About

Dreadnought is the first book in the Nemesis series written by April Daniels.

Dreadnought book cover

Blurb

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.

Review

I was hooked from the start, parts of which reminded me of My Hero Academia and Worm.

The plot had two main threads - Danielle's struggle as a transgender girl and the looming threat of a supervillain. The author did a good job of moving the story alongside these two threads.

Apart from Danielle, I liked a couple of side characters. But, a lot of the established superheroes fell flat for me. Utopia wasn't that interesting as a villain either, but I got the feeling that some of the events would become relevant for the sequels.

Overall, this was a different kind of superhero story and I'd definitely recommend it for the main character's struggles.

My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟☆

What others are saying

From Justine's review on goodreads:

I loved Danielle's journey to come to terms with her identity both as a girl and as a superhero, and her discovery that true empowerment has to come from inside. This is a great series starter with so much potential, and I'm very much looking forward to the next part of Danielle's story.

From Emma's review on goodreads:

The superhero story itself was fun and the action scenes were great but world building was patchy as was the character development for some of the side characters.

Bingo

/r/Fantasy/ 2021 bingo categories:

  • First Person POV
  • New to You Author
  • Genre Mashup
  • Trans or Nonbinary Character (HM)
  • Debut Author
  • Witches