A brilliant exploration of trans motherhood, queer family, and womanhoood. I found this book so incredibly revealing, and at times I didn't like/agree with any characters. I respect Torrey Peters so much for these real and hard to look at characters. Although I wasn't fully invested in the beginning, by the end I was hooked surprised at every turn, even though there were hints hidden throughout the prose as to what was coming. I anticipate this novel being somewhat polarizing, but I unabashedly loved it.

This was a really fascinating look at the world of trans and those who choose to detransition (a term I'm sorry to say I was not familiar with). It's the story of Reese, Amy (now Ames), and Katrina and the choices they make in order to feel fulfilled. It's a deeply moving book about motherhood, fatherhood, and the desire to raise a child, and the choice to detransition when that seems a more natural state. It opened my eyes to a world with which I am not very familiar (even after teaching high school for almost 40 years and having many students transition). Like all of us, the characters are flawed but willing to admit that actions have consequences, and like all humans, we seek only to find our place in the world and exist in a state of happiness and contentment.

The gossipy, finely observed, queer, trans, take-no-prisoners update to Mary McCarthy’s The Group I didn’t know I needed. Builds an extremely nuanced social picture with people I've never seen before in fiction. Takes big risks at the macro and micro level. Occasionally it falters by being too intelligent, its prose losing some elegance to make a point. Sometimes novels about marginalized people will turn up the dial on the hatred towards their characters, but this one surprisingly stretches believability by turning up its characters' empathy. It's a novel about people staying patient with each other. It doesn't make a spectacle out of trauma and hate, though it doesn't shy away from reality either. I didn't think people wrote like this anymore--I hope it's not an insult to Peters to say this is almost like a trans Franzen novel--but I'm so glad Peters does.

Ames somehow knocked up his girlfriend Katrina despite his supposed sterility from all the hormones he took during the years he was Amy. Stunned by the prospect of imminent parenthood, he turns to the most fiercely maternal person he knows: his ex, Reese. So keen is her desire for the child her own body cannot produce that Reese agrees to a thoroughly modern coparenting arrangement. But even as the trio hashes out their relationship through a series of raw, insightful conversations about gender, sex, race, and motherhood, their damage threatens their fragile balance. Funny, messy, and devoid of easy answers.

I really like that this book breaks the myth of detransitioners being people who transitioned as a mistake but aren't really trans. I really like the perspective this book gave on many trans issues, especially trans femme.

I did have a hard time though because its hard to sympathize with the main characters. They all suck in their own ways, which is kind of the point. They are real, hurt, flawed people. But I often times was left after a scene wanting to scream because of how frustrating they were. It made it hard to get through at times. Also the end was very dissatisfying for me.

Detransition, Baby is one of my top five favorite books I’ve read in 2020 and I cannot recommend it enough. This story is so unique, witty and heartbreaking and had me hooked from the very beginning. I walked away from this book feeling so many different emotions and I still feel like my words won’t be able to do this book the justice it deserves.

Detransition, Baby is essentially a study of motherhood and three women: Amy/Ames, Katrina and Reese. Ames is a former trans woman who detransitioned from Amy and began dating his cisgender boss, Katrina. When Katrina became pregnant (after Ames was convinced he was sterile due to his 6 years of treatments while he was Amy), he finally came clean to Katrina about his past as a trans woman. Reese, also a trans woman and Amy’s ex girlfriend, wants to be a mother more than anything in this world. After finding out that Katrina is pregnant, Ames comes up with the unconventional idea of proposing to Reese and Katrina that they raise this baby together. The story flips back and forth between pre-conception and post-conception, giving you a detailed view of Amy’s transition, her relationship and life with Reese, the reasons why she ended up detransitioning and how her life led her to Katrina and their current situation.

I was truly blown away by the characters in this book. They are raw, real, complex and leave you with no choice but to be utterly invested in them- I couldn’t get enough of Amy/Ames’s and Reese’s fascinating stories. What I loved the most was how messy and honest these characters are and how eye opening their experiences are. You will not be able to read this without feeling their pain, fear, triumphs, joys, hopes, disappointments, and more.

Torrey Peters is an incredibly talented writer and storyteller and after reading her dedication in the beginning of the book, I need to know more about her personal story and everything that inspired this book. Detransition, Baby is an incredible thought-provoking book that taught me so much about the lives of white trans women. Peters does an incredible job at exploring so many other themes such as divorce, parenthood, womanhood, unconventional family structures, sexuality, gender, mental illness, body dysphoria, friendship and more. The exploration of these themes made for quite a few moments of discomfort throughout the book, but they were absolutely necessary and I loved how thought provoking they were.

