This is an interesting work written in Torrey Peters' unique voice. As with her other works, there are complicated not entirely savory, but very real characters living though uniquely queer situations written from a very strong trans perspective. There is a lot to chew on in this book, not the least of which is how one negotiates the distance between one's sense of self and who they present to the world, and the myriad ways to be a woman in a society that has such narrow, deeply gendered paths (see also: The Sex and the City Problem.) It's not always an easy read, but it's definitely worth it, especially if you're into messy, complicated characters and relationships

I read this book not sure what to expect. Loved it and will reread to understand the characters more.

Whew - what a book! This asks and answers all sorts of questions spanning from relationships, what does it mean to be a parent, a friend, a lover, what is a family, who the H even are we? This book is chaotic and messy in a pleasing way, and is one I won’t soon forget. No question - I will read Torrey Peters backlist novellas and whatever comes next.

This book is moving, alive, and hilarious. We need more trans women perspectives in publishing and this is a great start. Would love to hear from trans women of color. Detransition, Baby should be on everyone's to-read list.

First, I want to thank NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange of an honest review. A lot Detransition, Baby, I really enjoyed reading and some of it I didn’t. This is a story about 3 people looking for family. Reese is a trans woman who desperately wants to be a mother. Katrina is a ciswoman, recently divorced who finds herself pregnant and not sure if she has the support she needs to raise a baby. Amy is a trans woman who has detransitioned, now living as Ames he is wrestling with his girlfriend’s surprise pregnancy and his discomfort with being a father. Throughout the story, I was always routing for these characters because all three are flawed people trying to create a space for themselves. Detransition, Baby allows the reader a window into the characters struggles, both internally with how they view the world and externally with the decisions they make. I found Reese frustrating for her understanding of what it means to be female in a relationship. I’m glad I had the opportunity to read Detransition, Baby because it pulled me in and made me think about the very human issues that the characters struggle with.

OMG. I learned so much around gender, identity, sex, and everything that comes along with not being cis. In “Detransition Baby,” debut author Torrey Peters vividly portrays the fascinating, yet complicated, lives of what it’s like to be a woman, especially a trans woman. She also delves into the cultural, physical and emotional issues around motherhood, and the complexities for both trans and cis women.

There are three main characters in this novel. Katrina is a biracial “passing” CIS woman who gets unexpectedly pregnant by her lover, Ames. Ames just happens to be her subordinate at their big-time marketing agency in NYC. But the plot thickens when Katrina finds out that Ames was born as “James” and then transitioned to “Amy” before his detransition to Ames.

Yes, it’s complicated. And it’s also awesome.

Key to the storyline is Amy’s ex-girlfriend and best friend, Reese, who – as a transwoman – longs to be a mother. When Ames finds out he’s going to be a dad, he comes up with a non-traditional (but creative) idea. He asks Reese to help raise him and Katrina raise the baby in what’s known as a “triad.” But is Katrina open to co-parenting together with Ames and Reece as one big, happy family?

Mostly the book is about everyone’s journeys and how they get to where they are (before and after the baby’s conception). As everyone processes the decision at hand, we learn what it’s like to be in a relationship with a woman—at all angles.

Provocative as hell, I devoured both the audiobook and advanced reader copy, shared with me thanks to Random House / One World. (Note: I purchased the audio recording -- produced by Random House Audio -- which was beautifully narrated by the highly talented Renata Friedman.)

I absolutely recommend this page-turner for open-minded readers. This is an excellent way to better understand the challenges facing our trans sisters.

This book was so much more than I was expecting, although I'd heard a lot of good things. It is such a rich, complex and emotional story with unforgettable characters. I was not surprised that I could find relatable elements in each of the characters, but as a middle-aged cis white woman who likes to think of herself as sensitive and aware, there were so many things that I never knew about or gave much thought to. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC for an honest review.

This title😍! Just so great.....
This book is witty, unique, messy, complex and heartfelt. I learnt a lot, fell in love with the characters, and loved the way it navigated the complicated topics of parenting, motherhood, fatherhood, sex and gender, and relationships... . A really eye-opening, thought-provoking read....

