unwieldy creatures
Green and blue figure within a green figure. The inner figure has images and text, both English and Chinese, inked onto their arms and legs. The title, Unwieldy Creatures, is in script in white below the figure, as well as By Addie Tsai in yellow. Cover designer: Isip Xin.
A tale of doom and ambition, loss and revenge, love and murder.
Unwieldy Creatures, a biracial queer, non-binary retelling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, follows the story of three beings who all navigate life from the margins: Plum, a queer biracial Chinese intern at one of the world’s top embryology labs, who runs away from home to openly be with her girlfriend only to be left on her own; Dr. Frank, a queer biracial Indonesian scientist who compromises everything she claims to love in the name of science and ambition when she sets out to procreate without sperm or egg; and Dr. Frank’s nonbinary creation, painstakingly brought into the world due to complications at birth that result from a cruel twist of revenge, only to be abandoned. Plum struggles to determine the limits of her own ambition when Dr. Frank offers her a chance to assist with her next project. How far will Plum go in the name of scientific advancement and what is she willing to risk?
UNWIELDY CREATURES is nominated for Best Novel for the Shirley Jackson Awards 2022!
What others are saying about UNWIELDY CREATURES:
“A true original and a perfect example of a flip from a historical classic to a contemporary one.” —Buzzfeed News
“If you know the literary me, you know my mad love for Mary Shelley and Frankenstein. And after my own heart, Addie Tsai has gifted us this breathtaking retelling full of queer, biracial, gender-swapping goodness.”
—Ms. Magazine
“When I learned that it’s a queer, biracial retelling of Frankenstein…I couldn’t hit that preorder button fast enough. Two queer scientists and the nonbinary creation one of them makes? Sign me up.” —BookRiot
“Unwieldy Creatures, unrelenting in its inventiveness and its ambition, is easily the most innovative book I’ve read in years. Addie Tsai manages to hold on to the useful parts of tradition while creating a wholly original revision of Frankenstein. I’m hooked.” —Kiese Laymon, MacArthur Fellow
“小 籠 包/xiǎolóngbāo/soup dumplings, congee/粥/zhōu, guàbāo/割包/pork belly bun, please, readers, pay close attention to food in Addie Tsai’s Unwieldy Creatures, and how it exists simultaneously in Mandarin and English, which makes food not only sustenance, but a communicative doorway between worlds and people. Even the protagonist, Plum, who wonders if ‘communication with another is the only thing we have to keep us from the darker depths’ serves as a communicative doorway—Unwieldy Creatures, as a whole, keeps us from darker depths.” —Steven Dunn, author of Potted Meat
“I feel like I could talk about this novel for a long, long time . . . There is much that makes UNWIELDY CREATURES distinct and unique from its inspiration. Addie Tsai is in many ways faithful to Mary Shelley's masterpiece, while still inventing something of her own, which is the key test because ultimately what is the point of a retelling? Isn't that just a very elaborate cheat? UNWIELDY CREATURES says no. It says I honor and pay tribute to Mary Shelley. It says I love Frankenstein. It says I want it be more inclusively representational. I want its themes to reflect the concerns of a group of people that Shelley, early in the 19th century, could not have spoken to directly, even if she would have wished it. The most significant departure from Shelley's masterpiece is in the conclusion of UNWIELDY CREATURES. UNWIELDY CREATURES says I want the Frankenstein story to be redemptive. And it is.” —Michael Jarmer, author of Monster Talk
*
IT’S ALIVE! You can order it here, here, and here!
Rainbow Crate Book Box did an incredible edition, which you can still purchase a copy of here!
Check out my review with Monica Macansantos about the novel over at Electric Lit here!
See the cover reveal and an excerpt from Lambda Literary here!
Check UNWIELDY CREATURES on this list, and this one!
Here’s an interview with Hypertext Magazine!
A review by Alex Carrigan!
If you are interested in offering a review or would like an exam copy, please reach out to addie.tsai@gmail.com.
I’ve also started a new newsletter on “unwieldy creatures,” which will feature a little bit about UNWIELDY CREATURES, Frankenstein, and highlighting other “unwieldy creatures” in the wild! Please sign up here!