I read the first chapter of Gretchen's Felker-Martin's book so you don't have to.
- The writing itself? Surprisingly decent. Not the best, but I would put it at "very good fanfiction" level. Like maybe almost at the level of a professionally author who is anonymously writing a bit of fanfiction on the side for fun and because they don't want to bother having to edit. Pleasantly surprised there, to be honest.
- Theme: I can see why Gretchen was able to get a contract for this. The concept of a protagonist who will turn into a monster if they don't continue to suppress their testosterone is an intriguing one, and if done well it could actually work as a wider metaphor about the anxiety of transitioning and medicalization in general.
- It's not done well. The writing itself is decent but the plot/pacing reads like this person has never written a novel before and hasn't had a decent editor. The concept of the testosterone virus is literally introduced as a long paragraph of info-dumping. This makes me wonder how much effort Tor actually put into editing it and whether it was sold as a concept and not a manuscript.
- The concept of the TERFs is so ridiculous for reasons I don't have time to go into right now. It's a shame because I really do think this could have been a good idea if the writer was not in a cult and coombrained.
- The protagonist sees the evil lesbian TERF bad guy and immediately starts fantasizing about having sex with her, and then declares he is going to kill her (the manuscript ends at this point). I am actually in favor of this. Show the world what you are made of, transwomen. Get it all out there in the open.
- The comment section already shows evidence of heavy moderating lmao