3.5 rounded up

I'm pleased to report that my first experience of Winterson's fiction was a good one. A playful modern day adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein which is interspersed with narration by Mary Shelley herself over a week spent with Lord Byron and her husband on Lake Geneva in 1816.

While I enjoyed the Shelley thread it was the present day narrative that kept me engaged - here we follow Ry, born Mary and using masculine pronouns and working alongside Victor Stein, a guy who is working on downloading people's minds so they can be revived in the future when the technology permits and reanimating frozen heads. They encounter Ron Lord, a sleazy guy who produces sex robots. The conversations with Ron are really quite funny and their discussions made for thought provoking reading on the future of humans and AI. Recommended!

More a novel of ideas than a plot-driven story that touches on a wide variety of subjects: poetry and art, robotics, artificial intelligence and cryonics. Told in a dual timeline - one set in 1818 with Mary Shelley creating her famous 'modern Prometheus' and one in the present with scientist Victor Stein as the modern incarnation of Frankenstein - the book swirls towards an apocalyptic climax. Baffling!

Jeanette Winterson presents a re-telling of Frankenstein that is a must read anytime of the year. The origin story of Mary Shelley’s novel opens Winterson’s tale. The author herself narrates a take on the weekend she spent with her husband on Lake Geneva in 1816, hosted by Lord Byron and challenged to write a scary tell. The original text is interspersed throughout the novel and the creation storyline sits beside a modern take. Ry Shelley, narrates a parallel contemporary tale. Ry, born Mary but preferring a masculine pronoun, stands in for both the author and the monster. Ry works for a cryogenics firm and meets Victor Stein, a doctor interested in using Artificial Intelligence to download people’s minds for safe-keeping looking toward the day they can be revived once biology and technology allow. Add in a proselytizing Christian infiltrating the cryogenics lab only to answer existential questions about the soul. This unlikely trio is joined by perhaps the most entertaining character of the entire novel, Ron Lord, the puddle-deep CEO of a company that produces lifelike sex bots. The novel is certainly wry and quirky, but in typical Winterson fashion, highlights the fundamental questions of mankind about identity, life and the spark of human-ness, that are still as enigmatic now as they were in Mary Shelley’s day.

Let’s start at the very beginning – the title. Why? A play on words, presumably, but one which only leads to spelling mistakes. The whole novel is “playful”, even though it deals with serious and important issues, but that playful element left me cold and I remained unamused. There are two storylines, the first being set in 1816 as the young Mary Shelley, haunted by the deaths of her small children, begins to write her famous novel Frankenstein, an exploration of a creature made from body parts brought to life by electricity. I enjoyed this part of the novel. In part two, set in the present, we have a trans doctor, called Ry Shelley (that’s Mary/Ryan) who becomes involved with Victor Stein, a scientist attempting to reanimate a frozen head. The parallels are all too obvious and I’m not sure Winterson brings anything new to the table. Cryogenics, AI, sex-bots, what it means to be human, transhumanism, gender fluidity and so on and so on, all woven together, sometimes clumsily, into a less than satisfactory whole. I found the trans episodes embarrassing, and unconvincing, and they appeared to be there almost solely as an excuse for some excruciating sex scenes. There’s a lot of emphasis on genitalia – aren’t we supposed to be beyond that by now? Many of the characters seem to be there merely to exemplify a point of view and all are caricatures. The threat or promise of cryogenics and the possibility of consciousness being preserved beyond death are indeed issues we may well have to deal with in the future, but this book doesn’t serve them well. It all seemed very trivial to me. For example, Ry seems to have access to various body parts to take to Stein – there are advantages to working in A&E, she comments. Really? There are also some surreal episodes – Stein has some reanimated hands wandering around. Is that supposed to reassure or horrify us about the prospect of reanimation? The book seemed to me to be an uncomfortable mix of farce, satire and serious exploration, without ever really deciding what was the most important element, and I remained unengaged and somewhat bewildered throughout.

This isn’t just a book, it’s a journey. We are welcomed to Winterson’s world in 1816 when Mary Shelley is experiencing the first imaginings of a tale that would become Frankenstein. There are historical facts and figures from Mary Shelley to Alan Turing included in the telling of this story.

