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schopenhauers_poodle's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
"Detransition" has great pacing and an interesting premise based on some taboo topics, (detransitioning, entering into a hetero-passing relationship, etc.). I found myself re-reading the chapters focused on Ames and Reese's reflections on past relationships and coming out. Peters' writing shines in those parts with sincerity and a kind of painful, bittersweet memorializing of past selves. It touched me deeply.
Reese is my favorite and the most captivating of all the characters in the book. She's hurt, self-destructive, full of yearning, but also smart, thoughtful when she wants to be, observant, very funny, and full of emotional depth that the other two in the trio seem not able to access. Out of all the characters in the book she seems the most brave.
Conversely, the weakest of the trio and plot is Katrina. She is the least developed and least convincing character. Frankly, she's annoying. Peters writes her trans characters so vividly, but I think having a straight, cis, and Asian character was too far from her own experience to write to the same level of depth. It was hard for me to understand why Ames was so attracted to her and why he was so committed to a relationship with her.
In the reviews I've read, I've heard criticism of Peters' writing, specifically that the sentences are convoluted, awkward. I have a feeling she writes very close to her own speaking voice. If you share this criticism, the audiobook might be a better experience by restoring Peters' speaking cadence.
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Transphobia, and Violence
moonpeach's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Moderate: Domestic abuse
Minor: Miscarriage and Abortion
anthsoprano's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Miscarriage and Outing
lanid's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Infidelity, Sexual content, Transphobia, and Outing
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Abortion, and Dysphoria
Minor: Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy
cecereads__'s review against another edition
3.75
It’s a story that’s insightful and definitely worth telling (and absorbing) - as is anything outside the heteronormative btw. For ppl to learn and expand their horizons - including on the question on motherhood within and outside the lgbtq+ community.
I found the characters messy and flawed and unlikeable at time which worked really well to illustrate the (difficult) dynamic between the trio.
Moderate: Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Transphobia, Violence, Outing, and Gaslighting
michaelgfrd's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Domestic abuse and Transphobia
kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Biphobia, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Outing, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
leahslitlibrary's review against another edition
Graphic: Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Abortion, and Outing
bookwormbi's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I got the impression that much of what I disliked about Detransition, Baby was Peters’s attempt to be write a story that could ostensibly be for all trans women from a very narrow perspective, instead of owning that narrowness. The best parts of the book—the Sex and the City Problem, the juvenile elephants, the journeys of Reese and Ames’s transitions and detransition and the dissolution of their relationship—were the parts where Peters wrote as a white trans woman for white trans women. In the wider book landscape, there are very few trans stories, and even less stories about trans women, and I understand Peters’s desire to try to universalize her experience a little bit. To her credit, she rarely tries to speak for trans women of color (although she certainly speaks for cis women of color via Katrina), and much of the discussion about race and racism seems to be a well-intentioned attempt to telegraph her awareness of her privilege, so people don’t say things like what I’m saying right now. To be frank, I wish this book could be the trans version of one of the thousands of TV shows that centers cishet white men and doesn’t trouble itself to think about anybody else. Peters is not the first queer or trans writer whose anxiety over whether or not Twitter would call them racist I could feel through the page. I’m tired of it, frankly. I am a trans person of color, I know I am exactly who Peters is afraid of, and I understand why. I can see a version of this book that I dislike because there are no people of color in it and the characters’ racial insensitivities go unchallenged. But to be honest? I think I’d respect that version of the book a bit more.
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Transphobia
Minor: Racism
lorenag5's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Cursing, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Outing