"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.
"Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue" | |
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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 |
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.
"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]
Anders has described the story's genesis as her own anxieties over the then-pending inauguration of Donald Trump.[5]