Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue

"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 date	October 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.

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]

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. 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

External links

• Text of the story, at Boston Review
• Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database