Reviews with content warning for Child death - Frankissstein

Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson

29 reviews

electricjuicebox's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-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

2.75

Another book with a cool premise that let me down in its execution! I enjoyed reading this book overall, because it felt very literary and fancy, but I don't know that it was actually any good, or that I liked it.

The good: I felt challenged in trying to figure out the themes, meanings, etc. - untangling all the literary elements at play here. I loved the chapters from Mary Shelley's perspective, but I am a sucker for a narrative that brings us into the tragedy of womanhood, especially in different eras. And again, the premise is interesting.

The bad: The modern story with Ry and Victor was interesting, but much harder to follow and less engaging. One thing I wanted to mention is that the way Ry is described throughout the book, especially by Victor, as kind of a male-female hybrid seemed very transphobic. I'm not sure that Ry's character had a lot of depth beyond his transness (especially if he's supposed to be the modern analogue to Mary Shelley, who has actual agency and perspective in her part of the story), which is continually fetishized. I've seen a couple of trans reviewers here call this out more incisively. There is also a rape scene, which felt unnecessary and cruel. I guess what I mean to say is that I want to find out whether there was some kind of sensitivity reader who okayed this, because it felt sus. Also - while reading other reviews I saw multiple people point out that the modern Claire character is a racist stereotype, which I didn't notice but is sadly true.

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myclutteredbookshelf's review against another edition

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Had I known about Winterson's opposition to providing gender affirming care for trans youths beforehand, I wouldn't have bothered reading this novel. As such, I am going to refrain from giving it a rating and review.

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easefcik's review against another edition

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challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.0

this was beautifully written in so many ways, but I’m struggling with my review for this book. I wanted to love it and there is so much I really loved, but her representation of trans people left me with a bad taste in my mouth. It seemed…confused and uninformed. I get how she wants a trans protagonist to fit into the story, but I’m concerned it’s a harmful representation and unnecessarily. I obviously can’t speak for trans people, but k was extremely uncomfortable with the depictions and treatment of the character.

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skyturtles's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Loveable characters? No

3.0

This was weird. This is my 9th Winterson book, so you'd think I'd be used to it by now. She does her usual gender-defying and genre-defying, like layering historical fiction with A.I. research, adding in a dash of gothic romance.

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bookishbisexual's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective slow-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? No

2.75

This book was…strange. It had so many fascinating ideas but a confusing execution. As a huge fan of Frankenstein I still enjoyed it and all of the questions it proposed but I don’t know if I would recommend it.

Also, I know it’s a choice but I hated the lack of quotation marks! Made the reading experience more laborious on top of an already confusing book.

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boyinajar's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

echoing some previeious concerns, it did feel a little off color to a transmasc reader of theis novel but the surrealist experience of finishing the book was evocative enough that I give it some points

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bvic's review against another edition

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dark funny fast-paced

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

Started our great, drifted halfway and lost me completely at the end. Very strange, very funny, very beautifully written. Looking forward to reading Jeanette’s other work as I love the writing style, just not sure this story gave me enough in the end

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basil_touche's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

The Mary Shelley segments were the best parts of the book. It felt like a lot of research went into Shelley's history and the prose felt of the period. The Bedlam parts I didn't quite get though.

However, the modern parts, while they could be philosophical at times, treated the trans protaganist, Ry, abysmally. The

sexual assult

was gratuitous and did nothing to the narrative. It's just there to tell you how "miserable" being trans is. Having a trans protaganist in a reimagining of Frankenstein should be a match made in heaven, touching on themes of what humans can change of themselves, seeing ourselves in the creature in how he is viewed in ways that he's not, but here it just feels tacked on and not respectfully explored. Ry doesn't feel likely a fully realised character (the rest of the cast doesn't fare too well either) and is deadnamed and fetishised constantly. Doesn't help that it didn't keep my attention well either.

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.

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siebensommer's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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.

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rad_reads_123's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective sad 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? It's complicated

3.75

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