Reviews with content warning for Transphobia - Frankissstein

Reviews tagging 'Transphobia'

Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson

103 reviews

mistermistoffelees's review

fast-paced

0.25

just bad. feels like the author just read a bunch of different headlines to sensational extremely simplistic articles about Those Strange Robots in Japan! and never thought of it beyond that, because the ideas in the book are not even undercooked they're still wriggling (in a sad, limpid way. not nearly the exciting resucitation of a frog via electricity.) none are expanded upon, and nothing matters. so obnoxious, too!

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wendel's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

Imaginative, thought provoking and poetic with a dark sense of humour in a compact and quick read. From how Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley supposedly created Frankenstein to gender, relationships with robots, artificial intelligence and transhumanism; Frankissstein will make you wonder.

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knitterscasket's review

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funny mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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grey_jayne's review

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challenging reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

I have a lot of respect for Jeanette Winterson, from studying Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit in college. She has no business writing a trans character, however, when the experience is so cissexist and transphobic, including having the trans man say that they're mostly male, but anatomically female, and who is (Content Warning/Trigger Warning) r*ped 3/4 of the way into the book and then that is not mentioned, discussed, thought about, has no bearing on the plot either, all while Fran-Kiss-Stein is supposedly a love story. Cis women writing trans characters like this? It's not okay. And I listened to the audiobook, where this character is voiced by John Sackville, a cis man. Go read a trans author instead for this kind of content, I'm serious.

(As a quick related side note regarding the audiobook, I have to mention that the American accents John Sackville puts on are horrendous. Cringe in a whole different way.)

The Mary Shelley parts were awesome however! And Perdita Weeks on the audiobook, phenomenal. The rest is a trans story through a painfully cis lens and is so not worth it. Trans voices by trans voices, please. I thought we knew this by 2019, but maybe that's just me being hopeful.

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kshertz's review

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challenging dark 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? No

3.5

I think that this title for this book is pretty misleading because it really feels like the title is trying to lend it self to like a romantic comedy. However, this is a very deep intense book looking at artificial intelligence, Frankenstein, and what it means to be a human. I was a little uncomfortable with the fact that they had a trans person in the book and they were comparing that with artificial intelligence and built humans that are brought back to life. It made it feel like a trans person is comparable to different pieces of life that were not necessarily human and I did not like that aspect. I don’t think that was the author’s intention at all. It just made me feel like maybe they were biting off more than needed to be in the novel and in doing that kind of equated trans with not normal so I was not liking that. But there was a lot of interesting themes and connections in the book that really made me think.

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hannahbailey's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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? Yes

3.5

This is an interesting exploration of what our future could look like: bionic humans, AI sex robots and eternal life (the brain as data). I loved how Winterson connects these ideas to Mary Shelley's ideas of human life and reanimation after death. This connection between the past and present shows how prevalent this idea of eternal life and making the impossible possible has always been. Shelley's perspective was engaging to read and reminded me how much I love her novel Frankenstein (perhaps more praise should be given to Shelley here than Winterson lol). The modern POV follows a non-binary trans person (Ry) and their relationship with Victor Stein, a scientist (of sorts) trying to bring his mate's beheaded head back to life. This was (perhaps purposefully) less engaging, as Ry often lacks agency amongst the people around them who shove their opinions of gender and identity down their throat.

I've read several reviews of this novel in which people describe Winterson as transphobic. In this novel specifically, I don't see the ignorant views of the characters as a reflection of her own views. However, there is very crude language used throughout which focuses on the anatomy of the characters. I don't feel that this narrative focus on bodily features has aged well (I know this book is only 3 years old but even then) in response to present ideas of gender, sex and identity. The characters around Ry are consistently transphobic, denying their identity, misgendering them and deadnaming them. This is a book to read if you're interested in the future of AI and human relationships, but not if you're looking for a story with good trans rep. Had this book not featured Frankenstein but a different cautionary tale, such as Brave New World, I probably would've hated it.

Alternative reads with trans rep/trans authors:

https://bookriot.com/best-trans-fantasy-books/
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/126482.Novels_by_Trans_Authors_with_Trans_Protagonists

Jeanette Winterson//transphobia:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-lgbt-books/no-rush-to-change-gender-uk-writer-joins-trans-debate-idUSKCN1T028R

Non-exhaustive list of TW: sexual assault, transphobia, homophobia, child death, miscarriage, misogyny, body horror/gore

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