Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Dreadnought by April Daniels

10 reviews

ethana's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

While I generally really enjoyed Dreadnought, I do advise others to heed the trigger warnings, especially the ones pertaining to transphobia and emotional abuse. There were definitely parts of this book that hit a little too close to home where I had to stop and collect myself before continuing. I think a large part of that was due to the fact that I went into Dreadnought expecting a more lighthearted superhero romp only to get absolutely bodied by the amount of transphobia Danny faced, especially from her parents. In the end I did enjoy the book overall, and the premise was entertaining, just be ready for things to get rough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Transphobia, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Ableism, Misogyny, Homophobia, Outing, and Violence

Minor: Rape

shae_purcell's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Homophobia, Ableism, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Gore, Transphobia, Outing, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Cursing, Medical trauma, Bullying, Violence, Vomit, and Death

Minor: Fatphobia, Rape, War, Alcohol, Cancer, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Alcoholism, Grief, and Genocide

teyn's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I would've loved this if not for the gendered fatphobia and ableism that added absolutely nothing to the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Violence, Fatphobia, Deadnaming, Transphobia, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Homophobia, Addiction, Misogyny, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Ableism

Minor: Toxic friendship and Sexual harassment

forestfloor's review against another edition

adventurous challenging fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I could. not. put. it. down!!

Fantastically engaging read, and satisfyingly fast. I think there was interesting world-building, albeit nothing ground breaking as far as what's typical in terms of building up a world with superheroes. I found the characters really engaging, with strong personalities. The trans rep really hit for me - Danny's experience of her transness and the way other people treat her because of it really rang true. 

I was bothered at points by the tones of ableism metahumans (including Danny) have for "baselines" and more so by the way actual disability was treated when some characters acquired it. I get the impression this will be explored more in book 2, which I am interested to read because I wasn't very happy with where the topic gets left in this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing, Transphobia, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism and Addiction

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing, Child abuse, Violence, Dysphoria, Gun violence, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Transphobia, and Sexism

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Murder, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Body horror, Bullying, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Death, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

Minor: War, Ableism, Cancer, Fatphobia, Drug use, Addiction, Vomit, Rape, Racism, and Death of parent

megplant's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Transphobia, and Child abuse

Moderate: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, and Homophobia

Minor: Ableism

jjjreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Bullying, Physical abuse, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Outing, Suicidal thoughts, Hate crime, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Toxic relationship, Violence, Infertility, Blood, Body shaming, Sexism, Transphobia, Child abuse, Classism, Deadnaming, Gun violence, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Body horror, Car accident, Chronic illness, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Death, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, and Addiction

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Genocide, Child death, Self harm, Slavery, Gaslighting, Vomit, and Cancer

ankonyx's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Deadnaming

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Dysphoria, and Homophobia

Minor: Ableism, Rape, and Drug use

lipstickitotheman's review against another edition

adventurous emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Outing, Ableism, Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Gore, Transphobia, Violence, and Deadnaming

Minor: Eating disorder, Confinement, Dysphoria, Hate crime, Homophobia, Bullying, Infertility, and Lesbophobia

booksthatburn's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

This does a lot of good things as far as trans rep and I'm going to talk about those before I discuss why I don't recommend it as a whole. It handles issues of dysphoria in a realistic way, as well as showing the way that socially transitioning helped Danny experience gender euphoria once the medical side of transitioning was handled by the superpowers. One of the main plotlines deals with domestic abuse from a parent, with an ebb and flow to the verbal abuse which showed how the general pattern of yelling and silence created an overall situation which was worse than any one incident. She doesn't have everything solved by her body being transformed, which provides a narrative opportunity to show transphobia. When depicting scenes with transphobic slurs and other very cruel language it's often first depicted as a summary of what hearing those words made Danny feel, then later when she's able to unpack it and start dealing with it the reader is told what some of those words were. It helps to center Danny and how she was hurt by misogyny and transphobia before it presents those slurs for the reader. 

I like how the world in the book is presented as morally grey, with various factions vying to Danny to join their side. For most of the book it felt like it really was a morally grey world, but I was disappointed that towards the end it seems to pick a specific side. I hope the sequel proves me wrong on that, if I decide to read it. Calamity is a great mentor, she's my favorite character. I also like Doctor Impossible but that got trickier as the story progressed. The worldbuilding works well, sketching the idea of this world that is very different from ours because of when the superheroes showed up, but recognizable enough because of what was chosen to parallel our real developments. 

Now for the main reason I don't recommend this: I'm disturbed by the way it handles disability and ableism, both with the casual use of ableist slurs (from characters of all cape factions, so this wasn't just how to mark the villains) and with the treatment of physical disabilities. There’s a disturbing battle scene

where Danny is fighting goons in mech suits, but it turns out they’re embedded in the suits instead of having their organic limbs controlling the suits. One of the goons is someone Danny met earlier and he had all four limbs in that earlier scene, so the implication is that the villain removed his limbs in order to put him in the suit. He also still is on the villain's side while he's in the suit, so I see three possible scenarios: He lost his limbs in some undescribed accident and is being further exploited by the villain he's been helping; His limbs were unwillingly removed by the villain but decided to help them anyway; or He had his limbs were willingly removed by the villain because he believed in the plan so much that he gave up his limbs to get a mech suit. No matter which of the three scenarios is in play, what happens is that the protagonist and supposed hero forcibly removes a quadruple amputee from his mech suit (which is also an assistive device), causing great pain to him, the hero notices that it causes great pain, and then proceeds to do the same thing to the other four amputees in mech suits, narrating each time how much it hurts them to be ripped out of the suits. I'm, frankly, uninterested in trying to hash out exactly what I wish Danny had done differently (though leaving the goon on a roof after removing his assistive device is definitely NOT something I think she should have done), I'm more concerned with how callously this treats multiple disabled characters, both named and unnamed, and how the reveal that this previously-limbed character now has fewer limbs is treated as shocking and horrific. The villain is a cyborg, and exactly which parts of her body are organic or inorganic are described in a way that feels like it's supposed to be disturbing. Finally, there's a friendly character who also loses a limb and expresses feeling like there's nothing to live for now, which, while certainly something a real person in that scenario might express, seems narratively bad in the context of the earlier ableism.

Overall this seems like pretty good handling of trans stuff and domestic abuse by a parent, but mediocre to terrible handling of ableism and disability, and therefore I don't recommend it. Maybe the sequel could win me back, but that won't be enough to make me feel good about this particular book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Dysphoria, Homophobia, Bullying, Transphobia, Blood, Gore, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Medical content, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Sexism, Misogyny, Vomit, Excrement, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Rape and Drug use