Detransition, Baby

Detransition, Baby

Torrey Peters

Enjoyment: 3.75Quality: 4.0Characters: 3.75Plot: 3.5
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A whipsmart debut about three women—transgender and cisgender—whose lives collide after an unexpected pregnancy forces them to confront their deepest desires around gender, motherhood, and sex. Reese almost had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York City, a job she didn't hate. She had scraped together what previous generations of trans women could only dream of: a life of mundane, bourgeois comforts. The only thing missing was a child. But then her girlfriend, Amy, detransitioned and became Ames, and everything fell apart. Now Reese is caught in a self-destructive pattern: avoiding her loneliness by sleeping with married men. Ames isn't happy either. He thought detransitioning to live as a man would make life easier, but that decision cost him his relationship with Reese—and losing her meant losing his only family. Even though their romance is over, he longs to find a way back to her. When Ames's boss and lover, Katrina, reveals that she's pregnant with his baby—and that she's not sure whether she wants to keep it—Ames wonders if this is the chance he's been waiting for. Could the three of them form some kind of unconventional family—and raise the baby together? This provocative debut is about what happens at the emotional, messy, vulnerable corners of womanhood that platitudes and good intentions can't reach. Torrey Peters brilliantly and fearlessly navigates the most dangerous taboos around gender, sex, and relationships, gifting us a thrillingly original, witty, and deeply moving novel.

Publication Year: 2021


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  • Thoughts from 67% (page 223)
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  • Thoughts from 49% (page 165)

    Reese's comparison between trans women and divorced women is so interesting, I've found these passages to be some of the most touching in the book. As a cis woman who has never experienced gender dysphoria, it's hard for me to imagine what dysphoria & transition feel like; through the divorced woman comparison, I can start to grasp a little piece of it: "I mean, they go through everything I go through as a trans woman. Divorce is a transition story...I'm talking about the ones who felt their divorce as a fall, or as a total reframing of their lives. The ones who have seen how the narratives given to them since girlhood have failed them, and who know there is nothing to replace it all. But who still have to move forward without investing in new illusions or turning bitter - all with no plan to guide them"

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