This book will make you feel so many different feelings and I encourage you to sit with those feelings afterward. I am so impressed with this compelling story and I truly cannot applaud Peters enough for writing such a fantastic debut novel. I look forward to reading more by her and watching her career grow.

Thank you so much NetGalley, OneWorld and Random House for gifting me this eARC in exchange for my honest review. Review will be posted to Instagram, my blog, Amazon and GoodReads in December.

This story is so unique and the concept is unlike anything I've heard of or read before, and the tongue-and-cheek title is immaculate. In summary: a "former" trans woman (Amy or "Ames") has "detransitioned". Her current partner and boss Katrina-- who doesn't know about her "boyfriend"'s past-- is pregnant with Amy/"Ames"'s child. Amy/"Ames" wants to co-parent with both Katrina and ex-girlfriend Reese: a trans woman who has always longed for a child. The book follows their journeys both before and after conception.

It's raw, it's sad, it's uncomfortable in the best and worst ways, and it really allowed me to learn so much more about the lives and experiences of (white-- an important distinction as pointed out in the novel--) trans women. This book explores themes of love (platonic, romantic, familial), womanhood, motherhood, divorce, unconventional family structures, and queer kinship.

Torrey Perez's writing is so compelling, and she doesn't shy away from the messy parts of what it is to be heterosexual, queer, a trans woman, mentally ill, biracial, in relationships, and so many other aspects of humanity. The ending was not conclusive, but it left me satisfied. This has to be one of my favourite reads of this year, and I strongly recommend kicking off your 2021 reading with this one.

DETRANSITION, BABY by Torrey Peters is seriously SO GOOD! Right after reading chapter one I was immediately hooked to keep reading based on the unique storyline. This debut novel is about Reese, a transgender woman, and her ex, Ames, who detransitioned and his pregnant girlfriend. It’s a complicated love and parenthood triangle revolving around the baby.
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I really liked how throughout the book we would flip back and forth between past and present to learn the whole arc of Reese and Ames’s relationship. There was one point in the book that even made me cry. I loved all the underlying emotion in this book.
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There were definitely a lot of intense parts to read dealing with sexuality and gender but I was completely invested in this story and these characters. This is a stunning book!

This book is well written and has good character development I just couldn’t personally get into the story and found it a little bit of a struggle to keep reading. Either way it just left a little lacking for me personally. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The premise of this book was so fascinating to me, and Torrey Peters largely delivered on the promise of an intricate and complex look at gender and how we are all socialized to gender norms. My attention was captured from the beginning, and I felt attached to each of the main characters by the end of the book. Peters created complex and challenging characters that were believable and sympathetic.

I think it's crucial for us to keep telling queer stories, and this one was fantastic.

Yes! All the stars for this own voices novel about three women and motherhood. The three main characters were so rich and complex. I loved the idea of family and community that is highlighted in this novel as well as the very prevalent narrative that the way most folks do things is not the only way. Will be on lots of best of lists for 2021, I am sure.

5 million good mango units!

Detransition, Baby brings us into the life of Reese, a trans woman, who is presented with an exciting chance to become a mother. However, the opportunity comes with a hitch: Reese’s ex-girlfriend Amy (now Ames by way of detransition) got his boss pregnant and his proposal to both women is a three-person-parenthood.

This novel is incredibly sophisticated and well written. It reflects upon humanism and encourages the reader to do so as well. From a variety of perspectives, Torrey Peters unravels the complexities of motherhood, the sensitivities of body dysphoria, the fallibility of humans, and the intricacies of gender and being transgender- all of which she handles in such a tender (and sometimes humorous) manner.

I especially enjoyed the psychological references and ideas this novel brought into play. Through engaging storytelling, Peters discusses somatic decision-making and ponders attachment theories with reference to The Elephant Breakdown- an article on the impacts of social trauma. Detransition, Baby is a meaningful and transcendent read; both thought-provoking and enlightening.

Torrey Peters is an excellent writer, her dialog, setting, pace, and detail were all pitch perfect. Even though I learned a lot of new words like detransitioned and seroconverted from this book, it didn't detract from my enjoyment of this riveting, romantic story about how an unplanned pregnancy affects a trio of very varied womxn who could be described as CISgender, transgender, genderfluid, genderqueer, gender non-conforming, or non-binary.

Peters has made the leap from novellas to full-length novels with deftness and grace, scaling her oeuvre (trans politics and experiences that trans and cis people alike prefer to sweep under the carpet for the sake of an easily digested narrative; see for example the reviewers who complained that this, a work of fiction, did not adequately satisfy their voyeuristic appetites for "transsexual psychology") accordingly. Messy and human in the best way.

