Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

57 reviews

arj's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Sexual content, and Deadnaming

Moderate: Drug use, Suicide, and Homophobia

helen's review against another edition

4.0

Insightful, funny and unflinching character study of 3 women (2 trans, 1 cis) and what motherhood, sex, gender and family mean to them.
These characters are complicated and flawed and sometimes hurt each other. The writing made me laugh, challenged my preconceptions and engaged my empathy.
Four stars rather than five for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the ending was perfect for the story Peters was telling, but it left me a bit disappointed and wanting more. Secondly, the way they hurt each other was difficult for me to read at times and means I probably won't reread.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Miscarriage, and Transphobia

Moderate: Outing, Infidelity, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Alcohol, Deadnaming, Pregnancy, Abortion, Infertility, Suicide, and Drug use

grainjordan's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Transphobia, Violence, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Hate crime, Abortion, Toxic relationship, Dysphoria, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Outing, Suicide attempt, and Infidelity

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Deadnaming, Drug use, and Homophobia

beccaruthe's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Death, Miscarriage, Outing, Physical abuse, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Transphobia, Infidelity, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Grief, Alcohol, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Sexual violence

Minor: Body shaming, Classism, Abandonment, Addiction, Car accident, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Racism, Stalking, Mental illness, and Misogyny

tomato_bisque's review

funny reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.0

This is a fast paced book delving into the themes of womanhood and what it means to be a mother. The book is mainly from the point of view of two trans characters, Ames and Reese. 

Reese's thoughts about womanhood in relation to men and motherhood is something that a lot of women relate to. Motherhood is seen as the ultimate form of womanhood. Those who do not give birth or those that forgo motherhood altogether are not "real women." 

Since this form of womanhood is not afforded to Reese, violent masculinity is used to highlight her femininity. She is kept secret by her lovers, often leading to abuse and toxic relationships. Reese notes that the hardness and violence of men makes her softness and femininity stand out. There is a point later in the book when Reese rolls her eyes at a cis woman's excitement of her cis husband playing the stereotypic rugged man. This contrast makes that cis woman feel at home with her identity. Which is something that Reese does, albeit in a different way. 

The other main character, Ames, struggles with his gender identity. He uses masculinity as a way to avoid pain. Being in his body as a women opened him up new internal emotions and suffering, as well as opression by wider society. Detransitioning into a man made it easy to blend in, become invisible. When the prospect of him becoming a father comes up, he panics. 

In the end, this is a tragic story about how gender confines all of us. Its messy as hell. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Hate crime, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Infidelity, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, and Miscarriage

Minor: Drug use

sophiebv's review

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Pregnancy, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Sexual violence, Outing, Miscarriage, Suicide, and Self harm

Minor: Drug use and Forced institutionalization

grets_reads's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Body shaming, Drug use, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Grief, Miscarriage, Sexual violence, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Abortion, Outing, Physical abuse, Suicide, Transphobia, and Alcohol

minxtte's review

emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Hate crime, Infidelity, Misogyny, Outing, Infertility, Domestic abuse, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Drug use, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, Deadnaming, Addiction, Alcohol, and Mental illness

Minor: Abandonment and Eating disorder

mmcloe's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative fast-paced

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

4.5

Aw man this was so so so sweet. 

So much has been written about how this book talks about queerness as it relates to pregnancy and motherhood but I'm also fascinated by how Peters connects queer time to the process of remembering and misremembering. There's so much flipping back and forth through time (all of it centered around conception, almost like a pregnancy guide book lol) and it demonstrates how the past messily (mis)informs the present which does the same to the future. For all of us, queer people especially, time and community can be so ephemeral, so there's a simultaneous sense of urgency and resignation for the future. This book captures this excellently!

Like Don Delillo, I want Torrey Peters to write a tv show. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Transphobia, Misogyny, and Homophobia

Minor: Drug use and Miscarriage

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Cursing, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Outing, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Violence, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Sexism, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Death, Grief, Hate crime, Mental illness, and Drug use