Book Club: Detransition, Baby

Detransition, Baby, the debut novel by author Torrey Peters, is a funny, fun read that follows three people trying to decide whether or not they should have a baby together. Reese, the protagonist, is a hot, impulsive, polarizing woman sleeping with cruel older men as a form of self-destruction (or perhaps validation?) after the dissolution of her relationship with her ex-girlfriend Amy. Amy, who has detransitioned since the breakup, is now Ames. In the midst of a secret and forbidden liaison, Ames has accidentally impregnated his boss, Katrina, who is cis, well-intentioned, and sheltered. Reese has always wanted to be a mother. Ames misses Reese. And Katrina doesn’t know that Ames used to be a woman. 

When Detransition, Baby was initially published, it got a lot of hype for being provocative. As the back-cover copy declares, the book “fearlessly navigates the most dangerous taboos around gender, sex, and relationships.” I’ve since returned my copy to the library (here at Uterish, we are obnoxious fans of the SPL) so I can’t reference directly, but my copy had something on the inside flap to the effect of “a shocking read for your book club!” Because the protagonist is trans (as are the majority of the characters), the book is generally pitched as a thought-provoking work about identity. However, the metric for “thought provoking” and “provocative” works tends to depend on what the reader brings to the table. A book is thought-provoking only if you haven’t had the thoughts before. Works like Detransition, Baby, have much more value than simply the issues they bring to the table.

Pitching this work as a book whose main benefit is to “make you think about gender” undersells it completely. It has a lot to say about transness, but even more about womanhood, motherhood, family, and queerness writ large. It is a great middle point between literary fiction and a fun summer read, and so much more dimensional and enjoyable than I anticipated based off its marketing. Its strengths are the pressure-cooker scenes pushing manners and expectations against each other; and in the honest, unflinching, often mean analyses Reese and Ames unleash about each other’s personalities as they dissect the end of their long-term relationship. Detransition, Baby is a gossipy page-turner, and I absolutely recommend it for anyone looking for a truly satisfying read.