This book is so much more than a re-imagining of Frankenstein. This is an exploration of the meaning of life, our existence, the essence of being alive and what could happen if we ever have the ability to alter any of those things.

The story is told through the eyes of several characters. Different stories and time periods are woven together into a thought-provoking tapestry about the meaning of life.

Young Mary Shelley struggles with the birth of her horror novel as she fights against the misogynistic society in which she lives. As she struggles with the deaths of multiple children, she ponders the creation of life.

Ry is a young, transgender Doctor who finds himself emotionally engaged with Victor Stein. Victor is a force for change and the future, a scientist exploring artificial intelligence… and even darker more elusive goals. Ry lives in a world that can still be dangerous to him, misunderstands him and he seems drawn to the idea of artificial intelligence… and bodies that are created to house the human mind.

The amusing Ron Lord is a purveyor of fine sexbots. He is humorous and candid, a simple man after simple pleasures with an unerring ability to speak his mind even when it isn’t appropriate. Without seeming to mean to, Ron often reduces the meaning of a woman’s existence to providing pleasure for a man… comfort… perhaps just existing to be there for him. He’s an oddly likable character in spite of the line of work he’s in and his nonchalance about the female bots he’s selling.

There are so many things explored in this novel. What is life? Even if science finds a way to reanimate people… does that mean it should be done? What if we suddenly find a way to restore human consciousness? How would we cope with the surge in population? Should anyone be reanimated? What does an ability to change a body one is born into imply for those who live with disabilities or those who are transgender?

The dialogue in the book is oftentimes quirky, humourous, convoluted and thought-provoking. I found myself continuing to think about it long after I flipped to the last page. What if we were lucky enough to be able to live in a world without set biology? Would we still need labels to categorize gender and orientation? What is love if there isn’t a physical body?

This is a remarkable book. It’s poetic language, humor, candor, and speculation have made it one of the best I’ve read this year.

Such a beautifully written book, it’s a pleasure to read. The story is split between tenderly-written recreation of Mary Shelley’s life and work, and a modern-day exploration of life, consciousness and what the future might hold for the human race. The love and respect Winterson appears to hold for Mary Shelley sings through those parts of the book and looks on the hard times Shelley had with affection and wonder. The meeting between Shelley and a grown Ada Lovelace is poignant and perfect, and ties together the different strands of the book. The modern dilemmas facing the present-day Ry and other characters are sensitively and sensually explored, raising unanswered questions about gender and humanity that will continue into future generations and their futures. A wonderful, joyous book to read, absolutely loved it.

This book is absolutely fantastic! A timely, poignant exploration of human identity in the face of a changing world - but without compromising Shelley’s original, which only becomes more relevant as technology develops. Winterson cleverly weaves the scenes with Mary Shelley originally writing Frankenstein with a modern perspective. I will definitely be rereading this soon!

Told in two parallel narratives, "Frankissstein" follows on the one hand Mary Shelley in the 19th century as she grapples with the genesis of Frankenstein, and on the other Ry Shelley in the present day, a trans doctor at the forefront of AI research; as expected, both narratives mirror each other thematically. Thought-provoking and impressive albeit, even apart of the trans (mis-)representation, the "feminist" themes were very shallow and one-note.

First of all I am very appreciative of this ARC from netgalley.

I have complicated feelings about this one. I very much enjoy Jeanette Winterson’s novels though I’m more partial to her historical novels.

That’s probably why I enjoyed the Mary Godwin Shelley portions rather than the modern ones. I really can’t speak to the trans reputations but I get very skeptical when a person who isn’t transgender is writing a trans character. It didn’t really feel... right.

The plot of the story is so ambitious but it ultimately did not work for me which is a shame because the premise of the novel is so intriguing but I don’t think it really paid off.

It’s still written impeccably because Winterson is a genius and for that I’m giving it 3 stars.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this title as I have never read the classic <i>Frankenstein</i> by Mary Shelley, however it made little difference to the fun I had in reading this retelling of sorts.

