May 28

May 28 Detransition, Baby

Author: Torrey Peters
Publisher: One World
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

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.

TL;DR Review

Detransition, Baby is a real standout of a novel, smart and emotional and fresh, and its authenticity shines. I really, really liked it.

For you if: You seek out literary fiction with queer representation and storylines.

Full Review

“We are much stronger and more powerful than we understand. We are fifteen thousand pounds of muscle and bone forged from rage and trauma.”

I’d had my eye on Detransition, Baby anyway, but when it became the first novel by a trans woman to be longlisted for the Women’s Prize, I knew I had to buy a copy and read it. I also ended up choosing it for my office book club. And yes, as expected, we all loved it.

Detransition, Baby is about three characters: a trans woman named Reese, who is a glorious mess; her ex-spouse, Ames, who recently detransitioned out of living as a trans woman; and Katrina, Ames’s Korean-American girlfriend, who is also his boss … and pregnant. Struggling with the idea of “father” as an identity, but unwilling to lose Katrina, Ames approaches Reese and asks her if she will form a queer family with them. The book switches back and forth between the past, when Ames lived as Amy, and the present, as the three of them figure out whether their futures can fit together.

Torrey Peters has talked a lot about writing this book for trans women, in the same way Toni Morrison wrote novels for Black people, and you can feel it from the very first page. Peters managed to truly resist any pressure to cater to the cishet gaze, and that really makes this book stand out. It’s just different, in a very good way. The characters are incredible and frustrating and you find yourself rooting for and cursing all of them equally.

This novel is also incredibly smart and well written. There are a lot of passages featuring internal monologues in which our characters work through aspects of their identity or goals, which can be hard to write in a way that doesn’t feel circular or meandering. There are also several debates between characters that are incredibly paced and plotted. Peters manages to bring her audience along, even with all the nuances and perspectives, in a way the feels organic and authentic, but also clear and compelling. It was all just so smart.

I can’t wait to read whatever Torrey Peters writes next. Truly.