This was a challenging read at first. The writing style is very different from what I am used to. There are no quotations when people are speaking and the story jumps around different timelines. There are also lines that don’t seem to fit in the context of what’s happening like a strange insertion of consciousnesses. It wasn’t till about 200 pages into the book that I really started to get used to the writing and realized I was really enjoying the story.

The story is like two very strange retellings of Frankenstein in one book. We follow Mary Shelley in two timelines, one in the past when she is thinking about writing Frankenstein and the other revolves around a trans Mary Shelley who goes by Ry. Both iterations were fantastic. Each timeline focused on the topic of death and the soul. Asking questions about resurrection and whether we would want to or should come back to our own bodies. Also the idea of humans playing at god and what evolution will look like.

The timeline with Ry was even more vibrant as you get a trans perspective on what the body means. Meanwhile there is an influx of Artificial Intelligence which is supposedly the next step in evolution, again calling back the idea of what makes us human and how do we perfect a robotic body. The ease of choosing one’s own body as well. I did research the author to see if this was own voices and while the author is a part of the lgbtq+ community she is not transgender.

Also want to give a major trigger warning and minor spoiler. There was an extremely graphic scene of rape. It was definitely hard to read. But provided insightful commentary on patriarchy and trans rights.

In the end I really loved this book. It’s not a full five stars because of the struggle it took to get to where I could fully understand what was going on. Yet, I can’t give this lower than a 4 stars because it was so full of interesting commentary and left me really impacted by the characters. I also highlighted passages like crazy because there were some beautiful lines in here.

Perfect October read. The writing was lyrical. It was hard to put down. I loved the creepy feel and plan to tell all my friends about it!

Ok, this is a weird little book that I went back and forth on about wanting to read. Part of it is the story of Mary Shelley and how she came to write “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus”—that was the part that made me want to give it a try. But the other half of the book—set mostly in Brexit-era Britain as trans doctor Ry (short for Mary) Shelley delivers body parts to his lover, the slick, TED-talking artificial intelligence expert Victor Stein for his mysterious experiments, peppered with occasional appearances from self-described Sexbot King Ron Lord and his robotic pleasure dolls—gave me, to say the least, pause. As it happens, I really enjoyed both parts, which reference each other in deeper ways than the gimmicky names would suggest and which, though the dark 1800s narrative is the tonal opposite of the often campy, lighthearted and wickedly funny current day satire, both wrestle with similar philosophical and moral issues. Author Jeanette Winterson is obviously whip smart, and she brings all that intelligence with her on this wild ride of a novel, which has sidebars about the Bedlam mental hospital, the network of underground tunnels in Manchester, England, British mathematician IJ Good, queer love and gender norms and so much more. (Winterson reminds me a lot of Ali Smith in this respect.) There were plenty of times when I didn’t know where she was going with something, but the book had by then swept me up in its craziness to the point that I was happy to go along and trusted that all would become clear. It didn’t always, but that was still ok—as Ry says, “That is the strangeness of life.” And of this weird but compelling book. (Note: You’ll probably want to have read Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” to fully appreciate this book.)

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Press for providing me with an ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review. I’m glad I decided to hit the “request” button!

The entire time I was reading this book, I kept thinking how beautiful the book was. Have you ever read a book like that? Where you keep rereading paragraphs just to re experience it?

this book will definitely stay with me and I will be recommending it to everyone.


synopsis:In Brexit Britain, a young transgender doctor called Ry is falling in love – against their better judgement – with Victor Stein, a celebrated professor leading the public debate around AI.

Meanwhile, Ron Lord, just divorced and living with Mum again, is set to make his fortune launching a new generation of sex dolls for lonely men everywhere.

This book is generally about recreating life, whether biologically or artificially. Part of the book follows Mary Shelly and how she came up with Frankenstein. The other part of the book follows a doctor who has an interest in technology and artificial intelligent (AI)

Unfortunately this book was not for me and I had to DNF it after 82 pages which was almost 1/4 of the book. I had enjoyed the parts based on Mary Shelly's life but could not get invested in the modern pieces. This really says something about Winterson's writing as I usually find historic fiction boring.