Mostly it's about Mary Shelley and her sad back-story of children lost to disease in her short relationship with her husband Percy, and also about the writing of the story of her monster Frankenstein and then it flips to our modern day search for eternal or extended life. Most of the modern characters are quirky and the story focuses upon the trans lead character Ry, their own past and struggles with the present as those around them seek to build a better world, irrespective of the morality? of their endeavours. It's a hodgepodge of ideas and I don't claim to have understood them all but I have certainly thought about much of future and where we are headed. The way that Winterson brings everything together is enlightening, sad and incredibly funny.

With thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I have read all of Jeanette Winterson’s work and re-read many of them several times, including some passages I just read again and again for the sheer joy and power of her words, the way you would listen to one of your favorite songs. Frankissstein is no exception, I am about to read it again, a few hours after finishing my first lap. Do I fully understand it yet? absolutely not, Did I thoroughly immerse myself in it? absolutely yes. Do I feel changed, different, wiser, confused? Hell yes, That’s what this brilliant woman does, her words and stories change you and nothing can be better than that.

I enjoyed parts of this because I love Frankenstein (and taught it to uni students for 3 years so I know it well) and imagining the story behind its creation was quite fun. But I had some questions over the representation of trans identity (in particular some of the things Ry says about themself) that as a cis person I just didn’t have the means to find an answer for. I’ll wait for the views of trans people before I write this off completely, but I wasn’t totally onboard with the ideas presented in this novel.

In 1818 a 21 year old woman published a novel which would be arguably the most influential, not to mention the most pervasive influence on popular culture of the next 200 years.

It is clear that we aren't done with exploring the multitude of ideas, ethical and moral dilemmas and possibilities Shelley poses. Who better for a 21st Century take on the novel than Jeanette Winterson, who has expertly navigated retellings from Greek Mythology to Shakespeare.

Winterson weaves as complex a tale as Shelley herself, using multiple narrative strands to explore the new 'modern Prometheus' in Victor Stein's pursuit of AI, as well as gender identity through Ry Shelley, the significance of physical bodies and much more besides.

The narrative flits between the story of the Shelleys' visit to Byron's villa where the idea for Frankenstein was born, and Winterson's modernised version in which Ry Shelley is a science writer, in a strained relationship with the ambitious Victor Stein. You could read this book even if you hadn't read Frankenstein and knew nothing about Shelley or her life, but I wouldn't recommend it. Part of the fun of this book is working out the clues, decoding the meanings, working out who each character is a cipher for. As well as being a thoroughly clever novel, Winterson plots and paces the interweaving narratives in a way that make the tale you think you know refreshingly compelling.

Winterson brings a well loved story right up to date with her explorations of Queer identity and AI, making it incredibly relevant and resonant with today's world. It is a darkly funny story with a cynical take on humanity through the lens of capitalism (cue the sex bots). The novel does feel politically charged - Winterson is certainly here to say something important, but this is well balanced with a clever, funny and engaging story which will certainly make you think.

I thought this was a brilliant book, astonishing in its ideas and originality. It explores profound ideas, including the future of mankind with possible biological and technological changes, the development of robotics incorporating future strides in artificial intelligence, the melding of human biology with artificial intelligence, the limits of cryogenics to preserve and resurrect the recently dead, the idea of uploading human thought and memories for future recovery into new bodies or robots.

This is a compelling book exploring issues which are thought-provoking, and some ideas we would probably prefer not to think about. There are serious issues such as misogyny, prejudice against transgender people and the direction in which technology is headed. Will the advances in artificial intelligence surpass human thought and wisdom? There are topics that need to be addressed not only by scientists but also by philosophers and morality panels. But remember the book is also hilariously laugh-out-loud funny! There is a dig at Trump which is still causing me to laugh.

Going back in time to the early 1800s, we meet the young Mary Shelly travelling with her husband, Percy Shelly, Lord Byron, and others. They considered themselves members of the intelligentsia and social rebels. Mary conceives the story of a man-made creature created by Dr. Victor Frankenstein. I liked the story of this group, and their restlessness travelling through Europe and the plight of women. I did not understand the reason that her story kept alternating with the contemporary characters, and felt it detracted from the book’s structure.

