Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson

17 reviews

radfordmanor's review

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

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

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

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

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

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