Detransition, Baby

Locations
Call Number: Adult Book / Fiction / General / Peters, Torrey, Fiction / Peters, Torrey
On Shelf At: Traverwood Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Peters, Torrey	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Peters, Torrey	4-week checkout	Due 05-09-2024
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Peters, Torrey	4-week checkout	Due 05-16-2024
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Peters, Torrey	4-week checkout	Due 03-18-2024
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Peters, Torrey	4-week checkout	Due 05-05-2024
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Peters, Torrey	4-week checkout	Due 04-16-2024

"[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..."-- Publisher's description.
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

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Excellent submitted by judahorli on August 10, 2021, 4:37pm Excellent book, funny, great writing, complex but lovable characters.

Worth a read submitted by redwood on June 13, 2022, 12:37pm It took me forever to get this from the library and it was mostly worth it. Peters's style was fun, the characters complex and interesting. I did wish it was a little longer/more involved--the ending felt a bit abrupt and unearned.

interesting idea and plot but . . . submitted by kath on June 24, 2022, 1:37pm The characters are just mean and hateful to one another. I wanted to like the book and the story but jeez the people were terrible people regardless of gender.

I don’t get the love submitted by courtneyhooper on August 10, 2022, 9:48pm There’s a lot I couldn’t like about this book. The characters were flat and unengaging. The plot was often unintentionally absurd, as when a pregnant woman gets blind drunk at a work function, messes things up for her major account, outs a friend/lover, and faces no professional consequences whatsoever. But the line I couldn’t cross was when a trans character who cannot have children but would like to resentfully says that if cis women don’t want to get pregnant, they should just get hysterectomies, which are easily available. This is not a moment to show how self-involved this character is. This is not meant to defy belief. It’s meant as a reasonable assessment of, I don’t know, I guess how stupid cis women are not to have gotten a major and intrusive abdominal surgery that, by the way, is not offered as an elective procedure and wouldn’t be covered by any insurance. Not to mention that the struggle to determine one’s own bodily autonomy is a paramount value for those who would rather not become pregnant *and* for trans folks. It suggested a level of disdain for cis women that made me deeply resentful and affronted, not least because many trans men become pregnant and face similar challenges. One wonders if the author would fault them too, though her trans woman protagonist is free to keep or modify whatever of her anatomy she chooses, without interrogation or judgment.

Complex characters struggle with complex questions submitted by Susan4Pax -prev. sueij- on June 17, 2023, 12:49pm What a complex set of characters! These are not straightforward people, and it makes for a wonderful book. I would say that this is a 300/400-level class in LGBTQ+ reading, not an introductory course, and it would help if you already are pretty familiar with LGBTQ+ basics. It’s not that Peters doesn’t explain terms and concepts, because she does, but that many of the issues are deeper into the community and deal with the nuances of queer life. IMO, this isn’t where you would want to start. But if you’ve got that background, ooo, what a ride. This is an excellent and well-formed story about three women whose lives intersect over an important question that will change them all. “A story is when something happens, and so something changes.” That couldn’t be more true than in this book.