I feel had the book been in two parts, the past and the future separated I might have managed it better. Or DNFed it after the first part.

I felt this was probably more for a person with an intrest in technology or the future of AI. I don't think this is a case of a "Bad book" I just think we were not a match of right book and right reader.

I would definitely try more Winterson in future.

This was a fun and funny (though often bold and serious) tale of two Shelleys. The first is author Mary Shelley before, during, and after she wrote Frankenstein. The second is Ry Shelley, a transgender man who finds himself in the middle of an amusing tale involving AI and sex robots. I was hooked and amused by the cast of side characters in Ry’s world, including the XX-Bot founder Ron Lord and the religious woman turned robot enthusiastic Claire, were simultaneously caricatures and three dimensional people, a testament to Winterson’s writing. Although I didn’t like this book as much as many of its reviewers did, I still found it enjoyable and amusing, and worth the read.

I liked but did not love this book. It is an interesting premise, and I usually enjoy alternating timelines but this did not flow well. Not knowing much about Mary Shelley, that part was interesting and seemed better written. The parts about artificial intelligence, transgender ism, and sex bots was awkward. Perhaps it is supposed to be that way. Anyway, it is interesting. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

I was excited by this book, because I love Jeanette Winterson's previous books, but I'm not sure if I'm burnt out on Mary Shelley and Frankenstein as symbol, but I struggled to get myself through this book. And dragged my feet on writing this review because of it.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending along an ARC of Frankissstein.

Let me start by saying how excited I was about this book! A re-imagining of Frankenstein with a trans protagonist authored by a queer woman? Incredible. To my bitter disappointment, Frankissstein failed to deliver anything positive or new in queer and/or speculative fiction, instead perpetuating the false connection between biology and gender identity and dressing up a transphobic cast of characters and themes as something other than a stale attempt on Winterson’s part to remain relevant rather than educating herself.

This book is now my go-to example of why we need to publish more actual trans authors instead of cis authors who think “trans people are hot right now” (an actual quote from the book). Winterson fundamentally misunderstands the fact that trans men are men, trans women are women, and these are their IDENTITIES, not a “seductive opportunity to remake yourself” (quote from the Reuters interview, listed at the end of this review). She says in a different interview with Prospect that “you can change everything else [other than the time you live in], including your gender,” illustrating that she sees gender identity as a choice rather than, you know, who they are. This is not to say that gender isn’t fluid, and that people’s identities may (and do) fluctuate over time, which may (and does) result in identifying with different pronouns or altering their gender performance. However, these are not choices. It’s incredibly disappointing that Winterson doesn’t understand this, since the same language has been used to attack queer women for decades. Ry did not “choose his gender” any more than Winterson “chose” to be lesbian.

At best, this is just ignorance on her part (though why you would choose not to learn absolutely anything about the community that your protag belongs to is beyond me). At worst, she’s adopting and regurgitating trans-exclusionary feminist points that fixate on biology as the linchpin of gender identity, a theme that plays a concerningly prominent role in the book. I know that characters’ opinions are separate from the opinions of the author, but the multitude of scenes in which various characters (and the narrative voice!) are absolutely obsessed with Ry’s genitalia.
Ignorance aside, the speculative fiction aspect of the book is amateurish despite being assured of its own brilliance. The concept of someone’s body (and any alterations made, consensual or no) dictating their humanity has been a main theme in cyberpunk literature and media for decades, yet Winterson presents it as an original idea without really adding to the existing (vast) body of dialogue on the topic. It reads like a Jonathan Franzen thinkpiece on Millenials and their Genders and Technology, which is to say very outdated and cringey as it tries to both embrace and mock contemporary topics.

A huge problem I have as a reader of queer horror/sci-fi/fantasy is that literally anything is possible...and yet anyone outside the heteronormative cis bubble still can’t be happy or have their identities go unchallenged. It would have been totally possible (and very much preferable) for Winterson to delve into the connection between body and identity without having every character Ry encounters ask an invasive question or make an offensive remark. Queer folk are punished enough for existing in real life; we don’t need to experience the constant struggle in our literature, as well. This is not to say that the difficult experience of living as a queer person is not a completely valid and important topic to write about! However, do we have to make the queer characters unhappy literally every time?

