Reviews tagging 'Transphobia'

Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson

103 reviews

spencerablackwell's review against another edition

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This book would have been a lot better if the author understood trans people. It's clear from the innacuracies that the author probably has never even spoken to a trans person before, which made it basically impossible for me to read.
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syllareads's review

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

3.75

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schizogleek's review against another edition

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dark 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? Yes

3.0

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lily_peach's review against another edition

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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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brechtian's review against another edition

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fast-paced
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.75

The lows of this book are quite low (poor depiction of trans identity, borderline trauma porn, sections of quite spotty prose), but the highs are, admittedly, very high. This book at its best is a masterful postmodern examination of Frankenstein as biography, text, legacy, and cultural object. It explores multiplicity and our creation of monsters within ourselves as well as others beautifully, all while providing fascinating parallels to conversations surrounding transhumanism, AI, and the future of technological advancement. Honestly, the more you know about the critical conversations/academic discourse surrounding Frankenstein, the more you will likely enjoy this novel. 
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delidousias's review against another edition

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1.5

this book sucked. makes me sad because i loved written on the body. story was bad characters were bad, the whole modern part should have been cut. 
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cormoth's review against another edition

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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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marissab's review against another edition

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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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obliiviium's review against another edition

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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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thereadingscorpios's review against another edition

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1.0

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