What an incredible debut novel. I read this in what felt like one sitting, and every time I had to stop reading, the characters lingered with me. Peters is fiercely talented. She managed to write a book that is as emotionally intelligent and compelling as it is flat-out fun to read, and I can't wait to read whatever she writes next. This is one I've recommended to anyone who asks what I've been reading lately.

God, this book is good. Three women's lives, different and complicated and intertwining, all dealing with problems of womanhood and femininity apart and together. I don't have a deep, profound review; I'm too in my feelings for that. There were a number of moments that took my breath away, especially in the early chapters—the writing is absolutely beautiful—and at the very end. The end drew the book together for me; I felt as though I was losing the thread a couple times in the back half, but it ended on such a complex, heart-rending, compassionate, satisfying note. There was the occasional setting that didn't interest me, especially the gala, though I understood how crucial the luxury was to the moment, especially to Reese. Even in these moments, the narrative and characters sang.

The book was about class and transness and family, what it is to *be* a woman and what it is to *do* womanhood and how they are different and the same. Because this book is written from a trans perspective, Katrina's cruelty, well meaning or intentional, was felt. Everyone in this book is a mess, but compassion edges in around everyone's sharp edges again and again, whether or not offered in tandem with forgiveness. But the element that landed most with me was Amy's detachment: it was so convincing and so felt, her ambivalence to such major events, an impression only unspooled in flashbacks when we see her embodying a more joyful life only to have it unspool. Especially contrasted against Reese's eventual quest for unfeeling, it rang: Amy abandoned the elements of her presentation that were most meaningful, that made her feel the most, because that act of feeling hurt too much.

Shit, man. I don't have an analytical review for this because I'm too busy feeling my own feelings. I'll be thinking about this book for a long time. Eagerly watching for the next thing Torrey Peters puts out, and so excited to recommend this book far and wide.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

I did not like this book, and not for reasons many will assume. First of all seriously, that was the end?? But that is a personal issue as I simply hate completely unfinished finishes. But what really bothered me was I wanted to finish this book feeling like I gained a better understanding the transsexual psychology involved in a very interesting story premise. Instead I got too deep an explanation of some of the transsexual psychology in the story, to the point where I found myself skipping paragraphs, and absolutely no explanation of other points of transsexual psychology, to the point where I feel unable to understand certain parts of the story. It simply left me dissatisfied with the story.

So, I have been on a mission to read more diverse authors and fiction topics lately -- to open my mind and my world to different views and experiences. This book explores the lives of transgender women (male to female). It was interesting that a portion of the book referenced that the term "transgender" did not even exist until the HIV/AIDS crisis and was created by the CDC as a distinct category for the purposes of resource allocation vs. a thoughtful consideration of the actual gender/sexual experience. So yes, I learned some stuff. The book centers around three women: a transgender woman (Reese), her former girlfriend (Amy/Ames/James) who lived as and detransitioned from life as a transgender woman, and Katrina, the cis-gender (maybe) woman Ames becomes involved with. When Katrina becomes pregnant, Ames proposes that the three raise the baby together as a family and that part of the novel is quite good. So, on the plus side, there was lots of interesting insights into alternative family structures, the LGBTQ experience and the complexity of relationships. On the con side, it was kind of convoluted at the front end, really hard to keep track of characters and a bit too much sexual content for my taste. This is kind of a niche read...can't really recommend broadly.

What an unusual, interesting, beautifully written book! Peters has a deft skill for writing complex, unusual, human characters, which is really what this novel most succeeds at as the three women explore the definition and limitations of femininity and womanhood. As a cis woman, I loved gaining insight into the trans community and found this novel to be both exquisitely poignant and deeply thought provoking.

This book focuses on three women and a potential baby plot (one cis, one trans, one now a man again). I honestly requested this book because I liked the title and the cover. I didn't expect to be so engrossed in this story. This is definitely an Own Voices novel primarily about transwomen in New York City, but is also about much more. The main character, Reese, is complex and mysterious, and yet vulnerable and transparent in so many ways. A 34-year-old white, trans woman, she craves the kind of normalcy (husband, children, nice clothes) afforded to the cis women with whom she identifies, even as she pursues affairs with married cis men who treat her badly, and has given up any belief in fairy tale endings. She was in a relationship with Amy, another transwoman, but we meet Amy as Ames after he has de-transitioned. I honestly knew next to nothing about detransitioning before reading this nobvel. I feel like I really gained a new perspective on trans culture. I put myself into a new mindset through Reese, Ames, and their friends. As a cisgender woman, I have never viewed the world through the eyes of a trans person before. I feel like I learned a new outlook on motherhood and even relationships through the process of this story. The writing is beautiful and honest. The characters are well-developed but flawed. I loved this book.