This one was a little bit confusing to read at first with all the different names being used but I quickly found my groove. This book will be a pioneer in LGBT literature.

Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

I must confess that I had very high hopes for this book! Based on what others were saying, I expected to greatly enjoy it. However, I couldn't settle into the story. There was such a flurry of characters and emotions in the first chapter that I had trouble getting into the story. Just not for me.

I was judging the L.A. Times 2020 and 2021 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’d been doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got me to read on even though it was among 296 other books I’m charged to read.

What a brilliant book so much of my copy is highlighted and filled with marginalia. One quick example:

She watched the Catherine Deneuve film, Belle de Jour, and recognized her own sexuality in the upper crust Belle’s secret desire to be mistreated and abused as a whore. Which meant that the strain of masochism that ran through her sexuality was only as racy as a fifty-year-old film that shared a marquee with romances starring Doris Day.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a free Advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 3.5 stars

Torrey Peters wonderfully wove the lives of three adults and showed them at their most vulnerable. Our protagonist Reece is not immune to Peters' incisive look at family, pregnancy, and the people we decide to tether ourselves to. Brava!

This book is messy and super fucking queer and also full of unlikeable characters, but it all works. I don't really know exactly how I feel about it, but I appreciated how much this book made me think and work for understanding. It's one of those that you have to be in the right mindset to read, and if you're looking for a light fluffy easy read, this isn't it. It's on its whole separate level and as long as you're prepared for the absolute chaos, you're good to go.

This messy delightful trainwreck is everything I want in a novel. It pushes you outside your comfort zone, makes you rethink institutions like family, marriage, gender, and sexuality, and keeps you wanting more with every page. We loved it so much, we made it our book club pick for June!

This fantastic book gives a nuanced look at what life can be like for queer people and all the complications that come with making hard decisions. Family can be really complicated, but Peters is able to convey it in a meaningful way.

Can't believe I waited so long to read this compassionate and meaningful story around what makes a family and how people love one another.

This is a standout and remarkable debut that brings us voices from a community that is far too often marginalized and silenced. There’s so much I learned from this book, including the fear, stratification and judgement, and vulnerability that exists within the queer community and especially for those who are trans or detransitioning.

Ames’ journey especially is one I have not come across before and admittedly knew almost nothing about. Where so many books make coming out the HEA, Detransition, baby shows us what life can look like after that — it’s messy, seldom as easy and breezy as one would hope, and drought with continued feelings that have require introspection, growth, and support.

Reese as a character was both frustrating and fascinating. She keeps fucking up, yet I can understand that self sabotage, that desire for acute pain to make you feel like it’s power and love instead. Like the fact she chose this means she is ultimately in control and power, staving off the ways in which the world and society tries to subjugate her for who she is. That said, towards the end, I found myself wondering about her role in the trio at all given how she’s willing to tear herself a part. Is adding a child under this unconventional arrangement really wise if she’s ebbing and flowing with her destructive tendencies? Her schedule for a child was sharp and powerful, but a child alone isn’t a salve and I desperately wanted more for Reese.

In typical Reese fashion, she was at once endearing and in blink, easy to loathe. But still, her charm gives us some of the best moments in the book, moments of levity and stark emotion that somehow cycle to feeling bleak and choking, but also funny and full of dark humor and mirth. A funeral scene specifically provides the tragic comedic relief I didn’t know I needed while also delivering some key truths many of us ignore or try to hide from.

Katrina felt like the weakest character, helpful in illustrating the big and small ways society is transphobic, but overall a bit devoid of her own perspective and purpose other than a literal vessel and the bridge that brings Ames and Reese back into each other’s orbits.

What I didn’t love was the last 10-15% of the book, including the ending, which felt like it left too much up in the air. I wasn’t hoping for a neat ending per se, but a glimpse into what this trio’s family could look like would have been perfection, because we end still not really knowing if they will go through with it.

Despite that, I absolutely recommend this one as an important read with voices that deserve the spotlight. I can’t wait to see more from the author in the future.

This is a story that takes time. In the beginning, I wasn't on board with these characters who barely seemed to be able to stand each other, and a premise that, though interesting, couldn't save the lackluster mope fest of the first half. However, as things continued, I warmed up to the characters as they did to each other and found it all much more endearing. This was not a perfect book for me by any means, though I do understand all the praise it has received. It's a refreshing new take on queer literature and what both queer relationships, and families in general can be. I look forward to Torrey Peters's future works.

DETRANSITION BABY was wonderful!

Both laughable moments and tender ones too, it hit me in all the feels.
With themes of Motherhood, friendship, and sexual identity, it really brought a beautiful perspective.

*many thanks to Randomhouse/Netgalley for the gifted copy for review

This book is good. When I talk about plot *and* character development I’m talking about what Peters has done with DETRANSITION, BABY. The character of Reese is easily the best character I’ve read this year, the story itself kept me wanting more. I was hooked early and it just kept building. The humor and style of Peters writing is so sharp. At times I felt she tried to encompass too many points of view and too many searing monologues (a little Sorkin-esque ), but overall the dialogue, structure, and craft of the book is well executed.
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DETRANSITION, BABY also opened my mind so much to family. I of course knew about chosen family, and the different ways folks think about having children, but this book goes deeper. Into the desires to be a mother. The resentments. The things that are taken for granted. There are lessons here, but not in an annoying way. In a firm and compassionate way. I also loved seeing a depiction of someone who had detransitioned, I’m not sure I’ve ever read that before. Getting to understand Ames and his choices was very moving.

I suspect this would have benefited from some pruning, but overall it was a great book--funny and sad and moving.

4.5/5

Prickly, funny, and casually devastating.

It feels risky, airing dirty laundry and stories that queer and trans communities hold close, rather sharing more respectable and sanitised stories for a wider public. But the boldness of Peters story is why makes it so powerful, peeling back the Utopianism that often colours queers stories to show the messiness and difficulty of queer and more particularly trans lives, neatly packaged in a bourgie comedy that people will may fear, be outraged, but ideally with reveal in and enjoy.

one of the best books i read all year! the conversation on motherhood in this one was just so spot on and emotional. I loved it, and will continue to read torrey peters from now on!

I enjoyed reading this one, but it didn’t pack as much of a punch as I was expecting it to. I didn’t connect with the characters and the prose seemed to keep me at arms length.

I loved this author! What a unique storyline for a trans character. I almost found the premise off putting at first, but by the end I kind of got it more. I really enjoyed the character development and dynamic between different characters. I would definitely recommend to anyone looking for an LGBTQ story with something different.

Easily my favorite book of 2021. Detransition, Baby takes your idea of fiction and turns it upside, and breaks out of any binary you might have intended for a novel. For me, this book was about what makes a family outside of what we are told by society a family is. I can't speak its praises enough!

I LOVED THIS BOOK. I don't think I've ever been challenged to think outside my own perspective so much in only 300 pages. This is a book with themes of motherhood, sexual identity, friendships, womanhood, fatherhood, and the list goes on and on - while toughing on some extremely difficult topics. It's timely, provocative and such a strong and groundbreaking debut. In some moments you will love the main characters, and in others you will hate them. They are messy and REAL. I can barely put together my thoughts on this novel because it has given me so much to think about.