Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Transition, Baby: A Novel by Torrey Peters

21 reviews

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This is a hard book to write about but I’ll give it a try…

Reece is a trans woman who dated Amy, another trans woman. Before she was Amy she was James, then detransitioned to Ames. Ames dates his boss Katrina (cis female) and, under the impression that he is sterile from the steroids, unintentionally gets her pregnant. When Katrina tells Ames she’s pregnant, the idea of parenthood/fatherhood is so confusing for him that he responds with shock. Katrina had no idea about his past as a trans woman. His solution to becoming a parent is to reach back out to Reece and ask if she would like to be a mother to he and Katrina’s child. To him, it felt like the missing link to his complex feelings around gender and raising a child, but raises all kinds of issues for the 3 of them as they each process themselves, the others, and society in general.

This book explores trans issues head on- high suicide rates, body dysmorphia, the uphill climb in society in balancing others’ perceptions, domination, psychological gymnastics, perceived attention seeking behavior, income inequality, the inability to conceive a child as the gender one identifies with- all of it was heavy. For me it was educational to be able to jump into the fictional head of someone trying to make sense of themselves and the world.

As a read, it was hard to get into, felt stilted, and ended unfinished. It will help me be more empathetic and understanding, but at times felt like a slog.

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I enjoyed the perspectives of Ames and Reese navigating their trans identities and journeys. This story certainly was not written for me and there was a lot I needed to look up to understand in the beginning. I found Reese’s narrative to be callous/selfish. I almost DNFed this a few times because of her but ultimately I’m glad I finished the story. I found Ames/Amy’s storyline to be heartbreaking. This story does not have a full resolution - or a necessarily happy ending - but if it did, that would make it unrealistic. 

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slow-paced
Loveable characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This had sprinklings of good representation, but for the most part was boring at best and misogynistic at worst. Others have elaborated on this well, so I don't feel I can add much more to the discussion except for my disgust at the DV/validating gender through gender based violence. So much of this was problematic and I wanted to DNF so many times

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dark tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Read For:
✓ Emotional Angst
✓ Domestic Violence 
✓ Toxic Relationships
✓ Hurt/Slight Comfort
✓ LGBTQIA+ Characters

˗ˏˋ ★ REVIEW ★ ˎˊ˗
I really wanted to like this book but unfortunately I just didn’t care for it.  I found the characters kinda unlikable.  The best way to describe it was that it was messy.  You really have to be in the right mindset to read it.  

The writing was nice but there was just too much mysoginistic nonsense and it often came off as overly sexualize in a toxic/violent way.  I just didn’t really care for it.  The mindset of being violated being a right of passage for woman just gave me the ick.

Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Angst Level: 💧💧💧💧
POV: Third Person
Release Date: 12, January 2021

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challenging funny inspiring medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Trans excellence 👏

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Potential parenthood explored from a totally new angle through 3 characters, each flawed in their own special way. I found it really captivating, and had massive amounts of empathy for the characters, but the end felt a little rushed. The nature of the actual ending may really piss some people off too. I really liked that there's no clear "good" character or "bad" one.

One thing I really didn't like about the book is that for a story about trans people, it really trod the line of the gender binary. Ames, the character who detransitioned, at no point explores whether he may actually be non-binary of more gender fluid, despite never having committed to bottom surgery, and clearly having complicated feelings about gender. It also seemed very bizarre to me that at no point did Katrina solidly consider being a single mother, or even moving back in with her own mother or divorced friends and living that way. You were willing to consider sharing your baby with your baby daddy's ex but not raising a kid alone or with other family or friends???

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challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

It's tough being trans. As I was reading Detransition, Baby a 16-year old trans girl was murdered in London, and unable to articulate so much rush of feeling I turned hungrily, savagely back to the pages of the book. It seems to be a place, being trans, of endless longing and therefore endless loss, where we are summoned to question our own pain and circular motions and regret and suffering against any other group who had experienced any of those things. I don't think we're brave. Not really. I think we live in an interrogated space, a grey space, where no future can be known as fact.  Then we have to ask what we want: motherhood? Career? Love? Sex? Most of us would be happy just to have something meaningful to say. Yeah. This is where we live. 

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emotional sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

 I really wanted to like this, but it kind of just feels like watching my least favourite kind of trans people do things that make me sad on loop with no resolution or change. I don't think I liked a single character in it? There were a few moments that made me go Wow! because they hit on something very real and true about being trans, but there were more moments that just equated being trans to being exactly the miserable caricature cis people think of us as? I am sad that I didn't like it.  Also please I beg, enough with the weird "transfems in opposition to transmascs" / "transmascs have it so easy" / "transmascs and transfems arent REALLY friends" narrative? So not realistic and so not helpful.

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dark emotional funny reflective tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book is a wild ride! The author has some kinds of people in certain queer circles down to a T. Other parts of how they go trough (queer and non-queer) life is completely unknown to me, but that's part of where the fun comes in. Exploring the world through the characters lenses is intriguing. For me personally there was a little to much focus on sex and Kinderwunsch, but well, the second one is basically in the title so. I knew what I was getting into. 

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