In addition to these issues, the double plot thing just didn’t work. Winterson somehow managed to make the gothic sex party that was Villa Diodati seem completely uninteresting. The 1816 bits really didn’t add anything other than smug nods to the Frankenstein frame narrative (which was already pretty ham-fisted, given the names of the two main characters in the Future sections). If I had to sum up this subplot in one phrase, it’d be Despondent Limpid Damp Sex Gathering.

There aren’t a whole lot of further overt connections between the two plots; is Winterson trying to illustrate that technological advances and AI cannot stop the insatiable sex drive of humanity? The comparison she was likely going for was between Frankenstein’s monster and the trans protag of the Future sections. I was drawn to this book because of this implied comparison, actually, given the fascinating analysis that could arise by examining the gender (or lack thereof) of the nameless monster. However, when Winterson chose instead to focus on a perceived message of “Frankenstein’s monster is a bunch of mismatched body parts just like trans people!” it sapped the exercise of anything other than offensiveness. I’m genuinely concerned that this book is currently being touted as a progressive exploration of gender fluidity and identity; having harmful and dehumanizing characterizations of trans folk (written by a cis woman) praised and uncriticized is just dressing up transphobia in a more palatable package.

One last thing - please, please, please use quotation marks on your dialogue.

Here's the interviews I reference in the top parts: one from Reuters (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-lgbt-books/no-rush-to-change-gender-uk-writer-joins-trans-debate-idUSKCN1T028R) and one from Prospect (https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/jeanette-winterson-profile-frankisstein).

What the fuck did I just read? How the fuck did this get published? And, in what fucking universe does shit like this get longlisted for an award? There’s some small justice in that this travesty of fiction didn’t make the Booker shortlist, but that it got published – and that anybody feels it worth celebrating – is still a mystery.

I hated this book.

Let’s start with the surface flaws. This is a badly written book. Badly written, boring, pretentious, stream-of-consciousness nonsense. It’s not just bad, it’s comically bad, as if Jeanette Winterson were trying to make some kind of meta-statement with the narrative – except it would be a mistake to suggest that Frankissstein is that clever. The characters range from lame to offensive, and the dialogue from banal to ridiculous. It’s almost like Winterson were trying to anticipate the kind of writing that an artificially created hybrid life-form would construct except, again, the book is not that clever.

I loathed this book.

To go deeper – and, honestly, nothing about this book is what I would call deep – this is a grossly offensive, embarrassingly (and possibly dangerously) transphobic story. It trivializes being transgender as a whimsical choice, and fetishizes the entire transgender community as genital hybrids. To add insult to injury, Winterson tosses around pronouns like they’re randomly interchangeable, repeatedly deadnames the transgender protagonist, and heaps so much harassment on them (including repeated violent assaults) that you have no choice but to assume it’s the author’s own bias coming through.

I despised this book.

As for the sci-fi aspects of sex robots and human consciousness, they’re so badly handled that they’d be the most embarrassing part of any other novel. When we’re not being bored to tears with factoid info dumps we’re being completely grossed out by a vulgar millionaire who is only slightly less offensive than the book’s rapist boyfriend. Honestly, I’ve read trashy sexbot spankbank erotica that was more intelligent and tasteful than this. Even the lame, hamfisted attempts to further the faith-versus-science themes in Frankenstein and its literary contemporaries is rendered ridiculous and toothless through the mocking, racist caricature of evangelical woman.

Did I mention I hate this book?

Because I did.

With a vengeance.

Well, I thought this book was going to be a fictional retelling of Mary Schelly's writing of the classic "Frankenstein". And it is wonderfully so! However, this part is just one of many that present a complex commentary on human mortality, AI, life extension (through human form or not), creation and extintion. Subsequent chapters and timelines present characters that retell the conflict between creator and monster. I could totally go overboard talking about this book, but you should read it and make your own conclusions. This book was so much more than I expected, and so much more to think about. Totally awesome rating.

