Detransition, baby : a novel

by Torrey Peters

Paper Book, 2021

Status

Available

Call number

PS3616.E84257 D48 2021

Genres

Collections

Little Blue House, Women-Loving-Women, Transgender, Queer

Publication

New York : One World, [2021]

Description

"[A novel] 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 had what previous generations of trans women could only dream of; the only thing missing was a child. Then her girlfriend, Amy, detransitioned and became Ames, and everything fell apart. Ames 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. Then Ames's boss and lover, Katrina, reveals that she is pregnant with his baby-- and is not sure whether she wants to keep it. Ames wonders: Could the three of them form some kind of unconventional family, and raise the baby together? -- adapted from jacket… (more)

Media reviews

Publisher's Weekly

"Peters conceives of a world so lovable and complex, it’s hard to let go."

User reviews

LibraryThing member japaul22

[Detransition, Baby] is, I believe, the first novel written by a transgender woman to be published by one of the top publishers. It also made the award list for the Women's Prize for Fiction.

This novel is important as it begins a conversation about what it's like to experience life as someone who

is transgender. The plot in this novel revolves around a trio of women who contemplate raising a child together. Reese is a transgender woman (though the author uses the term transsexual a lot, which I thought was "out"), Ames/Amy is a man who spent several years as a woman and had a relationship with Reese during that time, and Katrina is a cis woman who had a relationship with Ames as a man that results in a pregnancy. It's all complicated, obviously, and very dramatic. Also, there is so much focus on what it means to "be a woman" and also about dynamics of sexual relationships.

This leads me to one of my observations about trying to understand transgender issues. I feel like there is a large non-binary movement right now that downplays gender and gender roles. But this book was all about gender roles and proving your womanhood or manhood, making gender even more important than I think it is in most heterosexual relationships that I know. That's tough for me. I prefer the thought of lessening the reliance on strong gender behavior expectations that goes along with the nonbinary movement. With a sense of humor, I will also admit that I had a hard time not getting caught up in the mechanics of sex and who had what parts. :-)

While I think it's awesome to have more voices out there and to have mainstream publishing diversifying what is published as normal, this book was not a wow for me in terms of the actual writing. The way it flips back and forth in time was annoying and inconsistent and some of the characters seemed more there to serve the author's desire to explain trans lifestyle and issues than to serve the plot of the novel. Maybe that's to be expected in a break-through novel like this.

I have no idea what a transgender person would think of this novel. It seemed very opinionated to me and I don't know if all of the opinions are currently accepted as the desired message. But overall, I think this is a book lots of people should read. It did open up a new way of thinking about what life is like for people who don't fit in the most typical lifestyles we recognize. And any book that does that is valuable to me.

Original publication date: 2021
Author’s nationality: American
Original language: English
Length: 327 pages
Rating: 3 stars
Format/where I acquired the book: kindle library
Why I read this: buzz

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LibraryThing member Citizenjoyce

This book does offer interesting information and perspective, but I can't say I liked it. Then again, I'm sure I'm not the intended audience. I don't know if human brains are capable of sorting through so many choices every day: Do I want to be male or female? Do I want monogamy or polyamory? Do I

want to be a slut or a nice girl? Do I want to be humiliated or respected by my partner? Do I want to reproduce or not? Do I want to have a baby or not? Do I still want to think of AIDS as a terrible disease to be avoided at all costs or is it just an inconvenience? There are way too many options presented, I think people need a little more grounding to make it through life in a healthy way. Probably my biggest objection to the book is the sexist idea the M to F characters have about women, that they are delicate and need to be protected or subjugated. It seems to be very superficial, but then, they're NYC people who are different from the rest of us.

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LibraryThing member janismack

I could not finish this book. I could not relate at all. I feel bad for transgender people, they are not accepted and go through so much emotional torment.

LibraryThing member Dianekeenoy

I don't feel comfortable doing a review or assigning stars to this book. While parts of it were compelling, I had to do a bit of skimming which isn't fair to the author. I'm sure this is an important book which is why I wanted to read it, but it just wasn't working all the time for me. Perhaps, I

will come back to reread.

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LibraryThing member AKBouterse

This was such an interesting read. This is a five star read where I wasn't necessarily enjoying myself but it gave me so much to think about it and when I finished I just emotionally felt like I had to give it five stars.

