| "Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by Charlie Jane Anders | |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction short story |
| Publication | |
| Published in | Boston Review |
| Publication date | October 30, 2017 |
"Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue" is a science fiction story by Charlie Jane Anders. It was first published in Boston Review, in their 2017 Global Dystopias anthology.
Synopsis
Rachel is a trans woman who is captured by an agency that forces detransition by means of brain transplants — where she discovers that the person supervising her torture is her childhood friend Jeffrey.
Reception
"Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue" won the 2018 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and was on the Honor List for the James Tiptree Jr. Award. Gardner Dozois compared it to Kafka's The Castle.
Publishers Weekly considered it "astoundingly good".
In 2020, Anders stated that she has only read the story aloud once, as she finds it too traumatizing; as well, she reported that "other trans people have told that they had to lie down after reading it."
Origin
Anders has described the story's genesis as her own anxieties over the then-pending inauguration of Donald Trump.
References
- Anders Wins 2018 Sturgeon Award, by Mike Glyer, at File 770; published June 23, 2018; retrieved May 1, 2019
- 2017 Honor List, at the Tiptree Society; retrieved May 1, 2019
- Gardner Dozois Reviews Short Fiction, by Gardner Dozois, in Locus; published February 12, 2018; retrieved May 1, 2019
- Global Dystopias, reviewed at Publishers Weekly; published December 4, 2017; retrieved May 1, 2019
- ^ Never Say You Can’t Survive: How To Get Through Hard Times By Making Up Stories, by Charlie Jane Anders, at Tor.com; published May 12, 2020; retrieved December 14, 2021
External links
- Text of the story, at Boston Review
- Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
| Works by Charlie Jane Anders | |
|---|---|
| Novels |
|
| Short stories |
|
 | This article about a science fiction short story (or stories) published in the 2010s is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it. |
 | This article about LGBTQ fiction is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it. |
- Short stories by Charlie Jane Anders
- 2017 short stories
- Theodore Sturgeon Award–winning works
- Transgender literature
- 2010s LGBTQ literature
- LGBTQ-related horror literature
- LGBTQ literature in the United States
- LGBTQ speculative fiction
- LGBTQ short stories
- 2017 LGBTQ-related literary works
- Science fiction short story stubs
- 2010s short story stubs
- LGBTQ fiction stubs