Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Detransition, Baby

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

295 reviews

cmcrockford's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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alixcallender's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

To me, the point of this book is not to proselytize or morally educate, but rather to present opinions and feelings and experiences that are messy and different from your own. This is an honest reflection of what it is to be a person, flawed and singular and wonderful.

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buer's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

"Detransition, Baby" is a reflection on relationships, parenthood, and gender told through the unique lens of a trans woman (Reese), a CIS woman (Katrina), a person who detransitioned after living as a transwoman for several years (Ames). This trio, at the encouragement of Ames, is trying to figure out if they could be a set of parents for the unexpected pregnancy of Ames and Katrina.

Author Torrey Peters invites her readers along on a journey in which we grapple with the many intersectional identities of the characters in Detransition, Baby. Each member of the trio at some point finds themselves surprised that their experiences as a marginalized person isn't taken completely at at face value. Arguments are had in which race butts up against gender which butts up against queerness which butts up against class and so on.

Peters does not shy away from petty personal arguments, sloppy relationships, or timely socio-political arguments. She seems to feel no pressure to make us like any of the characters. All of them have redeeming qualities, but so to do all of them do or say atrocious things. At times this makes the book a little uncomfortable to read and sometimes those timely arguments feel a little heavy-handed.

Without jumping into the realm of spoilers, let's just say that secrets of all kinds are revealed - often in traumatic environments. As I mentioned, none of these characters are perfect, and that results in moments of true meanness that can range in severity from mildly cringey to incredibly triggering.

I listened to this book instead of reading it, which I found really nice for this story, although based on my previous experience this means that I feel pretty ill-equipped to comment on the Peters' writing outside of the realm of crafting a compelling story and writing smooth dialogue.

Overall I recommend this book for anyone who is looking for a nuanced tale of parenthood, relationships, and queerness.

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readingthroughinfinity's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny hopeful reflective 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

This was absolutely fantastic, a real tour-de-force and unapologetically full of trans joy and heartache. The characters felt so raw and real in a way that I haven't found in a book for a long time. I liked how messy and complex they were and how unconventional their decision to co-parent was. I know I'll be thinking about this one for a long time to come.

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leadpal's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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bonniejpg's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful 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

5.0

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sas_ram's review against another edition

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emotional reflective 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

4.0

In the end it lost me a bit. But I got through the book real quick. Sometimes I couldn't really connect with the story... Well most of the time. But it was really interesting to read and the writing is quite good. This way the book made up for the problem of not being able to connect very well with the characters.

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