What took me so long to get to this galley? I just went back and ordered Torrey's two previous novellas and will absolutely be recommending this to my podcast audience in our next newsletter.

Torrey Peters is a wonderful storyteller. I really enjoyed this quirky and deeply emotional novel. I did feel that something was missing in the second half. The story felt incomplete to me. The last 30 pages were so rushed. However, I thought the character development was really strong. Reese, Ames, and Katrina each had sides to their personalities that were positive and negative, which made them feel like real people. All three of their backstories are compelling. I think the chapters in the past tense were the most intriguing to read. The writing was brilliant. Peters' writing style is so witty, sarcastic, and imaginative. I couldn't help but chuckle every few pages. I love how this novel tackled the struggles of the trans community. It's so refreshing to read about characters of all walks of life. A diverse and relevant novel (much appreciated).

Thank you, Netgalley and Random House for the digital ARC.

4.5 mangos

<i>Destransition, Baby</i> starts out with a bang (almost quite literally) and doesn't slow down for almost 400 pages. I couldn't put it down, wanting to know what happens next while also needing to know what happened to Reese and Ames in their pasts. I don't know how Peters did it, but she managed to write both a super specific book (Reese, a trans woman, Ames/Amy, a detransitioned woman, and Katrina, a cis woman are maybe having a baby together. maybe.) and a richly layered book about womanhood, motherhood, gender, femininity, grief, race and class (that's a giant list).

This is a funny, smart, honest, and uncomfortable (there's no hand holding here) book filled with complicated and flawed characters. The writing is sharp and engaging, I kept backtracking to reread some lines because they were that good. I cared so much for Ames and Reese, though I'll admit that I'm not sure I ever got Katrina. She wasn't as fully realized to me or maybe I just didn't trust her motivations in the end (you go from having transphobic reactions to leaning into queer life in the span of a few weeks?). The end, at first the end let me down it being so open, but as I thought about it more it did make sense for these characters and this story. There is no easy decision or simple happy ending. It'll be a constant messy process no matter where it goes.

random thoughts:
Ames had some good lines, but Reese's will cut you
I'm still not 100% sure I understand Ames plan, or rather why was that his first thought. After finishing the book, I went back and reread the first few chapters for some insight. I could reread the whole book again, there was so much there. I am not a rereader.
We get both Werner Herzog and Wim Hof references, a win in my book.
The doTerra party was everything.
I feel like Peters let us in so many secrets and I have to thank her for that.

ARC received from netgalley

Detransition, Baby was the first book I've read by a trans woman about being a trans woman. The novel is full of messiness, love, pointed observations and realness - I really appreciated all of it.

Reese is a trans woman who lives in New York and has sex with married men who fetishize trans women. All Reese has ever wanted is to be a mother; so when she gets a call from Ames, her ex who "detransitioned" from Amy proposing a viable path to motherhood for her, she is intrigued. Enter Katrina, Ames' boss who is pregnant with said baby. Katrina is mixed, half-Chinese half-white and she is decidedly heterosexual.

There is a journey throughout this book. It doesn't really feel like a book with a beginning, middle and end. It feels like you're reading about a real thing that happened to real people, and I appreciate that. This is my first foray with Peters' writing, and I enjoyed her writing style. I think she addressed a lot of major points - the difference between being a trans woman and a trans woman of color, the parallels between certain cis women and trans women and the way that straight people often feel they empathize and understand but can rip the rug from right out underneath queer folks. Katrina, as a character, is not my favorite because of the way she conflates her own experiences with being a trans woman - they are not the same, especially because she is white-passing. I think Peters does a great job of writing Reese as a character you sympathize with, while maybe understanding why she can be so self-destructive.

I give this novel 4 stars. It loses a star because it was a bit long-winded in some places, and I found myself losing interest here and there. Still, Peters strung together an amazing #OwnVoices story that needed to be told.

