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Detransition, Baby: A Novel Hardcover – January 12, 2021
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“Reading this novel is like holding a live wire in your hand.”—Vulture
One of the New York Times’s100 Best Books of the 21st Century
Named one of the Best Books of the Year by more than twenty publications, including The New York Times Book Review, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Time, Vogue, Esquire, Vulture, and Autostraddle
PEN/Hemingway Award Winner • Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Gotham Book Prize • Longlisted for The Women’s Prize • Roxane Gay’s Audacious Book Club Pick • New York Times Editors’ Choice
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.
- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherOne World
- Publication dateJanuary 12, 2021
- Dimensions6.44 x 1.15 x 9.56 inches
- ISBN-100593133374
- ISBN-13978-0593133378
"All the Little Raindrops: A Novel" by Mia Sheridan for $10.39
The chilling story of the abduction of two teenagers, their escape, and the dark secrets that, years later, bring them back to the scene of the crime. | Learn more
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Detransition, Baby is so good I want to scream.”—Carmen Maria Machado
“This book is exhilaratingly good.”—Jia Tolentino
“An unforgettable portrait of three women, trans and cis, who wrestle with questions of motherhood and family making . . . Detransition, Baby might destroy your book club, but in a good way.”—Andrea Lawlor, author of Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl
“A tale of love, loss, and self-discovery as singular as it is universal, and all the sweeter for it.”—Entertainment Weekly
“It’s the smartest novel I’ve read in ages. I wish I could figure out how it manages to be utterly savage & lacerating while also conveying endlessly expanding compassion. It’s kind of a miracle.”—Garth Greenwell
“If I had the ability to momentarily wipe my memory, I’d use it to reread Detransition, Baby for the first time.”—Vogue
“Even the most complimentary adjectives feel insufficient to describe Torrey Peters’ first novel.”— Bookpage (starred review)
“This emotionally devastating, culturally specific, endlessly intelligent novel is . . . really, really funny.”—Austostraddle
“A fiercely confident novel.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
“With heart and savvy, [Detransition, Baby upends] our traditional, gendered notions of what parenthood can look like.”—The New York Times Book Review
“[Peters] confronts the unruliness of our desires, and our vitality as we struggle within their limits.”—The New Yorker
“[An] electrifying debut . . . a deeply searching novel that resists easy answers.”—Esquire
“Peters’s soap opera-meets-modern-cultural-analysis is witty, emotional, and eye-opening.”—People
“[Peters gets] to the very heart of what it means to exist as a gendered being in the world.”—them
“Funny and gossipy and insightful and cutting and absolutely delicious, all while tackling issues from a lens that has been missing from the literary world for way too long.”—Refinery29
“‘[Detransition, Baby] is going to play a role in defining the literature of 2021 and beyond.”—The Millions
“Plenty of books are good; this book is alive.”—Jordy Rosenberg, author of Confessions of the Fox
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Katrina sits in the roller chair before Ames’s desk. The moment has an air of uncommon inversion. Because she is his boss, Ames nearly always goes to her office and sits in front of her desk. Her office, corresponding to their relative places in the corporate hierarchy, is double the square footage of his, with two full windows looking out on two neighboring buildings, and between them, a sliver of East River view. By contrast, Ames’s office has one window overlooking a small parking lot. Once, in the twilight, he saw a brown creature trotting spritely across the pavement—and has since maintained that it was an urban coyote. One takes one’s excitements where one may.
Katrina rifles through a briefcase, pulls out a manila folder, and plops it on his desk. Her coming to his office makes him tense, like a teenager whose parents have entered his room.
“Well,” she says. “It’s real. This is happening.” He reaches for the folder. He has good posture, and gives her an easy smile. The folder opens to reveal printouts from an online patient portal.
“My gyno,” Katrina says, watching him closely. “She followed up with a blood test and a pelvic exam. She confirmed the home test results. Without an ultrasound, she can’t say how far I am, so I had one scheduled for the Thursday after next. I mean, I know you maybe aren’t sure yet how you feel about it, but maybe if you come, that’ll help? If I’m more than four weeks into it, we’ll be able to see the baby—or I guess, embryo?”
He is aware that she is scrutinizing him for a reaction. He had been unable to give one after the pregnancy test came back positive. He feels the same numbness that he felt then, only now, he can no longer delay by telling her that he wants to wait for official confirmation to get his emotions involved. “Amazing,” he says, and tries out a smile that he fears might be coming off as a grimace. “I guess it’s real! Especially since we have”—he searches briefly for a phrase, and then comes up with one—“an entire dossier of evidence.”
