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natalee_martino's review
- 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
Graphic: Homophobia, Transphobia, and Rape
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Deadnaming
velokei's review
- 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
3.5
Graphic: Deadnaming, Rape, Transphobia, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Antisemitism
bvic's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault
Moderate: Transphobia, Child death, Deadnaming, Grief, and Toxic relationship
basil_touche's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
However, the modern parts, while they could be philosophical at times, treated the trans protaganist, Ry, abysmally. The
I can appreciate the novel's exploration of AI and what makes us human, but I feel like I can find a better book that covers the topic without the transphobia.
Graphic: Misogyny, Deadnaming, Sexual assault, and Transphobia
Moderate: Child death and Death
siebensommer's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.5
‘you got a lot of not yets in your life‘ […]. she‘s right. i am liminal, cussing, in between, emerging, undecided, transitional, experimental, a start-up - or is it an upstart?
when people part, they usually hate each other, or one hates the other. - that is the conventional way. there are other ways. […] if we cannot keep this love, there is place in me that has been changed by this love and i will honour it - think of it as a kind of place of worship if you like. and sometimes, boarding a plane or waking up or walking down a street or taking a shower,… i will recall that place and never regret the time i spent there.
life, we imagine, is familiar enough until we begin to tell it to another. then, observe the wonder on their faces.
women blame each other all the time, it is a trick men play on us.
Graphic: Medical content, Child death, Transphobia, Death, and Deadnaming
m3i3r3r's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Child death, Death, Rape, Hate crime, and Grief
Moderate: Deadnaming and Toxic relationship
lily_peach's review against another edition
- 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
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.
Graphic: Gore, Deadnaming, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Transphobia
Moderate: Antisemitism, Alcohol, and Animal cruelty
marissab's review against another edition
- 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
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
schnanko's review
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Deadnaming, Toxic relationship, Death, Grief, Sexual assault, Medical content, Transphobia, Hate crime, Outing, and Sexual violence
leannaaaa's review
- 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? It's complicated
3.75
Moderate: Rape and Transphobia
Minor: Deadnaming