What a weird little story this is, with the witty and acerbic prose you would expect from Winterson. It tells the intertwining stories of Mary Shelley as she writes Frankenstein in the past coupled with the adventures of Ry Shelley, a trans doctor wrapped up in the antics of Victor Stein, who is trying to master AI to the point of bringing people back from the dead and Ron Lord, the obnoxious creator of sexbots. Firstly, the writing is just fantastic here and there were lines that genuinely made me laugh out loud - I particularly liked the author's notes that comment on a character's thoughts. The narrative moves quickly and my interest was maintained throughout, although I did prefer the modern day parts of the story over those told in the past. In all honesty, I'm not sure what the narrative was trying to do, other than comment on the arrogance of humans, but this is definitely the kind of book that can be enjoyed for the quality of the writing. I loved Ry and I really enjoyed Ron Lord too, but I did find Victor a little one-dimensional. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who isn't too concerned with plot and loves writing that smacks you in the face!
I received a free copy of this book from the publishers in exchange for a fair and honest review.

DNF'd. Maybe I am not in the right frame of mind for this book but it seemed a little too out there for me. Oscillating between two timelines, the future timeline seemed interesting but the past one was a little too drab. Maybe I'll try to reread it in the future but it is a no from me for now.

A modern interpretation of the classic Frankenstein - bending and crossing gender lines with a heavy hand in satire and philosophy. Jeanette Winterson has done a masterful job of creating a new Frankenstein's monster for us to ...love?

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Portrayal of the writing of "Frankenstein", tribute to it, sequel to it, and much more, this is definitely a Jeanette Winterson novel. It's full of erudite riffs on the same subject, and whether that be sex robots, modern day cryonics or a lot more, it's here. Much of it is wonderful, too – I really liked the evocation of Villa Diodati, even if it's nowhere near the first I've read, and the way AI, robotics and many modern themes weave into the story is strong. I really could have done without the bisexual nonsense – the word used there in its literal sense, with a character thinking it's both genders at once. The sex scenes there were a distinct turn-off, and much of the consequent dialogue about its nature was boring, but the rest shows the sparks and creativity of Winterson. We don't get many novels from her these days, but we don't get many novels of this kind from anyone these days, either.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this one, it dealt with many fascinating topics such as AI, being transgender and what is to be human and had really good writing.

However, maybe it tried to tackle too many topics at once? There were so many ideas in this book that I sometimes didn't know where to focus my attention and I'm not sure in the end what point the book was trying to make, if any.

We mostly follow two main characters in two different times, Mary Shelley while she's writing Frankenstein (huge spoilers are featured, beware) and Ry in the present, trying to be her authentic self while being involved with Victor Frankenstein. I liked the characters very much and felt like they were for the most part well developed but I found myself being put out of the story whenever we followed other characters than our two mc.

I think I might think about this book quite a bit in the future as especially I loved the talk about AI and what it means for us humans but other than that, I found it a bit too confusing.

Frankenstein is one of the first novels I fell in love with. I adored its language, I adored Mary Shelley, and I was fascinated by the novel's provenance and message. I wrote university essays about it and my copy of Frankenstein was annotated on almost every other page. It also let to my love for Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. So I knew that I wanted to read Frankissstein from pretty much the moment I heard about it. Thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Frankenstein, as originally written, is far removed from the way it is portrayed in most modern media. No bolts, no nonsensical words, no Igor, almost no horror. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a meditation on the effects of unchecked progress, on the megalomania of some creators, and on the consequences of creation. Frankissstein is a story about what happens when our creations get away from us. It's also about the rapid progress of creation, of happenstance, and maybe fate, that leads us from one step to the next. At times highly philosophical, while also focused on the small details of human, physical life, Frankissstein asks us who we are. As the reader you find yourself wondering, are we just bodies or are we souls? Could we imagine our lives without bodies? And if yes, would that be preferable? Winterson doesn't provide answers, but she does show us how language, gender, technology and politics all come together to shape our future.