In modern times we are introduced to Ry(short for Mary), a transgendered female to male doctor. He is is a romantic relationship with Dr. Victor Stein, a prominent scientist and lecturer in the field of artificial intelligence. In Arizona, there is a facility where another scientist, Max, is in charge of suspending people by freezing at the time of death. The hope is that they can be scientifically resurrected when technology and medicine have progressed to the point where this is possible. There is also Ron Lord, doing a thriving business selling and renting sex bots for lonely men everywhere. He is misogynistic and crude, having no filter and blurts out whichever ridiculous thing entering his mind. He provides much hilarity. He sees great opportunities to become wealthier due to Brexit. He is a great character

I enjoyed the nods to actual pioneers in computer technology. Mentioned is Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron’s daughter. A brilliant mathematician, she is credited with writing the first computer program. There are references to Alan Turing, a British mathematician, computer scientist and code breaker whose Enigma program translated German secret codes during WW2, which gave the allies an advantage.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for this smart and unique book. I am not sure how to classify it. There is much sex, but it is not really erotic, and I would call it Science Speculation rather than SciFi. It may be a prediction of what human life forms will be like and how we will interact with inteligent robots.

"What is the point of progress if it benefits the few while the many suffer?"

This was my first experience of reading a Jeanette Winterson book, and I'm not sure how to feel about it. The writing was good and the weaving of the narratives was clever

This story really made me think about technology and artificial intelligence, and how we already use it and will use it in the future. It's also about human nature, gender, sexuality, mortality, creativity, and science. I liked that this book made me think about these things, but it did get a little repetitive towards the end

We follow both Mary Shelley and Ry Shelley, flitting between 1818 with the former and the modern day with the latter, as the two narratives begin to mirror one another

I met my nemesis again in this book: lack of speech marks. I never quite got used to it and often had to back-track to figure out what was speech and what wasn't, but it wasn't difficult to read other than that

I'm glad I read Frankenstein last year now; though I don't think it's essential to read it before reading this, I do think it gave rich context and depth to this story which made me enjoy it more than I would've without that context

This book didn't have much of a story, it was more of a commentary on society, but I enjoyed that it made me think about humans and technology coexisting, and even, being codependent

TW: rape, transphobia, homophobia

(If I'm honest, I'm not sure how well or sensitively this book handled these topics)

I did appreciate the novelty Frankisstein, which mixes science fiction with historical fiction in an interesting way. I have loved other works by Jeanette Winterson and expected to like this book more than I ended up liking it. I think perhaps readers who are more interested in Frankenstein and ideas of tranhumanism and such will like the book.

This novel is Winterson's monster: Pieced together from the history of Mary Shelley writing the classic Frankenstein, the plot of aforementioned classic and a new storyline focusing on artificial intelligence, Winterson has unevenly sewn together different components and brought them to life - well, at least partly. The author is a God-like figure in her own narrative universe, so you could argue that Winterson is also a "modern Prometheus" (which is the subtitle of "Frankenstein). In order to explore the human urge to create life and submit nature versus the longing to be seen and loved as an imperfect, but unique person, Winterson jumps around between timelines and personnel, juxtaposing, mirroring and paralleling different ideas and even characters.

The first narrative thread tells the story of author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, who fell in love and ran away with Percy Bysshe Shelley. She crafted the outline for "Frankenstein" at Lake Geneva, where the couple stayed with Lord Byron, his doctor Polidori, and Mary's stepsister Claire Clairmont who was pregnant from Byron (Mary herself lost many children, which is interesting considering that she wrote a classic about the artificial creation of life). Winterson intersperses her whole narrative with bits and pieces from Mary Shelley's life, especially those connected to the writing of "Frankenstein". Many of the aspects she presents are highly contested though, e.g. the connection to the actual Castle Frankenstein in Germany or that Shelley was inspired by conversations she had with her husband and Byron about Darwin and galvanization - in this book, real life is fiction, too.

