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A review by sturgeonfish
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
ummm.. interesting! feeling a bit unsure how to review this … i absolutely hated all of the main characters who were all terrible in different ways. there definitely was /some/ character development, but also i feel like katrina was used as little more than a springboard for reese’s own character development and though katrina would graciously think over and accept reese’s points about transmisogyny, reese never really seemed to “get” katrina’s feelings about racism in the same way. which maybe was the point - to create a narrative in which the main character was like an annoying epitome of white woman self victimhood? honestly, i can’t wrap my head around what to think of it because i’m not sure if that’s what the author was trying to accomplish.
as for other reviews talking about misogyny in this book - i disagree and do think it’s transmisogynistic to some extent - plenty of books have a self victimizing cis woman charachter (and plenty of these cis women exist irl) who seek out dangerous or shitty men, including to reaffirm their own gender. which is shitty of course but not a phenomena unique to trans women nor uniquely shitty when they do it; one would only come to that conclusion if they think trans women are only playacting being women and ‘choosing’ to mock womens struggles.
well! yeah overall really thought provoking for sure, was a quick read and the writing style kept me turning pages quickly (figuratively; audiobook nation!)
as for other reviews talking about misogyny in this book - i disagree and do think it’s transmisogynistic to some extent - plenty of books have a self victimizing cis woman charachter (and plenty of these cis women exist irl) who seek out dangerous or shitty men, including to reaffirm their own gender. which is shitty of course but not a phenomena unique to trans women nor uniquely shitty when they do it; one would only come to that conclusion if they think trans women are only playacting being women and ‘choosing’ to mock womens struggles.
well! yeah overall really thought provoking for sure, was a quick read and the writing style kept me turning pages quickly (figuratively; audiobook nation!)