Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson

18 reviews

therainbowshelf's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

3.0

💭 My thoughts 💭: This wasn't the right book for me, but it is a good book. I didn't enjoy the ongoing existential conversations about what life was, and whether life was still life if you were in a new body. I also didn't appreciate the sex robot guy (but I think that's what the author was going for). I really liked the dual timeline looking back at Marry Shelley as she conceptualizes Frankenstein, though! 

📚 The gist 📚: Along a dual-timeline, Mary Shelley dreams up a monster novel in the 1810s, and a man two hundred years later ponders over what constitutes life and death.  

📒Representation📒: Ftm mc, mlm mc, cherecter with a more flexible sexuality

💕 For readers looking for 💕: the existential questions of what constitutes life dredged up by Frankenstein, books about books (kind of), and characters becoming real

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Cursing, Medical content, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual content, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Transphobia

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

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

sophiewelsh's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Deadnaming, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Transphobia

laurajones's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Medical content, and Deadnaming

Minor: Fatphobia, Miscarriage, Body shaming, and Body horror

purecomedy's review against another edition

DNF at around 40%. I was really looking forward to this exploration of Frankenstein, AI, and gender. Unfortunately, I am not willing to pay the price: withstanding the portrayal of the main transgender character that borders on fetishistic. I enjoyed some of Winterson's previous works but I really wasn't in the mood for some unexamined transphobia with my discussion about AI and so on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Sexism

hmatt's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

interesting examination of how body politics intersect with technology/AI

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Body horror, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Misogyny, Medical content, and Homophobia

Minor: Child death, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Miscarriage, and Sexism

miles's review against another edition

mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• 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

Moderate: Transphobia and Sexual assault

Minor: Deadnaming and Toxic relationship

demo's review against another edition

1.0

Winterson is one of my favourite queer writers but in the end she is a cis woman and I should have been more wary of her decision to write about the experience of being trans. Her use of a trans protagonist is exploitative (see: the sexual assault scene in the pub) and is grounded in ill-informed understandings of gender identity, transness and transition (see: Winterson's reliance on male and female as opposing biological categories, even while she ostensibly subverts the gender binary). Further, Victor's erotic obsession with Ry's transness reeks of objectification and fetishisation but is framed as romantic and loving (see: the book's subtitle of "A love story"), mirroring and revealing Winterson's own sense of entitlement to use trans people for her own purposes. And this is not to mention the ableist and fatphobic sentiments littered throughout. A hard yikes. This ain't it chief.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Fatphobia and Ableism