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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
I am not sure how to rate this. I loved most of it (Mary Shelly and company, the writing, a lot of the themes). However like a lot of the other reviewers I felt the book treated the transgender character poorly (two dimensional, no agency, not to mention lots of weird traumatic stuff that was only included to make the character suffer), and by the end may even been anti-trans in a dogwhistle sort of way (but almost ambiguously enough I can give the author the benefit of the doubt that she's just misguided?).
I do recommend this book, just with a giant caveat.
I do recommend this book, just with a giant caveat.
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
A Perfect Book: Makes You Think & Makes You Laugh
I put off reading this novel for some time because I thought it was a serious treatise on feminism and sexual idenity, but in actual fact, by delaying I was only depriving myself of many, many laugh out loud moments. This was completely unexpected, and gave me even more reasons to love this book. It’s beautifully written. It made me think about what makes a person. It’s got some literary history thrown in for good measure. Best of all, this is the first book that has been longlisted for both the Booker Prize and the Comedy Women in Print Prize, so you can impress both your intellectual friends and your funny friends by recommending this book to them. This book gets a rare five stars from me; one of my favourite books I’ve read in 2020.
I put off reading this novel for some time because I thought it was a serious treatise on feminism and sexual idenity, but in actual fact, by delaying I was only depriving myself of many, many laugh out loud moments. This was completely unexpected, and gave me even more reasons to love this book. It’s beautifully written. It made me think about what makes a person. It’s got some literary history thrown in for good measure. Best of all, this is the first book that has been longlisted for both the Booker Prize and the Comedy Women in Print Prize, so you can impress both your intellectual friends and your funny friends by recommending this book to them. This book gets a rare five stars from me; one of my favourite books I’ve read in 2020.
I put off reading this novel for some time because I thought it was a serious treatise on feminism and sexual idenity, but in actual fact, by delaying I was only depriving myself of many, many laugh out loud moments. This was completely unexpected, and gave me even more reasons to love this book. It’s beautifully written. It made me think about what makes a person. It’s got some literary history thrown in for good measure. Best of all, this is the first book that has been longlisted for both the Booker Prize and the Comedy Women in Print Prize, so you can impress both your intellectual friends and your funny friends by recommending this book to them. This book gets a rare five stars from me; one of my favourite books I’ve read in 2020.
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
An interesting read alternating between the story of Mary Shelley and her 'Frankinstein', and a sort of present day. The parallels between Mary's monster and the spectre of AI and preserving the self after death were well handled, as were all the questions of identity and reality.
There was a stereotypical evangelical Black Christian, and some homophobia, transphobia and internalised transphobia that were never really addressed - maybe deliberately? On the whole, I enjoyed this,
There was a stereotypical evangelical Black Christian, and some homophobia, transphobia and internalised transphobia that were never really addressed - maybe deliberately? On the whole, I enjoyed this,
What a great crazy out-of-the-box novel! One of the most fun, enjoyable reads I've had in a long time. The story switches back and forth between Mary Shelley and the time in her life when she was writing Frankenstein (which I am now re-reading--amazing that she was only 19 when she wrote it) and modern times, where a trans doctor named Ry Shelley finds himself both romantically and professionally involved with a Dr. Victor Stein who is researching A.I. and the possibilities of downloading a person's brain into a computer after death. Thrown into the mix is a sex bot developer and born again Christian and a whole lot of dark humor and bawdy farce.
Along the way the story tackles what life and death mean, what happens to the soul, what would male, female, gender identity mean if our brains were downloaded to computers? Are we human without our bodies? And a little Matrix is thrown in as well. Also: definitely commentary on Brexit and our modern political times. I will be checking out more of Jeanette Winterson's novels. She is brilliant.
What a hoot. Might not be everyone's cup of tea but I highly recommend. And I think it would be a great book for a book club discussion.
Along the way the story tackles what life and death mean, what happens to the soul, what would male, female, gender identity mean if our brains were downloaded to computers? Are we human without our bodies? And a little Matrix is thrown in as well. Also: definitely commentary on Brexit and our modern political times. I will be checking out more of Jeanette Winterson's novels. She is brilliant.
What a hoot. Might not be everyone's cup of tea but I highly recommend. And I think it would be a great book for a book club discussion.
Had some entertaining bits and concepts, but the one POC in the book was a racist caricature of Black people, and there was an uncomfortable amount of anti-transness expressed by certain characters that the author let slide. I understand having characters who don’t understand or respect trans people (the protagonist of this book is trans/non-binary, though the word non-binary is never mentioned, which made me really question if the author has any sort of credibility in this subject? I’m fairly certain Jeanette Winterson is not trans or non-binary, but I’ll have to look it up. This book just reeks of a lack of #ownvoices though) but some of the things said to and about Ry were blatantly offensive, and to not combat those things within your text at some other point inherently furthers the stigma against trans folks.
I also just did not even know what was happening at the end. Maybe there were allusions to some historical or literary concepts happening that were going over my head, but the more likely explanation is just that the ending wasn’t written well (or perhaps was written to be purposefully obfuscating).
I also just did not even know what was happening at the end. Maybe there were allusions to some historical or literary concepts happening that were going over my head, but the more likely explanation is just that the ending wasn’t written well (or perhaps was written to be purposefully obfuscating).
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
This book did not deliver. The characters are not convincing and the topics are not explored. It brings only questions, most of which are "what was the author actually trying to do here because I don't think they succeeded?"