Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson

29 reviews

waterbear0821's review

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

It’s an interesting thought exercise, overlaying Frankenstein on modern culture, medicine, and technology. I get why this book is good. It gave me the brain-tingling feelings of good literature, where I can feel myself thinking about things in a new way. I enjoyed the shifting, melding perspectives, the recurring, regenerative, reimagined themes. The general science fiction horror structure and style. But also why are the characters in literature so blank and deplorable? Bah. Also, big CW vibes. Having a trans main character doesn’t mean you have to include hate crimes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Rape, and Transphobia

Moderate: Child death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

m3i3r3r's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Hate crime, Rape, and Grief

Moderate: Deadnaming and Toxic relationship

cormoth's review against another edition

mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Transphobia

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Child death

marissab's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Medical content, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Outing

Minor: Deadnaming, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, and Stalking

hannahbailey's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

This is an interesting exploration of what our future could look like: bionic humans, AI sex robots and eternal life (the brain as data). I loved how Winterson connects these ideas to Mary Shelley's ideas of human life and reanimation after death. This connection between the past and present shows how prevalent this idea of eternal life and making the impossible possible has always been. Shelley's perspective was engaging to read and reminded me how much I love her novel Frankenstein (perhaps more praise should be given to Shelley here than Winterson lol). The modern POV follows a non-binary trans person (Ry) and their relationship with Victor Stein, a scientist (of sorts) trying to bring his mate's beheaded head back to life. This was (perhaps purposefully) less engaging, as Ry often lacks agency amongst the people around them who shove their opinions of gender and identity down their throat.

I've read several reviews of this novel in which people describe Winterson as transphobic. In this novel specifically, I don't see the ignorant views of the characters as a reflection of her own views. However, there is very crude language used throughout which focuses on the anatomy of the characters. I don't feel that this narrative focus on bodily features has aged well (I know this book is only 3 years old but even then)  in response to present ideas of gender, sex and identity. The characters around Ry are consistently transphobic, denying their identity, misgendering them and deadnaming them. This is a book to read if you're interested in the future of AI and human relationships, but not if you're looking for a story with good trans rep. Had this book not featured Frankenstein but a different cautionary tale, such as Brave New World, I probably would've hated it.

Alternative reads with trans rep/trans authors:

https://bookriot.com/best-trans-fantasy-books/
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/126482.Novels_by_Trans_Authors_with_Trans_Protagonists

Jeanette Winterson//transphobia:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-lgbt-books/no-rush-to-change-gender-uk-writer-joins-trans-debate-idUSKCN1T028R

Non-exhaustive list of TW: sexual assault, transphobia, homophobia, child death, miscarriage, misogyny, body horror/gore

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Transphobia, and Medical content

Moderate: Miscarriage

mobygrapes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Transphobia

Moderate: Child death, Misogyny, Medical content, Religious bigotry, and Medical trauma

kaia's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Sexual content, and Transphobia

Moderate: Child death, Sexual assault, Antisemitism, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Pedophilia

githgorlfriend's review against another edition

i am conflicted! beautiful writing and very mind-twisting, but it does get confusing and either i was bad at figuring it out or it could have been more satisfying at the end. also i don't need to make a conclusive statement about whether this book does things well or not because i don't know how to measure that but i think certain things people have qualms with in the book are supposed to be there (ex. victor's weird attitude towards trans people, ron's misogyny - they serve a purpose and are clearly not author-endorsed) but some other things may be insensitive. IF YOU ARE TO ANY DEGREE UPSET BY DEPICTIONS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT SKIP PAGES 241-243 it made me sick to read. sorry for long and nonsensical review

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Transphobia

Minor: Child death and Death

radfordmanor's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Sexism, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Grief, Medical trauma, and Alcohol

Moderate: Child death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

rachael_amber's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Moderate: Child death