As I've been reading more literary fiction one thing I really appreciate

about it as a genre is that it gives me a glimpse into a fictional persons messy life. This book really pulls that off well. These characters but especially Reese were so fully realized and interesting and messy and that's what really pulled me into this story. I think this is the only book I've read that had the experience of being transgender as its center unfortunately but I really liked getting into the headspace of people trying to understand what their gender means to them.

The writing of this book creates a bit of a chaotic tone. There are a lot of asides and flashbacks to the point that it almost feels like stream of consciousness writing at times. I liked this because I think it connected really well to the lives and emotions of the characters but it did take me a good amount of the book to get used to how the writing was making me feel and how it read. So if you're going to pick up this book, I would recommend giving yourself some time to get used to the writing.

The relationships between the characters is really what drove this book forward but it was really the individual characterization and each characters thought process that is what I really enjoyed. If you're looking for answers about why characters make certain choices, you might not always be satisfied with the answer but that was done in a way that seems very realistic. Going in, I wasn't sure if I would like this at all because the summary said this was about pregnancy and motherhood and I am so adverse to pregnancy that sometimes I have trouble reading about it but the commentary on those topics was so interesting that I didn't mind reading about pregnancy. In concert with how it related to being trans it made for a very interesting topic to read about.

This is definitely a recommendation from me. Probably one of the most compelling and fascinating books I've read this year and I hope many more people will read and enjoy this as much as I did.

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LibraryThing member RidgewayGirl

This is a messy soap opera of a novel. It's wild and full of drama, with conflicts aplenty. Reese is a kind-hearted, funny trans woman who is more than a little self-destructive. One day, her ex gets in touch with an outrageous proposition. He wants her to be a co-parent with his girlfriend who,

having discovered that she's pregnant, demands that Ames either step up and be an equal parent or she will end the pregnancy and also the relationship. This is Ames's solid attempt to meet Katrina's need for a full partner even when he doesn't think he can do it. It's a messy, complicated solution, but Ames, for all his reticence, has some complications of his own. He was, after all, until a handful of years ago, not Ames but Amy and only detransitioned after becoming weary of the energy it took to deal with the hostility of every day life as a trans woman. And then there's Katrina, who reacts badly to learning about Ames's past, but finds herself wondering if it might not just work.

There is a lot going on in this novel and Peters never allows her characters to become noble representatives of trans women everywhere. They are simply themselves, and they are a mess. Reese is a fantastic character to read about, always entertaining or doing something to blow up her own life. I was worried that this would be an issue-of-the-moment book, but Peters is having too much fun throwing her characters into uncomfortable situations and celebrating their complexity for that to happen. This also didn't feel like a novel that was designed to educate and make the reader comfortable.

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LibraryThing member SamMusher

A little "I did an MFA" for me (no idea if Peters actually did) -- this reads like adult literary fiction, not YA. It is an important perspective I hadn't experienced before, though; I love what Peters is thinking about.

LibraryThing member BookSnug

This is one of those books that leaves me feeling a bit mixed. As a trans reader I’m delighted to see more stories that show the layers to our existence, there certain isn’t a universal experience but it’s rarely a cake walk for even the most supported and loved individual.
However the main

characters were so thoroughly unlikeable that I was tempted not to finish… I read to the end simply to see if either of them learned anything from their behaviors - a bit disappointed but the supporting characters were likeable. And the world is full of self absorbed @**holes no matter how they identify so that is certainly realistic too.
Not a bad read overall and still a welcome addition.

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LibraryThing member kayanelson

This book was eye opening to me as a cis gender heterosexual female. I learned a lot about transgender from this book and all that information was buried in a unique and interesting plot. I don’t necessarily understand everything I read. I liked the structure of the book as it went back and forth

between the past and the current time. But sometimes the book did get bogged down in thoughts and this slowed me down a bit. The ending leaves one with uncertainty but how perfect is that. Life is full of uncertainties.

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LibraryThing member RTFlynn

Peters's work made me think through questions about gender and sexuality that I didn't even know I had. She writes gorgeously and empathetically. The story was made a bit more complicated than necessary by its nonchronological presentation. But, that is a small criticism for a book that made me

laugh, cringe, and wonder. I highly recommend it.

