She doesn’t appear again until the second half and some of what Danielle and Calamity uncover hint at a sympathetic villain: example, her raids for high-grade medical equipment. The pain, and the anger, and the way once again Danny has to restrain herself from letting it break to the surface now that she has so much strength.

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. It shows because they feel exceptionally out of place in this conversation, and the character of Greywytch doesn’t feel like a character at all.

Is there a name for the situation where you keep thinking you like a certain genre, but you’re almost unfailingly critical of every book in that genre you read? It'd be really cool to be able to do this without shame, without hopping on a train to ride halfway across the city first. I don’t want to suggest that people banish the book off their shelves or protest libraries to get rid of it. I think it's a notable achievement to make a character so decidedly OP while still making me as a reader feel like shit can go wrong at any time.

I kind of predicted a few of the twists, thanks I’ll say to foreshadowing much earlier in the book, but some of them were new. Seriously, after the intense climax, the last two pages still manage to beat that for pure emotional drama. Calamity gets more development, but she is primarily a vigilante, angry at the world because of unfairness.Chanting curse words like a prayer, I crawl out from my little hiding spot and grab him under the armpits. It’s important to remember that Danny is only fifteen, so a lot of the idiotic stuff that Danny and Calamity get up to is on point for their age. This story isn't silly, but it does embrace some of the ridiculousness that comes inherently with people who have super powers and wear costumes to fight crime. On the other hand, there are numerous characters who represent that difficulty of existing as an openly trans person, even one who has superpowers. By the end of the story, Danny and Calamity have become more developed characters so I’ll happily give the sequel a try.

They’ve given me some good food-for-thought regarding the explanations behind Danny’s transformation, and some problematic ableist moments, but have also reaffirmed my conclusion that this is a kickass superhero novel with a fantastic sense of humour. There are two stories going on – the “coming out as transgender” story and the “becoming a superhero” story.However, villains – and this book is full of them – are more interesting and more challenging when they have nuance.