Thank you very much to NetGalley, Torrey Peters and Random House Publishing Group for providing me with an ARC to review this book. Buy Detransition, Baby now!

**Huge thank you to NetGalley and Random House for gifting me a free e-copy of this book in return for an honest review.**

This book was an absolute delight from beginning to end and unlike anything I've ever read!

The story brings us into a pivotal time in the lives of three characters: Amy/Ames, a trans woman who de-transitioned to live as a man again and is now contending with the possibility of being a father; Katrina, Ames' partner who is trying to figure out how to process her unexpected pregnancy and the revelation that Ames used to live as a woman; and Reese, a trans woman that was in a relationship with Ames when they lived as a woman who becomes entangled in the pregnancy when Ames proposes that she becomes a co-mother with Katrina.

We meet our three main characters in different states of emotional distress -- Ames de-transitioned to make their life easier, but still feels empty because of it; Katrina is recently divorced and looking for stability and a sense of self; Reese assuages her loneliness after leaving Ames by sleeping with married men that don’t treat her well. Each of them sees the baby as a chance to transform their lives and selves, which takes us on a looping journey through their psyches as Peters’ lush writing pulls us through the tale.

Witty and illuminating, Peters’ voice is a rare one that was so wonderful to read and helped to propel the story forward, even if there wasn’t too much happening in the plot. As someone who is not a member of the LGBT or trans community, it was incredibly interesting to read perspectives that are not usually given much space in mainstream media. Inhabiting lives that are different from our own is so important for cultivating empathy, and for that, I am extremely grateful to have been able to read this.

Peters’ voice is not the only thing I loved about this book, obviously. Her characters were absolutely magnificent. Each was so wonderfully fleshed out that, by the end, I felt like I understood their emotions, motivations, spirits, etc. at a base level. As a budding writer myself, this was an excellent case study on character building and it was just amazing to be so richly immersed in each one. I deeply cared about all of them and was sad to be leaving them when I got to the end.

The commentary and introspection on motherhood/fatherhood/parenthood, gender, family, and finding one’s place in life also make for a gratifying read. There is just so much to take from this book that I’m sure I’ll be reading it again soon. I firmly believe this is a book that will be read and talked about for a long time, and one that would benefit everyone to read.

If you’re a fan of character-driven narratives, stories about the meaning of parenthood and family, OwnVoices stories, or literary fiction in general, you will most likely cherish this novel. I can’t wait to see what else Torrey Peters does!

compassionate and complex. this novel is full of fascinating questions about motherhood, trans identity, womanhood, and relationships, and its writing is compulsively readable and invites you into the heads of its main characters. reese and katrina and ames are fleshed out and exciting to read about, and i loved watching their relationships and backstories unfold. this is a book not afraid to let its characters be messy and flawed, which i appreciated, as i hate when books have characters that are far too perfect to feel real or even interesting. overall, i really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to torrey peters's future work.

There’s the family you’re born in to and then there’s the family you construct. This book is about the latter. Reese is a trans woman who has been sleeping with married men who treat her like garbage. Things used to be different when she was in love with her former partner, Amy. But once Amy decides to detransition, Reese’s plan for domestic bliss deteriorated. Ames is also struggling. He was told when he initially transitioned, that he’d be unable to have children, so he is surprised to learn that he’s gotten his boss pregnant. The pregnancy causes Ames to reach out to Reese, his former “family” and reconnect. This is a heartfelt book about how all lives are messy and complicated and beautiful and that the connections we make are the things that make it all bearable. Thank you to One World and to NetGalley for the advanced review copy.

“Detransition Baby” tells the story of Ames (formerly Amy), his trans ex girlfriend Reese, and current girlfriend Katrina. Together, they make the decision to raise Katrina’s child as a single co-parenting unit. The story is anchored by the moment of conception, with chapters alternating between different timelines entitled “8 weeks before conception,” “12 weeks after conception.”