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LibraryThing member Hccpsk

Detransition, Baby follows three characters and their intertwined relationships back and forth over the course of the past eight years: Reese, a trans woman, Ames/Amy her ex who chose to detransition after they broke up, and Katrina, Ames’ current girlfriend. At times author Torrey Peters’

debut really sparkles with humor, emotion, and excellent commentary on life’s complications. But at times it devolves into a little too much indulgent discourse that causes the book to drag a bit. All in all, though, Detransition, Baby is a solid and interesting novel about what makes a woman, a family, and relationships that could be a real window into non-binaryness for some readers.

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LibraryThing member Narshkite

I need more time to think. Incredibly well written, these characters are so well drawn, so real. The book is frank, engrossing, funny, heartbreaking. On the other hand, I am vastly uncomfortable with the drumbeat of "this is what women do." There is no all-purpose way to be a woman, no right way to

be a mother, and there is a lot of contrary messaging in this book. There are wrong ways to be a mother though, and Reese is a woman who should never raise a child. She makes endless terrible decisions and has no respect for people she does not know. She is not a bad person, nor a particularly good one, but she is an interesting one. Alas she is an interesting person who makes consistently unsafe and unethical choices. All of her relationships are based on her feeling loved and needed. She is a narcissist on a nearly Trumpian scale. That is not who should be building a human. She will make a great aunt perhaps? Given everything the ending makes sense even if its not soul satisfying.

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LibraryThing member thewestwing

Picked this up to read because I saw it being featured in the media so much. Not my usual read but I enjoyed it. The writing is very good. The plot has many layers and at times there was a lot going on. I think it’s a book that I’ll ponder about in the weeks to come.

LibraryThing member ccayne

I chose this book for a library book discussion I lead and after reading it, I was nervous. I chose it because although it may be an uncomfortable read (it was for me), it increased understanding of a culture I am unlikely to be exposed to. Comments from transgender people said her descriptions of

the culture were spot on. I an interview, Peters said that she didn't want this to be transgender 101. Instead, she said it was about secrets in relationships. For me it was both.

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LibraryThing member purplepaste

In order to enjoy this book, I think you need to first accept that it isn’t fiction and that the characters don’t matter. Rather, it is a position argument in which the author assumes you have nothing of value to offer to the discussion and that they already understand everything you would say.

It’s a math problem that asks readers to carefully tally for pages before ending by multiplying by zero.

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LibraryThing member caedocyon

A Feelings book, about divorce and people being bad at relationships, that made me laugh and made me like it. So many highlights. I appreciate that it's not nihilistic about the characters' self-delusions: they fuck up but they try and are sometimes generous to each other and they get to change and

grow. Will be buying a copy, because I need to reread and underline and comment.

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LibraryThing member rosienotrose

My heart is split in two with this novel. It is amazingly well written, portrays harsh and important realities about what it is to be a woman, what it is to be a mother and gender and gender roles within the straight, queer, cis and trans communities - One quote that stood out for me came from Ames

who transitioned to female and then transitioned back. “He’d lived as a trans woman for seven years. But it was too hard. Too hard. He didn’t pass. He wanted to die. He was still a trans woman.” It was a heart-breaking insight into someone who feels they no longer belong to any community - but at the same time I can’t help wonder what was story the novel was trying to get across?

Torrey pulls no punches with her writing. She speaks openly and bluntly on aspects of trans and queer life that are often left unspoken. From Reese’s darkly funny portrayal of her life (and life expectancy) as a trans woman, Ames’ difficulty at figuring out his role post detransition, and Katrina’s shocked response to Ames’ history when she becomes pregnant by him and her blundering attempts to negotiate into the queer world.

The characters here are real and flawed. They do not know the answers and often portray attitudes and opinions that are misogynistic, transphobic, and racist. For me these came across as both a weariness to what they had been subjected to and an attempt to armour themselves against these attitudes in the future.

I felt the story lost its way halfway through, and also seemed to loose the character of Ames for a while as we ping ponged between Reese and Katerina attempting to navigate a new type of shared motherhood. I persevered to an end that offered no real answers or resolutions for the characters, or the questions raised. Perhaps in a world where these characters are constantly side-lined and oppressed there could be no answer, but we are left with the feeling that through the hardships they have encountered a fellowship has been forged with these three and we can only hope that carries them into a better future.

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