Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson

15 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

mryshells's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

1.0

Huge TW for transphobia towards characters in the book but also in the clearly problematic views the author must hold that come through in the writing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Transphobia, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism, Alcohol, Antisemitism, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Outing, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexism

angel_kiiss's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

2.75

I’ve never read any other book by Winterson, but - based off this book - I’d say she’s more a philosopher or robotic sociologist than she is a storyteller. 

There’s a stark difference between the stories she’s comfortable telling and the story she obviously is leaving her comfort zone to explore. Ry Shelley is an incredibly complex character who Winterson is ill-equipped to handle and does horrifically wrong at almost any given opportunity (that’s where the major content warnings come in). 

The gender exploration of a person who lives outside the binary while simultaneously finding comfort in an identity on the binary is compelling and relevant and real, but Winterson obviously hasn’t met anyone who actually lives like this otherwise she’d be aware of what not to do when writing a trans character. 

It’s disappointing, because the story is actually beautifully written but is horrifically marred by the events that surround the trans character. Winterson’s stances on many political debates are also written in the most clunky way imaginable: “You must be one of those #MeToo women.” As if it were necessary to not only show the reader but tell us every characters politics. 

I may also claim that the prose are very nice, but it needs to be acknowledged that the entire book looks like a first draft. Dialogue is not in quotations and characters with accents have their accents written out only for the reader to stumble over the words. You get used to it more as you read but it’s weirdly not used as a narrative device since it’s used throughout in both past and present storylines. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Hate crime, Outing, Rape, Sexual assault, and Transphobia

Moderate: Death, Medical content, and Miscarriage

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

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