Katrina shifts to cross her legs. She’s wearing casual wedge heels. He always notices her clothing, half out of admiration, and half out of the habit of noting what’s going on in the field of women’s fashion. “Your reaction has been hard to read,” she says carefully. “I don’t know, I thought maybe if you saw it in black and white, I’d be able to gauge how you were actually feeling.” She pauses and swallows. “But I still can’t.” He sees the effort it costs her to muster this level of assertion.
He stands up, walks around the desk, and half sits against it, just in front of her, so his leg is touching hers.
He rotates the printouts, there’s a list of test results, but he can’t make sense of them. His brain shorts out when he cross-references the data that they clearly show—he is a father-to-be—with the data he stores in his heart: He should not be a father.
Three years have passed since Ames stopped taking estrogen. He injected his last dose on Reese’s thirty-second birthday. Reese, his ex, still lives in New York. They haven’t spoken in two years, although he sent her a birthday card last year. He received no response. Throughout their relationship, she had always talked assuredly about how she’d have a kid by age thirty-five. As far as he knows, that hasn’t happened.
It is only now, three years after their breakup, that Ames is able to talk about Reese casually, calling her “my ex” and moving the conversation along without dwelling. Because in truth, he still misses her in a way that talking about her, thinking about her, remains dangerous to indulge in—as an alcoholic can’t think too much about how much she’d really like just one drink. When Ames thinks hard about Reese, he feels abandoned and grows angry, morose, and worst of all, ashamed. Because he has trouble explaining exactly what he still wants from her. For a while he thought it was romance, but his desire has lost any kind of sexual edge. Instead, he misses her in a familial way, in the way he missed and felt betrayed by his birth family when they cut off contact in the early years of his transition. His sense of abandonment plucked at a nerve deeper, more adolescent than that of jilted adult romantic love. Reese hadn’t just been his lover, she’d been something like his mother. She had taught him to be a woman . . . or he’d learned to be a woman with her. She had found him in a plastic state of early development, a second puberty, and she’d molded him to her tastes. And now she was gone, but the imprint of her hands remained, so that he could never forget her.
He hadn’t understood how little sense he made as a person without Reese until after she began to detach from him, until the lack of her became so painful that he started to once again want the armor of masculinity and, somewhat haphazardly, detransitioned to fully suit up in it.
So now, three years have passed living once again in a testosterone-dependent body. Yet even without the shots or pills, Ames had believed that he’d been on androgen-blockers long enough to have atrophied his testicles into permanent sterility. That’s what he told Katrina when they hooked up the first time, the night of the agency’s annual Easter Keg Hunt. He told her that he was sterile—not that he’d been a transsexual woman with atrophied balls.
Product details
- Publisher : One World (January 12, 2021)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0593133374
- ISBN-13 : 978-0593133378
- Item Weight : 1.3 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.44 x 1.15 x 9.56 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #80,982 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,902 in Women's Friendship Fiction
- #3,082 in Women's Domestic Life Fiction
- #6,867 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
![Torrey Peters](https://cdn.statically.io/img/m.media-amazon.com/images/I/01Kv-W2ysOL._SY600_.png)
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the story amazing, intriguing, and joyful. They also describe the writing style as witty, informative, thrilling, relatable, and excellent. However, some find the content boring and misogynistic. Opinions are mixed on the characters, with some finding them complex and real, while others find them unlikeable. Readers also disagree on the narrative style, with others finding it an edification, while still others say the ending is a total cop-out.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the writing excellent, thoughtful, relatable, and honest. They also say the book has an authentic feel and unique perspectives.
"...They were flawed, and sincere, and above all, believable...." Read more
"Detransition, Baby is one of the most thought-provoking books I've ever read...." Read more
"...The subject matter is culturally relevant, and anyone who doesn't have firsthand knowledge about being trans will undoubtedly learn a thing or two..." Read more
"...First, it was the first well-written fiction book I have read in a few months...." Read more
Readers find the story wonderful, engaging, and groundbreaking. They also describe the book as fabulous, surprising, provocative, and worth it.