Then, there are of course quotes and themes taken from the story of Dr. Victor Frankenstein, and readers should keep in mind that the "monster" starts out as a good character and is then driven to become a criminal because of his loneliness and desperation. In the third narrative thread, we meet all kinds of characters who mirror the other two interwoven stories: There is Victor Stein, a scientist who aims to abolish death by preserving human minds; there is Ry, a transgender doctor (Ry is derived from Mary), who falls in love with Stein; we meet Claire who employs argumentative tricks to merge the belief in God with financially profiting from AI; and Polly (which, especially in 19th century New England, was a nickname for Mary), a journalist trying to portray Stein; and then we have Ron, a sleezy guy selling AI sexbots ("Ronald" derives from Rögnvaldr, meaning "the one who holds the power of the Gods"). As you probably assume, there is a myriad of connections here, but the main juxtaposition is that of Ron, who uses AI for financial gain with all the implications that has regarding the degradation of women, and Victor Stein, who is less interested in money, and more in playing God.

Yes, this monster of a book has many tiny parts and many characters, it is often funny and just as often stuck in theoretical and philosophical elaborations played out in dialogue, and Winterson is very much in love with her own creation. While the whole book is filled to the brim with smart ideas and offers a daring composition, I have to admit that the patchiness of the whole thing frequently annoyed me, that some parts seemed repetitive and that a certain smugness that lingers over this text did not really help either ("look what I can do! and this! and this!!" - yeah, calm down, Winterson).

Still, this is a smart, experimental book that dares to go places, written by a highly intelligent author who loves to be bold and play Dr. Frankenstein - and isn't this what we want from a writer?

The literary playfulness of Jeanette Winterson makes Frankissstein well worth the read. This book is poetic, creative, and sure to entice conversation. Winterson plays with ideas of identity and gender through storytelling.

I received an ARC of this book thanks to Net Galley and publisher Grove Press in exchange for an honest review.

Oh boy, where to start with this book. I have labelled it a 'DNF' but I did actually pretty much read all of it, I just wanted to DNF it so many times. I requested this book after reading an excerpt and I'm ashamed to say I wish I hadn't. The unusual writing style caught my eye and I thought the plot had huge potential. This is kind of a futuristic retelling of Frankenstein based around sex bots and AI? Honestly I don't know what was going on with this book. The plot became really hard to follow due to the writing style and there were flashback chapters to Mary Shelley which just made me confused and bored. There is however a much bigger problem with this book.

It's transphobic. Very transphobic.

Initially I was excited to read about a trans doctor as the protagonist. Unfortunately the language surrounding the discussion of this character is rife with unfortunate implications. Ry frequently describes himself as now identifying as a man (Ry is a female-to-male trans character) but then explains that he is a hybrid and still a woman and not a real man and aaaaah. Gender fluid is absolutely a thing and I would happily read about a gender fluid character but this is done all wrong if that's what the author was going for.

This trans character is also specifically fetishised for being a 'hybrid' by their male doctor partner. There is a lot of discussion about genitals etc and this made me extremely uncomfortable to read about. I really think more research should have been done because I found this book incredibly problematic so I can't imagine how it would read to a trans audience.

Terrible transphobia aside, this book is just super dull. I did skimread until the end and at 80% through, nothing had really happened yet? It's such a shame because I could have really gotten into this book but ultimately, it felt like it was trying too hard to be literary.

Overall Rating: 1/5

"How strange is life; this span that is our daily reality, yet daily countermanded by the stories we tell."

This book is pure Winterson, and I'm confident that any fans of her previous books (especially the lesser-known The Powerbook) will enjoy it. But it should also appeal to fans of Mary Shelley, Maggie Nelson's _The Argonauts_, and the movie "Her." In other words, it's expansive enough to offer multiple points of entry. And once you're in, you're really in...or I was, anyway. Hurtling along - among the characters (some real and some imagined, as Winterson clarifies in her author's note) and through time - left my head (brain, body, identity...) spinning at times. As I said: pure Winterson.

For those interested in the true story behind the Shelley bits, I highly recommend Charlotte Gordon's _Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley_.