Detransition, Baby

Like a hipster Brooklyn transgender Sex and the City, this novel is a chatty, hilarious, and moving look at queer folks grasping for parenthood and family in a world where all the rules have been thrown out.

The book’s narrator, transwoman Reese, takes us on this ride with such sardonic, poignant insight about the world she lives in that we begin to feel like we live in it, too. When Reese’s ex, Ames—who has detransitioned from his former transwoman identity, Amy—gets his straight female boss pregnant, the three of them begin negotiating how they might raise the child together.… show more.

Reese, a transgender woman, has been in a tailspin since her girlfriend Amy detransitioned to become Ames and their relationship ended.

Now the thing she wants most—a child—is getting further and further out of her reach. Meanwhile, Ames’s lover, Katrina, gets pregnant. Ames can’t commit, either to Katrina or to life as a father, because it would feel untrue to his gender identity, and Katrina doesn’t want to keep the baby without a partner.

Seeing a chance to revive his connection with Reese and to live in a way that feels more authentic, Ames proposes the three of them become… show more.

I loved reading this contemporary novel which is hilarious, astute, smart (you can see why it was nominated for so many book Prizes!) Written by a trans author, with central trans characters, it skips over any “explaining” about trans lives and eschews the sterotypes, making for complex and nuanced protagonists who feel 100% real. It’s a book about queer family making, and what that can look like. It feels right up to the minute in terms of the new formulations of family that are existing today. 

You won’t get the Good Tran Narrative here—Torrey Peters’ bestseller teases out a gloriously complex and problematic relationship between a fatalistic trans woman, her detransitioned ex-girlfriend, and the woman he just got pregnant. Full of drama, wisdom, taboo, and truth, I adore Detransition, Baby for its spotlight on unadulterated queer and/or trans characters full of gallows humor and heart.