"...The characters are complex and real. The book is a provocative novel that has become one of my favorite reads of the year." Read more
"...The uncomfortable ride is what makes this book so brilliant and worth it.TW: There are A LOT in this book...." Read more
"...I will say that it is very good from an educational standpoint...." Read more
"...For this cis, hetero woman at least, an entertaining insightful accessible glimpse into trans relationships and identities, still totally within the..." Read more
Customers find the writing style witty, honest, informative, thrilling, relatable, and poetic. They also mention that the book has quotable moments and is seamlessly composed.
"...a sudden force, a description would swerve to some place so aching, poetic, and universal it took my breath away...." Read more
"...Sounds complex, but the stories and anecdotes were told with such a sardonic wit that I really enjoyed the comical elements of the narrative...." Read more
"Totally engaging, seamlessly composed romantic novel just a step beyond the conventional hetero fold...." Read more
"...There is a lot of vivid, eloquent imagery. But it can get wordy at times. And I found the frequent time shifts to be distracting...." Read more
Customers find the book relatable, honest, and informative. They also say it's broad relatable and engaging.
"...I am a lesbian, but I am also a cis-white woman. This book delivered A LOT of information, much of which I did not have a full grasp on before..." Read more
"...this book is probably groundbreaking, it really does a great job of describing a time, place, and history that is actually just the everyday lives..." Read more
"...It’s witty, honest, informative, thrilling, relatable, and has super sex appeal. Torrey Peters really killed it!" Read more
"...to focus on hyper-specific trans experiences while remaining broadly relatable and engaging...." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the characters in the book. Some find them complex and real, while others say they're unlikeable.
"...The characters are complex and real. The book is a provocative novel that has become one of my favorite reads of the year." Read more
"...It's a character driven novel. The characters are fully defined and have an authentic(ish) feel...." Read more
"...The characters are also deeply unlikeable...." Read more
"...None of that happens here. The characters are vibrant, unpredictable, and deeply human...." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the narrative style of the book. Some find the narrative an edification, while others say the ending is a total cop-out.
"...The core story is interesting. Ames is a man who transitioned to being a woman and then detransitioned back to living as a man...." Read more
"I bought this as it's similar to a book I'm reading. I liked the storyline and the writing is great. The ending left me a little disappointed." Read more
"...In the end, all I was left with was an ambiguous ending and a strong desire to distance myself from the clinging despair that the book left me..." Read more
"...Literary in style but with a forward driving plot that makes you want to know what's going to happen. Sexually explicit...." Read more
Customers find the content boring, ridiculous, and unredeemable. They also say the premise is outdated and misogynistic.
"...Gag. That is so outdated and misogynistic. It really has no place in a modern novel about sexuality and gender...." Read more
"...Thoughts, feelings, yada, yada, yada. I found it boring...." Read more
"A good exploration of transgender issues in the story of the main characters. Kind of a neat unexpected ‘ending’ but definitely a cliff hanger...." Read more
"...whole read because other than being stupidly sexist, it is an extremely boring story.I really wish I could have given zero stars...." Read more
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Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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I feel as if I’ve journeyed to someplace at once alien and familiar. The descriptions of gender politics careened unsparingly across the map of human emotion.
In so many ways, this book maintained that arch, unsentimental impatience I associate with queer life of a certain vintage. Call it Oberlin College, c. 1990s. Now as then, I often felt completely out of my depth. At certain withering take-downs of women, men, or relationships, I’d swear I actually blushed to have been seen so truly. In those moments, I was grateful to be reading it alone; at least there was no witness to my humiliation.
Then with a sudden force, a description would swerve to some place so aching, poetic, and universal it took my breath away.
There was a poetry to the way the author insisted I respect our differences, while demanding I admit our sameness. I found it intoxicating.
I was grateful to get such an intimate window into the minds of these two trans women - and the woman trying so hard to love them. They were flawed, and sincere, and above all, believable. By the end, I realized the book had made them so real that my initial curiosity had become, instead, genuine affection for each of these characters. I will genuinely miss them. Like all of the best books, I know I will turn this story over in my mind, over and over again.
You should read this book. And if you come to a moment - as I did so often at first - where you believe you can’t possibly relate, do yourself a favor. Keep going. I promise, you’ll be so very glad you did.
Katrina does not want to be a single mother, Ames wants to be a parent but can’t commit to be a father because he does not know whether he is going to transition one more time or not. So Ames has a brilliant idea to invite Reese, who desperately wants to be a mother, to their complicated lives, to be a second mother to their child in this queer family arrangement.
Their lives becomes intertwined and the pregnancy brings out suppressed feelings and fears. With this dynamics the author discusses gender, sexuality, parenthood, and social roles. The characters are complex and real. The book is a provocative novel that has become one of my favorite reads of the year.
𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬:
Reese is a transsexual woman who thought she was close to having it all; all except a baby. But then her girlfriend Amy, destransitioned to Ames, and their world together came crashing down. Ames enters a relationship with his boss, and when they find out she is pregnant, Ames longs to include Reese in this journey to perhaps create an "unconventional family."
Thoughts:
✨ At first, I was uncomfortable with the word transsexual instead of transgender in this book. I think I've been conditioned that this is not the appropriate terminology and that it is offensive.
Regarding the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the CDC needed an "umbrella" term for "trans" individuals seeking treatment.
"So they assigned a name to this population: the umbrella term "transgender" - and since transgender woman wanted access to recourses, that's what we ended up calling ourselves. But make no mistake, HIV and the invention of transgender women are inextricable. Transgender is the name selected to recognize a vector of disease."
This blew my mind; I had no idea. According to GLAAD, transsexual is NOT an umbrella term but rather a term "preferred by some people who have permanently changed - or seek to change - their bodies through medical interventions, including but not limited to hormones and/or surgeries."
I am so grateful for this knowledge, as it is a reminder that it is ALWAYS important to clarify what term trans individuals identify with.
✨ Detransition, Baby is not a plot-based book. While you are itching to find out what happens with the unborn baby and how the family structure may look, you spend a lot more time learning about Reese and Ames (Amy's) transitions/detransition, their intimate relationship with others, with each other, and most importantly with themselves.
✨ You learn about the WHITE trans community. I really appreciated that Torrey Peters really made it clear throughout the book that the characters were talking about a WHITE trans experience, as trans people of color often have a much different story.
✨What was really special about this book is the exploration of the "detransitioning" invididual. Personally, I do not hear many stories on this topic. As this book illustrates, trans people generally don't support the detransitioning process of one of their peers, as it may confirm to cis-gendered people that they were never trans at all, buffering their "agenda."
I think the following quote explains the experience best:
"I got sick of living as trans. I got to a point where I thought I didn't need to put up with the bullshit of gender in order to satisfy my sense of self. I am trans, but I don't need to do trans."
✨Not only does Peters exploring trans experiences, but also the experience of motherhood, and the rendering around it.
"Motherhood is just some vague test designed to ensure that everyone feels inadequate.”
𝐁𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐦 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞: Torrey Peters lays it all out there. This book will likely make you uncomfortable, make you question your own stereotyping and heteronormative behaviors, your views on gender, sex, and trans individuals. The uncomfortable ride is what makes this book so brilliant and worth it.
TW: There are A LOT in this book.
Top reviews from other countries
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Torrey has admitted that the majority of the situations and scenarios in the novel have evolved from her own experiences with her girlfriends, or friends of friends, and you can see that nuance shine through.
some scenes made me laugh out loud, especially the confusion over Ames' "transition" in the workplace, a wonderful example of oversteer by HR depts nationwide, trying to figure out how best to accomodate (i.e. not get sued) their transgender employees and failing miserably.
terms like 'cis' are used, as well as reference to PrEP, but it never feels like the reader, or one of the characters are preaching or being preached at for not knowning the terminology, and the idea of a collective approach to raising a child is one i'm seeing more and more in cities such as NYC, which seem to be abandoning conservative ideals of motherhood, childcare and identity.
i also liked how the title can be interpreted on multiple levels.
the split narrative structure works, kinda. i feel like it ran out of steam a little on the last 3rd of the story.
on the flipside; i didn't like the ending. it felt apparent that Torrey might not've figured out a satisfactory ending, so we ended up with the ending we got.
the last cutaway to Reece's decision on the boardwalk makes zero sense.
some of Ames' motivations weren't clear. i felt like there's half a chapter missing somewhere.
the "violence against women" slogan being screeched, both here and on other platforms, is present, for about half a chapter, but is being weaponised as a stick to beat Torrey and other transwomen with, courtesy of the TERF brigade, and the other radicals feminazis.
and i find it difficult to equate it to any semblence of reality, when novels like 'Fifty Shades of Grey' are nothing but wall-to-wall violence with similar men, only for these same SWERF & TERF commentators to then fall silent on the subject. so perplexing indeed...
so, final score. 8.5 outta 10.
good description, and a fantastic premise that gets very little love and tons of hate, here in 2021, but falls at the final hurdle. can't wait to read what Torrey writes next!!!
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