Reviews with content warning for Hate crime - Detransition, Baby

Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

132 reviews

travelseatsreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Detransition, Baby is a book which will inevitably polarize people. Just like its title, its contents are at times quite challenging. Even at its least provocative there will be someone reading somewhere shrieking in horror at what they just read. It is in that challenging nature of the book that I adore how brave Torrey Peters was in telling a story of gender, of mother & fatherhood, of queerness and overwhelmingly of the prejudice and trauma that everyone carries around regardless of their gender or sexual orientation.

It would have been easy and hugely less controversial for Peters to make these 3 women flawless and likeable but rather than take the easy route she showed how deeply flawed and damaged all three of them were in their own ways. There are chunks of the book that reek of misogyny. There are violent, graphic and demeaning sex scenes. There are deeply prejudiced thoughts thrown about on occasion. There are sections where you will think what the actual f*** is wrong with them. And then there are sections full of love, tenderness, fulfillment and a deep yet brutal level of understanding and self awareness. Peters shies away from the fluffy rainbow coloured persona often provided and delves deep into what can be at times an absolute tangle of beautiful destruction.

Towards the last few chapters I longed to know just that little bit more about Reese and her backstory, her character was so full and intriguing I wanted to know more about where all that angst and inner turmoil came from. That and some other lingering questions kept me from that last star.

Overall, while this will not be a book for everyone, I think everyone should at least attempt to read it with an open mind and glean from it what they can.
What Peters showed effortlessly throughout the book is that none of it is easy, being trans, being queer or indeed immersing yourself into those worlds as a straight cis female. It's complicated and I loved Detransition, Baby for that honesty and rawness.

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karolinaz's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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oliviareese's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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lukests's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

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

I found this book difficult to read. Some of the language used to refer to trans people and their experiences is outdated and uncomfortable to read. The characters don't have a lot of redeeming qualities about them.
<Spoiler> I also feel it took too long to get to the interesting part of the book. I was genuinely excited to read about queer parenthood. How the trans and cis women were going to figure it out together and how a cis woman might learn more about her own identity when going through this journey with a trans woman. The book spent so long building up the characters, and also giving them qualities that made it hard to root for any of them, when it finally hit the part where the women are exploring how they're going to do this together I felt majorly let down by how brief this is and how easily it all falls apart. Also Katrina being Asian American feels awkwardly shoe horned in, not well developed, and at places stereotypical of how Asian Americans are represented.

Overall I'm happy I read this book, it was an interesting look into a trans authors POV, however the story left me a bit disappointed.

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aquakerwitch's review against another edition

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challenging funny reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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sashabaker177's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny medium-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

4.5

This got me out of a reading slump. As a queer person myself it was really refreshing to read something that didn't care if straight people liked it or not. The characters were deeply flawed and infuriatingly loveable and the book does a good job of making you sympathise with people on opposite sides of a conflict, giving a window into multiple trans experiences. It all came together but there were points when I found the flashbacks a little frustrating.

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