Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue

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"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 dateOctober 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.

Contents

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, [1] and was on the Honor List for the James Tiptree Jr. Award. [2] Gardner Dozois compared it to Kafka's The Castle. [3]

Publishers Weekly considered it "astoundingly good". [4]

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 [her] that they had to lie down after reading it." [5]

Origin

Anders has described the story's genesis as her own anxieties over the then-pending inauguration of Donald Trump. [5]

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References

  1. Anders Wins 2018 Sturgeon Award, by Mike Glyer, at File 770 ; published June 23, 2018; retrieved May 1, 2019
  2. 2017 Honor List, at the Tiptree Society; retrieved May 1, 2019
  3. Gardner Dozois Reviews Short Fiction, by Gardner Dozois, in Locus ; published February 12, 2018; retrieved May 1, 2019
  4. Global Dystopias, reviewed at Publishers Weekly ; published December 4, 2017; retrieved May 1, 2019
  5. 1 2 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