I realize that my fascination with this book is largely voyeurism: the opportunity as a cis woman to get an intimate and detailed portrait of the lives of trans folks. Peters holds nothing back; we see it all. The plot moves quickly and culminates in a pivotal scene (a doTerra party nonetheless) that had me clutching my Kindle with eyes wide. I didn’t expect to fly so quickly through this, but the combination of plot, characters, and cunning social commentary transformed what I thought would be a stuffy book of literary fiction into a real page turner.

Motherhood, sex, gender identity and family are the overarching themes of Detransition, Baby by transgender author Torrey Peters.

Who says two transgender women and a cis gender woman can’t make a family. When Katrina gets pregnant by Ames, who detransitioned from Amy, Ames sees this as a chance to make a dream come true for his former partner Reese who has always wanted to be a mother.

Delving into the sexual desires of Reese and Amy and how their relationship fell apart, the author examines the micro and macro aggressions around the transgender community. But don’t be mistaken because this community has a family form of its’ own.

Moving back and forth in time measured from the point of conception, Peters deftly pulls the reader into the present and former lives of the characters as they evolve to become their most authentic selves.

Thank you to @netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Add this one to your list!

What a fantastic, funny, and enlightening book. I'm so thankful Torrey Peters pulled back the curtain to a world and experience I wouldn't otherwise be privy to. Thank you NetGalley for giving me access to this book and thank you Roxane Gay for selecting it as a book club pick and putting this important piece of fiction on my radar.

DETRANSITION, BABY is about three women, trans and cis, whose lives become intertwined around an unexpected pregnancy. Reese is a trans woman who desperately wants to be a mother. And Ames, Reese's ex, is a destransitioned trans woman who got her boss, Katrina, pregnant. Longing to make sense of the pregnancy and at a chance of a family, Ames propositions that the three of them raise the baby together.

These characters, especially Reese and Ames, are incredibly complex and through them the author does an excellent job of capturing the fluidity of gender, sexuality and identity with a wit and vulnerability that borders on both hilarity and anguish. Through the lens of a trans woman, my cis woman self related and relearned what womanhood and motherhood meant to me.

My thinking of motherhood has always been from a cis woman perspective. And for a cis woman, pregnancy is a given. Albeit sometimes it is an unwanted expectation, but still it is a given and one that is seen as our inherent right. And I use the term "our" loosely because let's not forget that coerced sterilization of marginalized groups was happening in 32 states throughout the 20th century. So as a cis woman of color, my right to reproduce was/is seen as a liability, a "problem" in this country. But still, I am a cis woman and a liberal one at that, which frames my understanding of reproductive rights and how it is socially framed. Cis women view reproductive rights as their right to choose, but why are these rights not extended to trans women? Don't they have a right to choose to be a mother just like cis women have the right to choose not to?

As the book explores Reese's deep desire to be a mother, I couldn't help examine my own. Like Reese, I knew I've always wanted to be a mother. But unlike Reese, I didn't have to make a case for it. It was a given. And as disappointment came every month, I was solely focused on the unfairness of it all. How easy it was to cast myself as a victim. But I see how silly I have been. And in thinking back to the baby showers and gender reveal parties, I remember basking in the production because I believed that one day I would be at the center of it. Now, I cannot help but cringe at all. that. performance. Not that there is anything wrong with baby showers (I do not agree with gender reveal parties), but the expectations and behavior of socially accepted gender roles are problematic when it alienates trans men and women.

Only if, like the title, gender roles were so definitive. Detransition, Baby. You detransition to your assigned gender and you're socially accepted. You have a baby (as a cis person) and you're socially accepted. But gender like sexuality is fluid and as a cis woman reading this book through the lens of a trans woman, I saw how exhausting, biased and harmful the performance of these gender roles could be.

This book was devastating, funny and smart. It is also raw and unapologetic and vulnerable. It is about trans women written for trans women and dedicated to divorced cis women. Trans, cis, divorced, married or single, I hope every woman, no.. every person reads this.

Brilliant on every level. I could not put this book down; it spoke directly to my heart. Peters had done something extraordinary; this is a novel that captures the beating heart of queer and trans life in all its messy glory.