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riledupryepie'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? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and Medical content
Moderate: Body horror, Miscarriage, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy
Minor: Rape and Sexual violence
mekowaletti's review against another edition
Graphic: Transphobia
Moderate: Sexual content
cleot's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Transphobia
Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Outing, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Child abuse, Genocide, Pedophilia, and Suicide
natalee_martino's review against another edition
- 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, Rape, and Transphobia
Moderate: Deadnaming, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
karina5162's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Sexual content and Transphobia
waterbear0821's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Graphic: Hate crime, Rape, and Transphobia
Moderate: Child death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Sexual violence
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: Deadnaming, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Transphobia
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, and Alcohol
cormoth'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
3.5
Graphic: Sexual content and Transphobia
Moderate: Sexual assault
Minor: Child death
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: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Medical content, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Outing
Minor: Deadnaming, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, and Stalking
obliiviium's review against another edition
- 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
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.
Moderate: Sexual assault and Transphobia
Minor: Sexual content