Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

20 reviews

sorcha's review

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emotional funny hopeful reflective sad

3.75


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megelizabeth's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

2.5

The positive thing I have to say about this book is that it's interesting. It's slow and it took me a while to get through, but it contains a lot of great observations, conversations, and themes, and definitely made me think more deeply about a plethora of aspects of the trans experience. Of course, it looks a lot also at the detrans experience, and gives a really compelling insight into what detransition can mean in reality.

However, I did struggle with this book because it's very much character-driven and I really didn't connect to or particularly like any of the main characters. I'm sure they're supposed to be viewed through a critical lens, but that knowledge didn't help me during the many insufferable parts, the plot and the themes not being enough to make me appreciate the characters also. I also can't not mention the fact that this book contains a graphic depiction of underage sex, which there's literally no reason or excuse for; the points being made about the character involved could easily have been done so without including this. To a lesser, but still frustrating, degree, there's also an odd comment about hysterectomies being 'widely available', which again was maybe supposed to be viewed critically, but surely didn't come off that way.

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kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective 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

2.5

While interesting, I really struggled to get into this book. In part, I think it was the way it was written — the back and forth between characters and time periods made the book feel choppy and disconnected. The entire time I was reading, I never fell into the story. It just felt like I was reading — not experiencing it. The insights about being trans were the highlight for me. I felt deep sorrow for the characters who wanted so deeply to be themselves in ways society or biology would not allow. 

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bea_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-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

4.0


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friendofdorothea's review against another edition

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challenging 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

2.75

I feel bad rating this book so low because it is written by a trans author through such a big publishing company. But it was really bad, and I would have DNF'd if I didn't find an audiobook because the book kept jumping to random moments in time or rants that had no correlation to the plot of the book. There was way too many words and there needed to be like 10 more editors. And with all of the words that were written, I think maybe only 5 pages actually focused on the plot. There were 50+ pages in every chapter, the text was super small and it was extremely inaccessible. Also, the thinking in the book was so flawed and most of the characters sucked, especially Reese who just seemed like a really bad person. There was also so much misogyny and transmisogyny that was not okay. There have been so many positive reviews because people have seen this book as a learning experience, but some of the ways in which this book looks at the world is not okay. I would recommend reading, watching, or listening to some other form of trans media to learn about transness: I.e., Transgender History by Susan Stryker, Paris is Burning, Disclosure, Pose, Gender Outlaw by Judith Butler, hell even Euphoria is a better representation of transness. There is so much wordy writing to get through to learn anything about transness. Also the book seemed to erase non-binary identities a lot of the time and there was no consideration that Ames could have been genderfluid or another non-binary identity. There was so much focus on transness as one thing rather than the expansiveness of transness. The basis of transness is not medicalization and the book almost implied that is the only way to be trans. If a cis person picked this up with no prior knowledge of transness, it could be super harmful especially because most of the reviews are saying this book is a learning guide for them. 

The book saw children as merely property. Additionally, womanhood was seen mostly as caring for children or having a baby which is inherently sexist. 


The book was supposed to be funny but nothing about it was funny whatsoever. The summary made it seem like these women were going to be raising a baby together and that’s what I was expecting to see within the first couple chapters not just filler. The ambiguous ending sucked. 
10/10 do not recommend and I am surprised by the overwhelming amount of positive reviews. THIS IS NOT GOOD TRANS REPRESENTATION AND DO NOT PICK THIS UP TO LEARN ABOUT TRANS PEOPLE! I really wanted to root for a trans author but im sorry this book was not the one.

All of these characters deeply need therapy tbh (preferably feminist therapy) 

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natalienicholas's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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annabulkowski's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense 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

5.0


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malayapapaya's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • 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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rachaelmaris's review against another edition

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challenging emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Incredible. It was such a satisfying and captivating read, I loved it. The writing was sharp and funny, the scenes were raunchy, poignant, evocative (and not just because it takes place in New York and I am always a little bit homesick). The characters! It feels trite to say they were multi-dimensional blah blah but these characters really felt like they were fully breathing individuals. Reading about them felt like I was reading their actual literal blog or twitter feed or whatever, as if they might post later this week and I'd be excited to see what they are up to next. 

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julesadventurezone's review against another edition

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challenging reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75


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