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A review by cloudjules
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
2.0
This was a huge mixed bag; so much to love, so much to hate. Unfortunately, the bad ultimately outweighed the good and I was left extremely frustrated by the non-ending. The treatment of Ames’s character (whose arc was by far the most interesting to me) was particularly bothersome to me. My problem isn’t so much with how derisive Reese and Catrina’s treatment of him is, but how it goes completely unchallenged by the narrative. Not only does it feel like the author wants you to side with these women as they mistreat and belittle the person whom they allegedly care for and want to raise a child with, but there is a sense that this is somehow meant to be empowering, no less because Ames is “a man”— which isn’t really the case. It’s made abundantly clear that whatever his gender identity is, it isn’t cis. And although his POV is insightful and (seemingly) respectful of the complexity of his situation, the book is intent on punishing Ames at every turn, while the other protagonists’ treatment of him is forgiven, if not rewarded, with their dismissal and overall shitty treatment of him somehow played off as female bonding. Reese’s unfaithfulness gets swept under the rug, while Catrina gets little more than a slap on the wrist for publicly outing him in the middle of a work dinner out of spite. The latter incident is particularly frustrating for how it’s made to sound almost justifiable due to Ames’s failure to disclose his past to Catrina sooner.
But even more than how disrespectful of Ames’s character (and, by extension, non-binary identities and questioning queer people), on a more basic level, my problem with this was that it made the female protagonists very unlikable to me. Catrina was especially unpleasant, especially for getting away with shit like Ames’s aforementioned public outing and her prejudiced reaction to a character’s HIV status, but also the way she constantly brings up her Chinese heritage to draw comparisons to trans women’s experiences (despite her ethnicity, by her own admission, having never made her the target of discrimination). She’s entitled and petty, and while she’s clearly open to learning more about queerness, so much of it seems to hinge on Reese having to educate her. Reese is a whole other
I can (and do) appreciate that these are flawed, complex characters; in fact, their flaws are what makes them most interesting. The reason I dislike them isn’t the horrible things they did, but that they got away with it within the narrative. It just didn’t sit well and ultimately made the overall book fall surprisingly flat given just how much I enjoyed some parts of it.
But even more than how disrespectful of Ames’s character (and, by extension, non-binary identities and questioning queer people), on a more basic level, my problem with this was that it made the female protagonists very unlikable to me. Catrina was especially unpleasant, especially for getting away with shit like Ames’s aforementioned public outing and her prejudiced reaction to a character’s HIV status, but also the way she constantly brings up her Chinese heritage to draw comparisons to trans women’s experiences (despite her ethnicity, by her own admission, having never made her the target of discrimination). She’s entitled and petty, and while she’s clearly open to learning more about queerness, so much of it seems to hinge on Reese having to educate her. Reese is a whole other
I can (and do) appreciate that these are flawed, complex characters; in fact, their flaws are what makes them most interesting. The reason I dislike them isn’t the horrible things they did, but that they got away with it within the narrative. It just didn’t sit well and ultimately made the overall book fall surprisingly flat given just how much I enjoyed some parts of it.