Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Transition, Baby: A Novel by Torrey Peters

20 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.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
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

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

This book offers a great perspective into life as a (white) trans woman and the exploration of gender, but feels callously dismissive of the plight of people of color, cis and non-binary. I wouldn’t expect as deep of an expose on their lives (as I’m sure the author doesn’t have the experience), but making any mention of them the butt of a comparison feels… wrong. 

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

There doesn’t seem to be so much as a plot as an overall vibe. The characters grapple with sexuality and what it means to be a woman/man. I hated Reese though. She knew she was toxic but didn’t seem to care that she was, which made her lash out and hurt those around her for no other reason that it soothed her. She brings up a lot of valid points in how trans women are treated and how she deserves to be a mother but her treatment of both Ames and Katrina was just horrific. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional reflective 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional funny reflective sad 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging emotional reflective 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
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. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging emotional reflective medium-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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings