Maisie Danger Brown (named so she can accurately say that Danger is, in fact, her middle name) has always wanted to be an astronaut. So when a space camp opportunity falls in her lap, she jumps at the chance. Maisie and four of her space camp buddies get taken on the trip of a lifetime and accidentally get injected with alien technology. There are spaceships, superheroes, and a simmering romance. Honestly, the whole book is something of a mess. 
 Dangerous is a departure for Shannon Hale. She's dealt with special powers before, although never in the context of the real world, always in the context of fairy tales. Her relative newness at writing science fiction shows. I would like to go on the record and state that I absolutely think that authors should try new styles, new genres, etc. It keeps things interesting and it's better than reading the same book by an author, just published under a new title. So that's not my complaint. My actual complaint is that the main character, Maisie, had no personality. Neither did most of the characters, unfortunately. 
 Maisie has a lot of interesting things going for her. She's half-Paraguayan, she was born with one arm, she's homeschooled, and she loves science. All of these would made great conversation starters at a party. But in terms of her actual sense of being, she's...cautious? But only some of the time? I've got nothing. And the book was written in first-person perspective, too, which is a LOT of time spent inside the head of a girl who doesn't have a very strong characterization. Her romantic interest was infuriating. The science-y parts and the superhero bits were surprisingly tedious. I found the ending to be unsatisfying. 
 I know I'm complaining a lot. Here's what I did like about the book. First, I loved the characters of Luther, Maisie's best friend from her neighborhood, and Maisie's parents, who were delightful. (Oh, and Dragon! Dragon was marvelous.) Second, the superhero names were actually really convincing. I loved that. Third, there were sentences, paragraphs, and whole sections that really sucked me in with the quality of the writing. No surprise there--Shannon Hale is very good at, you know, words and stuff. 
 In trying to create an original superhero story, some of the really basic stuff that makes superhero stories so wonderful got entirely overlooked. I feel like there was so much potential here. Ah, well. I guess they can't all be winners. 
 (For those who have read the book, here's how I wish that it had played out. (view spoiler)[Okay, so in my ideal world, Maisie gets to space camp some other way than through a cereal contest. I mean what was that. She still has a weird goodbye with Luther and still falls for Wilder when she goes to camp. BUT! After the members of the Fireteam get their powers, they all learn how to properly use said powers and work together as an actual team. Maisie figures out that Wilder is, like, a huge jerk, and realizes that she loves Luther instead. There are no weird pink aliens, but instead the Fireteam has to use their powers to take down GT Wilder, I guess. Maybe there's still a cool spaceship. I don't know. Maisie, Ruth, and Mi-Sun all get personalities and don't die. Anyhow, the point is that it's more of a story about working together as a team and using their super cool powers individually. None of this Maisie's going to get all of the super powers and not know how to react to them because she has no character to speak of. Also, in my version, she keeps her original name of Daisy Danger Brown, which I always liked better anyhow. (hide spoiler)])