't sort through the confusion of coming out, master her powers, and stop Utopia in time, humanity faces extinction. Danny Tozer has a problem: she just inherited the powers of Dreadnought, the world’s greatest superhero. I'll not claim expertise on how things work from where you're from, but in my experience of the world, that is a poor choice of behavior.I can totally understand Danny being affected by the sudden change in hormones because that really does cause bodily chaos for a bit.

Danny is immediately screened by the Legion, where she is bullied by Greywytch (who does not believe that transgender women are legitimately women).In the vein of Perry Moores Hero, Dreadnought is an action-packed Young Adult debut novel of a trans superhero who must face off against a cyborg villain. Danny (who now uses the name ‘Danny’ as a nickname for ‘Danielle’) has super strength, invulnerability, and the power of flight, as well as the appearance of a beautiful young woman. This breaks Danny’s isolation, which arguably does more to further Danny’s emotional transition than the superpowers that make Danny feel invulnerable. Feminism that doesn't include trans women is pointless and deeply horrifying, and the TERF character in this story disgusted me. As for bad guys: Danny’s up against not only controlling father but the low-self-esteem he’s planted inside her.

It’s not often that trans people get to take center stage in literature, and it’s wonderful to see such a positive, optimistic trans girl get to be a superhero. The other members of the former Dreadnought's group - "Legion Pacifica" - think Danny is too young to take on the villains and save the world, but that just gets added to the long list of mistakes people make about her. 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. Dreadnought feels very much like a first novel that didn’t get a lot of attention from a professional editor. I get to my feet and peek around the wall, and there across the road, a black and red cloud is blooming from the top floors of an office tower.Moreover, this quote, and similar moments throughout the book, drive home the self-doubt and misplaced guilt that Danny herself feels about her gender identity. However, Danny is a lesbian, and she and Calamity get pretty close, and there’s going to be a sequel.