Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Dreadnought by April Daniels

13 reviews

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

gameoftomes's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

Amazing. The book really gives a payoff for its superhero genre, transgender representation, and first person POV. It uses all of these well, and towards a conclusion with physical and emotional stakes involved. 

There are good action sequences, a bit of gore, and a good bit of body horror. But none of it overwhelms the novel. The supers don’t feel regurgitated and cliché. It feels like it could fit in with comic book superheroes, yet isn’t weighed down with tropes. The world of superheroes and hypertech is fleshed out without being exposition heavy. 

Warning that there is a significant amount of transphobia, including slurs, deadnaming, emotional abuse, and parents kicking out their 15 year old kid. But none of this stops main character Danielle from being super, from being flawed, from being a beacon of hope. Individuals are not a monolith, and I think at the author is transgender herself helps. 

This is a first person perspective YA novel that feels like you’re in the head of a real teenager. Danny clearly had reactions with a lot of self-hate because of how actively awful her dad is and how passively awful her mom is. So negative self-talk happens in stressful situations. Her journey as a superhero starts out as finally getting her body to match her gender identity, then fighting crime becomes an escape from reality, and finally starts to become a community, a newfound family. 

I honestly came in thinking I would be lightly enjoyable fun, but I’m really blown away with the characters, world-building, and balance of emotional, fun, and tense moments. I might have to break my book buying ban to grab the sequel. 

9/10 objectively a good time.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Homophobia, Murder, Toxic friendship, Transphobia, Deadnaming, Abandonment, Blood, and Body horror

nb_alex's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I really enjoyed this book. From the beginning Danny was a lovable character who bloomed into her own throughout the story. I found it difficult to read at parts, and did have to put it down every now and then when some characters said or did some…interesting things. But overall I really enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to the next in the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Transphobia, Lesbophobia, Violence, and Child abuse

Moderate: Bullying, Gaslighting, and Blood

karcitis's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Lesbophobia, Gun violence, Violence, Transphobia, Emotional abuse, and Death

Moderate: Murder, Medical content, Blood, Toxic friendship, Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, Sexual harassment, Mass/school shootings, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Outing, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, Cursing, and Classism

Minor: Self harm, Rape, Bullying, Fatphobia, Body horror, Deadnaming, and Vomit

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

overbooked207's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

📖 Dreadnought & Sovereign by April Daniels Book Review 📖

3rd and 4th books of August 2022 and 20th and 21st of the year:

“I see a world that is terrified of me. Terrified of someone who would reject manhood. Terrified of a girl who knows who she is and what she's capable of. They are small, and they are weak, and they will not hurt me ever again.” - April Daniels.

These books have fantastic trans, lesbian, queer, abuse survivor, mental health/illness, anxiety, PTSD, and more representation, great writing and world-building, and inventive, well-written, and brutal action/fight scenes! If there’s anything I love in books, it’s complex characters, and this series' main character, Danny, is an especially amazing and complex character. The book showcases her bravery, power, resilience, anger, strengths, weaknesses, and everything in between in such a good way, and the characters felt so real. I liked the second book even more than the first, and I definitely recommend picking these up, especially if you love superhero movies or shows like The Boys, Invincible, Umbrella Academy, etc.! 

TWs for Dreadnought: transphobia, slurs, homophobia, deadnaming, misgendering, misogyny, medical content, violence, parental/domestic/child abuse, homelessness/being kicked out of the house for being trans/queer, anxiety, death, dysphoria, cursing, bullying, blood, body horror, alcohol, alcoholism, self-image issues/negative internal voice, PTSD, sexual harassment, toxic friendship, and description of injuries.

TWs for Sovereign: transphobia, slurs, homophobia, alcoholism, self-harm, deadnaming, misgendering, misogyny, misandry, medical content/trauma, violence, vomit, abuse, cursing, bullying, blood, body horror, alcohol, alcoholism, homelessness, ableism, kidnapping, torture, imprisonment, anxiety, self-image issues/negative internal voice, PTSD, mass death, and description of injuries📚🎧🦸‍♀️🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Grief, Genocide, Body shaming, Body horror, Torture, Lesbophobia, Blood, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Death, Confinement, Bullying, Violence, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Medical content, Homophobia, Dysphoria, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Gore, Deadnaming, and Cursing

lily1304's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

3.25

Definitely not a military-funded Marvel-style superhero story, but still uses a few overdone superhero tropes. The plot beats are very familiar to anyone who's seen Spiderman and Invincible.

I like Danny and Sarah though! And the concept of a totally closeted trans girl transforming into a supermodel is hilarious. There's better YA out there, but it's really cool to have a trans heroine.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Murder, Transphobia, and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny and Sexual harassment

Minor: Rape and Self harm

Characters use the word

"rape"

a few times but only figuratively

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

shadereads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Murder, and Transphobia

Minor: Cancer

forlorn_traveller's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Medical trauma, Misogyny, Medical content, Gore, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Death, Child abuse, Body shaming, and Blood

Minor: Sexism