felishacb's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Footnotes tell the story of the narrator of sorts who is translating and interpreting the tale. They are also dealing with a faceless entity who wants to control the translation and treats Jacks's transness with an otherness. These layers give Rosenberg the opportunity to comment on queerness, as well as class, colonialism, and power.
Another main character based on reality is Bess who in this book is an Asian sex worker. Bess offers a safe place for Jack and teaches him more about class revolution by sharing her own family's tragic story. Her lived experience could connect with Jack's own experience of class oppression (and queer repression) and inform him on how it intersects with racism.
Although it is fiction, this book serves as a powerful reminder that trans people (and people of color) have always been here and have always been the main characters in their stories even if their history is lost or never told.
Towards the last third of the novel, I did find myself not picking this up as much. But the authors voice and perspective kept me wanting to see how this story ended and what nuggets of truth they would share.
From the book: "All history should be the history of how we exceeded our own limits."
Graphic: Classism, Death, Blood, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Abandonment
Moderate: Racism, Kidnapping, Genocide, Confinement, Physical abuse, Torture, and Homophobia
Minor: Grief
dziggetai's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Gore, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, and Transphobia
Moderate: Slavery, Excrement, Drug use, Alcohol, Classism, Murder, Colonisation, Cursing, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Vomit
slinkmalink's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
Vaguely knew about Wild (from horrible histories ofc) but I hadn't heard of jack Sheppard at all n I thought they conveyed a really vivid picture of crime/prison system in that era that was v interesting
Also a very different perspective on gender than u usually get which was interesting
Moderate: Transphobia and Racism
quinnyquinnquinn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Sexual content and Transphobia
Moderate: Racism, Medical content, and Blood
Minor: Child abuse
singlier's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book is weird--part memoir, part unhinged rambling footnotes, part collective memory. It reimagines the life of famous Victorian thief, Jack Sheppard, as a transgender man, exploring the intersections of his identity with period-accurate racism, incarceration, destruction of land, government corruption, and colonialism. It is also a story-within-a-story: told in the footnotes of the memoir is the story of Dr. Voth, a transgender man and college professor, currently grappling with the loss of his love and his debilitating OCD, who imprints onto Jack and uses the footnotes as the pedestal for self-reflection and anti-academia rhetoric.
At the end of the novel, I can't say I understood everything. It is committed to its appearance as an authentic 18th century text, which means it is dense and difficult to parse. The footnotes only add to its difficulty: calling upon a vast array of knowledge from Marxism to queer theory. The plot too, often feels scattered: caught between a mysterious conspiracy of government corruption and Jack's unquestionable love for his partner. But, with all this, I still found myself thoroughly enjoying it. I could not predict where it would lead me, but I enjoyed the journey there.
Minus points for a lot of mentions of piss, even though it does (eventually) become plot relevant.
Moderate: Colonisation, Gore, Racism, Vomit, Sexual content, Blood, Classism, Excrement, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Violence
caseythereader's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Graphic: Vomit, Xenophobia, Confinement, Death, Dysphoria, Classism, Alcohol, Gore, Racism, Colonisation, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Deadnaming, Grief, Murder, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Police brutality, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Excrement, and Violence
shipyrds's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
That being said, the narrative of Jack Sheppard is well-done; Rosenberg nails a particular sort of 18th-century cadence (possibly anachronistic; I don't really care.) Jack's narration is as slippery as the thief himself, both poetic and crude. The end of the book is spectacular, and Bess's discussion of the Fens is lovely.
Even in print, though, I found myself wishing the footnotes weren't there at all - as much as I enjoy a metanarrative, I think there's enough metanarrative present in the "18th century" portion itself, which touches on environmental destruction, the carceral state, the new calcification of racial categories, and transgender lives and loves. I don't think the book actually needed our modern day Dr. Voth in order to make the narrative speak to the present; it does that just fine on its own without the frame narrative, and I ended up getting distracted trying to track the details of his near-future academic dystopia.
So, overall: great book, loved Jack and Bess, (shockingly for me) could have done without the frame!
Graphic: Violence, Transphobia, Slavery, Xenophobia, Racism, Police brutality, and Medical content
katiewhocanread's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
Graphic: Medical content, Police brutality, Forced institutionalization, Sexual content, and Gore
Moderate: Racism and Deadnaming
Minor: Racial slurs and Mental illness
morelsupport's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Sexual content, Dysphoria, Racism, and Transphobia
Moderate: Police brutality
carbs666's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Sexual content, Medical content, Dysphoria, Alcohol, Confinement, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, and Colonisation
Moderate: Death, Medical content, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Racism, and Transphobia