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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
The comparisons are like Bridget Jones or a Sally Rooney novel, but trans, and I think that’s sort of fair? It lives in that genre of dissecting women's relationships, it is equally funny and poignant. But I would add that this book is more than that because it so deeply lives in the complicated world of being trans in ways that doesn’t patronise the reader with “intro to queerdom” bits of exposition, or stereotypes that dilute experiences to make them palatable. It’s not Bridget jones but make it queer, it’s queer, but make it Bridget jones.
I really enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. Within the first 15 mins of the book they unpacked so much and I had to pause for a sec to say “wtf did I just read?” I had so many jaw dropping moments as I read this. The situations and characters are so layered and complex but it helps us really understand who the characters are. I wanted to punch all of main characters in the face and hug them at the same time.