In Frankissstein, the future of our world seems to rest in the hand of two men who are almost polar opposites. Victor Stein, a mysterious, maybe mad, scientist, is hoping for a world in which humans are released from their fleshy prisons. He is fascinated by Ry, by their very existence and at times his fascination with Ry edges into cold, analytical interest. His ideas, and his willingness to see them through, are when the novel edges into something almost akin to horror, and yet Victor is a fascinating character. At times his philosophical arguments suck some of the tension out of the narrative, but they are great food fro thought. Ron Lord looks at the future in a different way. Rather than wanting to "free" humans of their bodies, he is looking at technology and AI as a way to support our (read: men's) physical desires. His sex robots are both a hilarious and strangely sad presence in the Frankissstein. In one scene I found particularly memorable, we catch a short glimpse of what a sex robot's life might be like if they developed any kind of conscience or memory. It was heart-breaking and the casual way in which he dismisses the fact many bots are returned with their heads smashed in is chilling.This will also be part of our future, Winterson warns; not just the high-minded scientists striving for next-level humanity, but also the opportunists who support our most brutish instincts.

Winterson confidently moves between 19th century Europe, where Mary Shelley is creating her masterpiece, to 21st century Brexit Britain, where an array of characters is looking into the future, each in their own way. It's Ry, once Mary, who is one of the standout characters of the novel. They are a transgender man, but also considers themselves a 'hybrid', both man and woman. They have created their own body in their own (mental) image, and this engenders both fascination and confusion in the people around him. A doctor themselves. Ry is surrounded by those who are trying to shape the future, yet they are oddly sidelined from these attempts themselves. They was able to shape themselves, but the future seems out of their grasp. Similarly, the novel tracks Mary Shelley as she writes Frankenstein, argues with Byron, and faces loss after loss. Mary's scenes are some of the most beautiful, evoking the language of her own novel, and analyzing with acuity and gentleness the effects of loss and restraint.

A lot can be said about Frankissstein and I haven't said half I thought. It will take some time to let it all sink in, and as the world changes so might my thoughts on this novel. But it is a great addition to the original Frankenstein, and much more in line with Mary Shelley's idea than most other media.

Frankissstein is a fascinating novel full of ideas that are innovative and thought-provoking. Anyone with an interest in Frankenstein, AI, robotics and the question of our souls, will find Frankissstein an interesting and rewarding read.

In Frankissstein, Jeanette Winterson uses a two narrative telling different stories to reanimate the questions once illuminated by Mary Shelley’s classic literary creation Frankenstein. In the first narrative, Winterson gives us the voice of Shelly during the gloomy vacation in Geneva, 1816 in which she first put pen to paper to bring her novel to life. We hear Mary retell moments from her romance with Percy Bysshe Shelley and the dark sorrow she carries over her lost children. Winterson gives us scenes of the couple shut up in the damp holiday accommodation they share with John William Polidori, Claire Clairmont and Lord Byron. The party of five are clearly going stir crazy with just themselves for company trying to find ways to alleviate the boredom.

In the second narrative we meet Ry Shelley, a doctor who identifies as both transgender and non- binary. Ry attends a conference in Memphis, Tennessee to interview a welsh man called Ron about his sex robot business. As the story evolves Ry meets the various characters that populate their world. It is Ry’s relationship with the scientist Victor Stein that dominates the plot of this narrative as Winterson explores various ethical and political themes.

I really wanted to love this book. Frankenstein is my favourite classic novel and I have explored various iterations of the story both written and on screen. I am also a huge fan of Jeanette Winterson and have been since my teens. Her works sit proudly on my bookshelves. All this said, I just didn’t enjoy it.

The first narrative I loved. Winterson writes Shelley confidently and there were moments that made me quite feel quite emotional. Shelley’s voice has echoes of characters from literary history such as Elizabeth Bennett and Mina Harker which feels apt. The Bedlam parts reminded me of the diary entries by Dr. Seward and his study of Renfield’s madness in Stoker’s Dracula. It is the last part of this story line that has the strongest marks of influence from the classic novel that Mary Shelley created. If this had been the only story line I would have been very happy. However, the second story line just didn’t deliver as brilliantly.

