Release Date: January 12th, 2021

Genre(s): Adult, Contemporary, Literary Fiction

Publisher: One World

Pages: 352

Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Synopsis

Detransition, Baby follows three women, cisgender and transgender, whose lives change after an unexpected pregnancy. After Reese’s significant other Ames detransitions, Reese finds herself coping with her loneliness by sleeping with married men. Ames, with the loss of his relationship with Reese after detransitioning, wants to find a way back to her. When Ames finds out his boss and lover Katrina is pregnant, Ames wonders if this is his chance for Reese to return to his life – and the three of them to be together.

Review

I came across Detransition, Baby after browsing debut releases of 2021, and although it’s so early in the year, this very well could be one of my favorite books of 2021. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the synopsis, but it covered several concepts, such as co-parenting and detransitioning, that I haven’t often seen represented in literary fiction. And while I can’t speak for much of the representation presented in this book, it was so incredibly insightful and covered so many aspects of the experiences of transgender people.

As Detransition, Baby delved into the story and characters, I found myself more and more captivated by the writing. I’ve read several stories where discussing a character’s identity and experiences become very textbook-like in that it feels like it completely deviates from the character’s own narrative. That didn’t happen in Detransition, Baby; instead, all of the experiences and discussions around identity were weaved into the characters’ own story and what they were currently going through.

The book also goes into intersectionality, and how trans experiences vary based on other aspects of their identity. In particular, race and class are discussed with respect to access to resources as well as the impact of hate crimes and violence against the transgender community.

And again, while I can’t speak to these experiences as a cisgender person, I think this book will be an excellent read for those looking to learn about trans experiences. However, I must say – this is not an easy read. It’s a difficult read from beginning to end. There’s a lot of extremely difficult topics covered, and the discussions throughout are so raw, honest, and powerful. And this book not only discusses so many issues faced by the transgender community that I was personally unaware of or mildly aware of, but also with such depth and detail. The characters each have their own imperfections which gave this book even more depth. And while I can see this book not being for everyone, I think those interested should definitely give it a read.

Detransition, Baby was definitely a challenging read, and one I think I’ll be thinking about for a very long time. I loved Peters’ writing and look forward to following her works in the future. 

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