Detransition, Baby: An Honest Review by a Transsexual Opening Notes

I was introduced to the novel "Detransition, Baby" written by Torrey Peters, by a Twitter follower. This book is garnering critical and popular acclaim as an "Unforgettable portrait of three women". It has been longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, which according to their website. "is an award celebrating and honouring fiction written by women" and "showcase the very best writing by women". The novel is unforgettable, but not in a good way. And I'm sorry, but if this is someone's idea of the "very best" writing done by women in 2020, I despair. This says nothing about whether or not Peters, a transwoman, should be considered for this award. 

To be upfront, I downloaded the eBook version and listened to it as an audiobook. This would not be my preferred way to experience a book, but it was the best way I felt I could get through it. I don't consider the writing to be good. The chapters are overly long. The narrative gets extremely wordy in places. Add to that the visceral reaction of disgust I had to portions of the book, and I would have stopped reading if I was devoting too much energy to it.

This is my second time through this book. I made general comments on Twitter (@Catlady762) after my first reading. So many people are commenting and expressing and interest in this book, that I've decided to do a chapter by chapter analysis. I will listen to each chapter again and then write up my thoughts. I will focus mainly on what I think the book is saying about both transwomen and women through these characters. I will comment on things from my personal view and experiences as a transwoman and my knowledge/experiences within the "trans community".

This book is being praised as a celebration of women, but I'm not sure the women who read this would see it that way. The "trans community" appears to be very supportive of this book, despite the fact that I don't feel the transwomen represented in this book nor the trans community it portrays are done any favors by this representation. I'm not saying that the representation isn't eerily accurate at times, I'm just surprised that the "community" is ok with this representation being out there.

For the uninitiated, "Detransition, Baby" is the story of Reese, Ames/Amy, and Katrina. Reese is a transwoman, Amy's former lover, and she wants to have a baby. Ames is Reese's former lover. He is a detransitioned transwoman (Amy) who detransitioned three years before the beginning of the novel. He is in a sexual relationship with Katrina who is also his boss. Katrina is Ames' lover who discovers that she is pregnant with his baby. Both Ames and Katrina are uncertain about being parents so Ames suggests including Reese as a third parent.

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