I liked the ethical discussions that Ry’s story line served up. It was good to examine the problems that arise when developing and selling .A.I. It is true that there is the fear of how new emerging technologies will be used and, sadly, how they may be abused. There is also the question of how technology will influence society. In the novel, there is discussion of the fear that the convenience that technology gifts us may lead to our morals being compromised. We have seen how social media, for example, has led some members of society to send others abuse that they would never vocalise to them in person because social media has handed users the gift of not having to deal with the repercussion of their actions. Winterson does discuss issues similar to this that may arise with the advancement of the technology involved in artificial intelligence. This book does ask questions such as what would a woman’s worth be in a society where a man can order and command any type of woman he wants. Some of these moments I actually like.

The problems I had with the second narrative were more about the characters that Jeanette Winterson has created to explore these discussions and the story line that came with them. I found Ron deeply irritating and, although I’m sure that was the point of him, I was bored by his monologues. After Ry’s first interaction with him I just didn’t want to hear what he had to say anymore. Claire, a black American woman seemed to only have God worship as her personality and I can’t even remember anything about the journalist other than she kept turning up randomly for no real reason conducive to the plot. I hated Victor who felt like an emotionally manipulative toxic male figure that Ry was fooling themselves was in love with them. I actually cringed at the moments in which Winterson tried to tackle transgender issues. The moments in which Ry was continually forced to explain themselves and repeatedly dead named made me so angry. I’m well aware that for some members of the transgender community this is a reality but the way Winterson handled it in this novel felt ham-fisted.

One moment that made me want to not bother to finish reading the novel was the post-sex conversation that takes place during chapter 9. The tone of the interaction reminded me of pretentious intoxicated conversations I had experienced with ex-lovers who were desperately trying to assert the superiority of their intelligence to me to make up for their own sexual insecurities. I wanted Ry to get out, get away and run for the hills.

Maybe I’m being too harsh as it has been nominated for awards but the whole of the second narrative felt as if it was crammed full of ton of different issues and topics with no real cohesion. It’s such a shame because I really enjoyed the fictional account of Mary Shelley’s life and there is some really lovely writing in the novel itself. I love that Jeanette Winterson wanted to include Trans issues in this book I just wish she had listen more attentively to modern transgender voices when writing it.

Couldn't do it.

I was feeling under the weather and this was not the book I needed. It is absolutely florid in its language, ridiculously so IMO.

I'll give you a quote from the first few pages of the book. Mary Shelley has decided to walk naked across the chilly and rainy shore of Lake Geneva, as you do. There is a bit of explicit discussion of body parts, so here's your chance to avoid that if you aren't interested.




...though I am not an inventor of machines I am an inventor of dreams.

Yet I wish I had a cat.

... My nipples are like the teats of a rain-god. My pubic hair, always thick, teems like a dark shoal. The rain increases steady as a waterfall and me inside it. My eyelids are drenched. I'm wiping my eyeballs with my fists.
Shakespeare. He coined that word: eyeball. What play is it in? Eyeball?

That is the stream of consciousness nonsense I read and I was not up for it. I don't want to read about teats like a rain-god or similar metaphors. YMMV.

Frankisstein is an inventive, thought-provoking novel by Jeanette Winterson which I felt ultimately didn’t quite deliver on its bold ambitions. Winterson interweaves two Frankenstein-related storylines throughout the novel – a lush historical section following Mary Shelley as she writes the novel and a modern-day re-imagining of the novel, in which a transgender doctor called Ry Shelley falls in love with Victor Stein, an AI pioneer whose research is funded by a boorish sexbot magnate. The modern storyline is satirical and occasionally bitingly funny but also sometimes unnecessarily sensationalist, and I didn’t feel like the characters and their relationships were particularly well-developed. I found the historical sections much more compelling, especially the portrayal of Mary Shelley, and I would have been happy to read an entire novel focused on this timeline. Nevertheless, Winterson’s skill as a writer is evident as common themes – around love, gender, what it means to be human, and the relationship between technology and humanity - begin to emerge between the two disparate storylines. I would recommend this novel for readers who enjoy re-imaginings of classic literature and ambitious, timely novels such as Ali Smith’s seasonal quartet.