Full review at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books 
 Dreadnought is my catnip in concept and yet the book bugged me a little. This story about a transgender teen superhero is a coming-out story wrapped in a cape. It has fun elements but suffers from characters who are under-developed. 
 There are two stories going on - the "coming out as transgender" story and the "becoming a superhero" story. The coming out as transgender story is a parade of wretchedness. Danny is completely miserable about being transgender because she can't tell anyone. After her body is transformed, she still has to hide the fact that this body is her preferred body. Her father is abusive and obsessed with masculinity. Her only friend, David, makes a sexual proposition after Danny's transformation and, when Danny turns him down, David responds by saying that he hopes that Danny will get raped. There's no mention of any LGBT-friendly groups that Danny could turn to (maybe they don't exist there, or maybe Danny fears exposure too much to approach them). Danny, who narrates the story, tends to preface comments about the future with "If I don't kill myself..." She feels completely isolated. 
 You would think that this would be one of my all-time favorite books, but a lot of it fell flat. I think the problem comes down to a lack of nuance and complexity in the characters. Danny doesn't have any hobbies or interests beyond being transgender until she is forced to add being a superhero to her list of interests. Her father is a bully and her mom is a doormat. Transgender youth are truly at a high risk of being abused and becoming homeless (both things happen in the book) and it's good to see those problems being addressed, but Danny's parents have no other characteristics than Abusive Parent and Doormat Parent. 
 This book is basically Danny vs. Bigotry, and it's wonderful to see Danny come into her own. Her closing speech is quite satisfying. However, villains - and this book is full of them - are more interesting and more challenging when they have nuance. The character who comes closest to nuance is Danny's mom, who says that she doesn't want Danny to be transgender because she worries about what horrible things might happen to Danny. Without nuance, the book sometimes reads less like a well-developed story and more like a Very Special Episode About How Transphobia Is Bad. Transphobia is bad, but when all the transphobia is presented in such extreme terms it's no challenge to the reader to come to that conclusion. 
 - Carrie S.