Reviews tagging 'Lesbophobia'

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

28 reviews

teganbeesebooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional informative sad 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? It's complicated

4.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

lareinamags's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional funny 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

4.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

zeus_strider's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional tense medium-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

4.0

I find it hard to describe this book, I thoroughly enjoyed it but wouldn't recommend lightly.

This book uses the word
"transsexual"
a lot and frankly a lot of slurs, and if that is going to upset you I might recommend you skip this one.

With that being said this is a book about two terrible people who engage in self-destructive behavior that shows little indication of changing by the end of the book, Reese throws herself into abusive relationships seeking validation, 
while Ames seeks to disassociate themselves because the pain of being present is too much for them to bear.

As a queer individual myself it is interesting to see queer characters who they themselves are not allies as counterintuitive as it is it does happen, Reese in particular is downright hateful of those around her, of those in her community and those of adjacenting communities, and quite frankly anyone who might treat her decently, I suspect that she believes everyone to be as hateful as she is which is what causes her to have such disdain in them which at times can be very difficult to read. 

But overall it's very well written and an interesting view into a very different perspective. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

Go to review page

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. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

maarigirl's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

3.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

sas_ram's review against another edition

Go to review page

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. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

tome's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional reflective sad tense 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

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

squidknees's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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

4.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

friendofdorothea's review against another edition

Go to review page

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) 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

lovegriefandgender's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense 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

5.0

It's tough being trans. As I was reading Detransition, Baby a 16-year old trans girl was murdered in London, and unable to articulate so much rush of feeling I turned hungrily, savagely back to the pages of the book. It seems to be a place, being trans, of endless longing and therefore endless loss, where we are summoned to question our own pain and circular motions and regret and suffering against any other group who had experienced any of those things. I don't think we're brave. Not really. I think we live in an interrogated space, a grey space, where no future can be known as fact.  Then we have to ask what we want: motherhood? Career? Love? Sex? Most of us would be happy just to have something meaningful to say. Yeah. This is where we live. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings