Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson

24 reviews

riledupryepie's review

funny inspiring reflective medium-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

Missing the final 0.5 only because it simply cannot do everything - Winterson really tries though! This book is the definition of layered, and any Mary Shelley fan will enjoy.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, and Body horror

Minor: Sexual violence and Rape

mekowaletti's review against another edition

The description of the trans-MC as a "hybrid" was a choice. I gave it a bit more time but when it came up again and everything was doubled down it was just not sitting well. I'm all for reading novels that make me challenge my perception but having the MC have to explain their trans identity over and over and not having anyone just treat them as a human was over the top.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Sexual content

cleot's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Medical content, Gore, Religious bigotry, Sexual harassment, Homophobia, Body horror, Outing, Ableism, Forced institutionalization, Death, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Suicide, Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Genocide

the transphobia by a sex partner was particularly upsetting to me as a trans person, as was the graphic on-page sexual assault of trans man resulting from bathroom harassment

natalee_martino's review against another edition

challenging tense fast-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Transphobia, and Rape

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Deadnaming

karina5162's review against another edition

challenging dark informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

The writing was masterful and the plot made zero sense. I continue to hate both Lord Byron and Victor Frankenstein.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia and Sexual content

waterbear0821's review against another edition

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: Transphobia, Rape, and Hate crime

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

lily_peach's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny fast-paced

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

2.0

I very much enjoyed parts of this book, and really did not enjoy others.

If Ry had been a nonbinary character, a lot of the things he said regarding his gender and his body would have made sense. As he is explicitly a trans man it instead came across as though the author does not see trans men as ‘real men’ and projected this onto Ry - I do not know a single binary trans person who would happily deadname themselves to strangers, call themselves ‘anatomically [their assigned gender at birth]’ or be happy with a partner who constantly invalidates their gender in the way Victor does.

There were moments that played around with gender in a way I thought was interesting (e.g. Ron constantly filp-flopping on whether or not Ry was a ‘real man’ based on completely arbitrary things) but not enough to save it imo.

A kind of enjoyable story, but I don’t think it really went anywhere. The ending was disappointing. 

Also I felt that the sexual assault scene was entirely unwarranted and added very little to the plot. What was the point of it? To show that absolutely no one sees Ry as a ‘real man’? The transphobia of the other characters did that well enough.

All in all a clever concept and I very much enjoyed the writing style but I found it lacking.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Antisemitism, Alcohol, and Animal cruelty

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 against another edition

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

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

Minor: Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Deadnaming, and Pedophilia

obliiviium's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-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

3.25

"My closest conversations are bad translations."



While I have thoroughly enjoyed Winterson's The Stone Gods (I gave it 5 stars, as it managed to get me out of a years-long book slump), this one did not quite hit the mark for me. However, this one quote speaks to me on a personal level. Rarely do I read something that leaves me speechless. But there was another such moment: a short story hidden amongst the pages. A story about the relationship of a robot and a man.
However, I was not a fan of Ry's storyline. The characters did not sit well with me, and neither did the plot (Mary Shelley's storyline, on the other hand, I found great). Moreover, at times I was unable to follow the plot properly and I found myself rereading passages.
All in all, I would recommend this book for people who ponder about AI. For me, it's a 3/5, but I do think that the aforementioned quote and short story will stick with me for some time.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault and Transphobia

Minor: Sexual content