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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
funny
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book brought up so many mixed feelings in me, and I feel like that's exactly what its aim was to do! It took me a long time to get into it, with my asexual self finding it hard to get through a lot of the sexual content, as well as the main characters being rather problematic. However, pushing through this uncomfortability really helped me to reflect on what about it made me uncomfortable, as well as reflecting on the decisions which the characters made and why they made them. Detransition, Baby gave me a lot of food for thought, about both trans women's lives, and women's lives in general. The intersection of the two.
Reese is a trans woman with an unfortunate obsession with married men and a deep desire to be a mother. Ames is amab and has detransitioned from living as a trans woman. Katrina is a divorced 30-something cis woman who is Ames's boss. When Ames gets Katrina pregnant and suggests they ask Reese to co-parent with them, the three reflect on their lives, experiences and perspectives.
The rawness and unrestrained authenticity of the voices in this book really took me back. Starting the book with the sex life experiences of trans women was a wild decision for Peters but it paid off! My asexuality made me eeek for a lot of the initial chapters, but I think the author gets you in this uncomfortable and vulnerable position early on, to contextualise the character's choices and get you in a deeply entrenched position, for the dialogues to come.
While I related to a lot of things in many of the characters later in the novel, this juxtaposition of my sexuality and Reese's made it hard for me to endear to her early on. This, coupled with all the awful decisions she tends to make haha. But by the end, I found myself feeling really deeply for her, as well as for Ames and Katrina.
Peters discusses at the end of the book, on her choice to include these parts of trans life and history that are often not discussed with cis people. To include dialogues from white trans women, but contrast this with the differences in trans women of colour. I feel like I learned a lot from reading this book, despite my tenuous relationship with it. I also really loved her choice to create a tri-perspective from three different types of people. Three different types of women...
Additionally, I liked the themes of motherhood and queer life/ social structures that were explored throughout the novel. The nature of morality and the links to circumstance were also very interesting. I actually related to some of Ames's experiences in the book, but not in the way one would link. The dissociation and depersonalisation of the body reminds me of mechanisms I used to use a lot (and still do to some extract) in regards to my asexuality. It was interesting to ponder upon this in both contexts.
All in all, this is a great literary read if you're in the mood to get uncomfy and do a lot of learning as well as queer introspection.
Reese is a trans woman with an unfortunate obsession with married men and a deep desire to be a mother. Ames is amab and has detransitioned from living as a trans woman. Katrina is a divorced 30-something cis woman who is Ames's boss. When Ames gets Katrina pregnant and suggests they ask Reese to co-parent with them, the three reflect on their lives, experiences and perspectives.
The rawness and unrestrained authenticity of the voices in this book really took me back. Starting the book with the sex life experiences of trans women was a wild decision for Peters but it paid off! My asexuality made me eeek for a lot of the initial chapters, but I think the author gets you in this uncomfortable and vulnerable position early on, to contextualise the character's choices and get you in a deeply entrenched position, for the dialogues to come.
While I related to a lot of things in many of the characters later in the novel, this juxtaposition of my sexuality and Reese's made it hard for me to endear to her early on. This, coupled with all the awful decisions she tends to make haha. But by the end, I found myself feeling really deeply for her, as well as for Ames and Katrina.
Peters discusses at the end of the book, on her choice to include these parts of trans life and history that are often not discussed with cis people. To include dialogues from white trans women, but contrast this with the differences in trans women of colour. I feel like I learned a lot from reading this book, despite my tenuous relationship with it. I also really loved her choice to create a tri-perspective from three different types of people. Three different types of women...
Additionally, I liked the themes of motherhood and queer life/ social structures that were explored throughout the novel. The nature of morality and the links to circumstance were also very interesting. I actually related to some of Ames's experiences in the book, but not in the way one would link. The dissociation and depersonalisation of the body reminds me of mechanisms I used to use a lot (and still do to some extract) in regards to my asexuality. It was interesting to ponder upon this in both contexts.
All in all, this is a great literary read if you're in the mood to get uncomfy and do a lot of learning as well as queer introspection.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Dysphoria
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Abortion
Minor: Pregnancy, Outing
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Gender is dramedy.
challenging
reflective
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
i have no idea how i feel about this book. it's amazing to read a trans-centric story written by a trans author that captures the culture so well. i felt understood, and at home. but reese was such an unlikeable character that it dragged the whole novel down. still enjoyed it though.
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I guess this was just too chaotic for me. The writing was pleasant at times which is probably why I managed to finish it. Mainly it's just a very depressing book with no real resolution for the characters of the story. In fact, the plot itself is so messy that you lose the thread at multiple instances, and maybe that's supposed to mirror the characters' own tangled up minds? It just felt like reading how much these people were miserable and really disliked themselves and their lives, and kept making bad decisions that made them more miserable - like watching them go around in circles reinforcing their own misery. But also, the takes of this book on queerness, parenting, womanhood, or gender can be deeply problematic. At times, it sort portrays queerness as this life sentence that limits all of your options and possibilities of joy or womanhood as something that makes you inherently destined to be abused and exposed to violence. I tried to read this as the Reese's own toxic projections, but sometimes it almost felt too much like a narrator commentary to simply dismiss as fiction. Overall, it wasn't necessarily a hard read but I wouldn't recommend.
This book was a bit of a miserable read and it did not seem like it would ever end. Before I was halfway through, I thought about making it a DNF, but I wanted to try and persevere instead. Then, another 5 or 10% later, I decided to check some reviews to see if any of my feelings about this were shared by others, and they were. Maybe this book just isn't for me, but I didn't find myself the least bit affected or captivated by the stories being told. Give it a try if you want, but I found this book to be a big disappointment after hearing a lot of hype.
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Okay so initially I thought this was written by a cis woman which definitely colored my reading experience and review but I just googled her and she’s trans so there goes those points. However I thought she was a cis woman because of the weird dedication in the front and the weird reverence of divorced cis women throughout. Either way that’s on me folks. This book is NOT exploitative and it’s less odd than I think.
That being said I still didn’t like this book. It definitely helped me confront my own gender identity in a way I probably wouldn’t have had I not read this book, but the plot was contrived and the characters unlikeable. There were several moments where I thought to myself “this could have been a substack essay” instead of a narrative with two women who I actively disliked for their personalities and a man who I just felt so depressed for. The lack of resolution in the end just completely ruined it for me. Yes I know it would be uninteresting if everyone just got what they wanted in the end but it kind of felt abortive (heh), like the author didn’t have an answer to the question of whether this style of parenting would work and therefore didn’t want to explore it anymore. Okay, maybe this book wasn’t written for me and that’s fine. I think Peters is a very good and thoughtful author. But the story itself just didn’t do it for me and I would have appreciated everything more without any characters at all, perhaps just as a series of personal essays musing about gender and parenthood. Thanks!
That being said I still didn’t like this book. It definitely helped me confront my own gender identity in a way I probably wouldn’t have had I not read this book, but the plot was contrived and the characters unlikeable. There were several moments where I thought to myself “this could have been a substack essay” instead of a narrative with two women who I actively disliked for their personalities and a man who I just felt so depressed for. The lack of resolution in the end just completely ruined it for me. Yes I know it would be uninteresting if everyone just got what they wanted in the end but it kind of felt abortive (heh), like the author didn’t have an answer to the question of whether this style of parenting would work and therefore didn’t want to explore it anymore. Okay, maybe this book wasn’t written for me and that’s fine. I think Peters is a very good and thoughtful author. But the story itself just didn’t do it for me and I would have appreciated everything more without any characters at all, perhaps just as a series of personal essays musing about gender and parenthood. Thanks!