ANNIHILATE THE SISTERHOOD

Lee presents three disturbing stories of violence in the lives of three transgender people in this novel in stories.

The book begins with the story of Josephine Hope, who’s sexually abused by family members as a child. As she grows up, she realizes that she’s transgender, and after her mother agrees to sign off on surgeries to aid her transition as a trans woman, Josephine becomes a successful musician and aspiring actress. However, drugs and unhealthy relationships complicate her life, and she eventually commits a shocking act. The second book centers on Tina, who, after transitioning, encounters her estranged, anti-trans father, Alphonse Jonnsaddi, who later sabotages her car in a bid to murder her and use life insurance proceeds to move back to India. However, Tina discovers the plan in time and avoids the attempt. Jonnsaddi then commits arson and receives an insurance payout of $850,000, but an encounter with a vengeful patron foils his departure. Meanwhile, Tina takes action to expose her father’s misdeeds. A third story follows a rock musician, John Brown, who’s sent to prison for driving while intoxicated and causing a collision in which a pregnant woman dies and a trans woman is paralyzed. While John is incarcerated, his unbalanced father, Owen, has a breakdown and starts committing hate crimes against trans acquaintances. Lee’s stories all go into extremely graphic and disturbing detail in their descriptions of abuse, violence, and sexual acts. All clearly condemn anti-trans brutality and bigotry, but the depictions of these incidents will be very difficult for most readers to get through. Even very rare moments of humor are so graphic as to be off-putting: “Farts that she was trying to silently squeeze out of her butt, hoping the butt cheek squeezing would limit the speed and amount of gas that seeped out of her butt per fart and muffle any embarrassing fart noise.” The book succeeds at creating discomfort. However, it’s very unlikely to appeal to a large audience.

An earnest exploration of violence and bigotry whose extremes will limit its readership.