Questions About Detransition, Baby

by Torrey Peters

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Answered Questions (13)

is this an owned voices novel?

John Own Voices, not owned (which would actually be the opposite of Own Voices). And yes, the author is a trans woman.

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Does this book include pregnancy loss, ie miscarriage or stillbirth? I really want to read this, but that is a triggering topic for me.

Erin Yes, there are multiple references to pregnancy loss and at least one extended passage that I believe you would find very upsetting.

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Molly

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Maria I consider her a human being. Humans fuck up, publicly, privately, involuntarily, intentionally, unapologetically, regretfully. Whatever she did, she …moreI consider her a human being. Humans fuck up, publicly, privately, involuntarily, intentionally, unapologetically, regretfully. Whatever she did, she did because of her past and her warped notion of what constitutes as womanhood, as well as transphobia and society's view of motherhood, womanhood, and gender.(less)

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Clara Limón

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)[I'd say it goes back to the start of the book: Ames was fine being a man, until Katrina gets pregnant, and he has to confront the prospect of fatherhood. He is not against having a child, but he doesn't like the idea of being a father (I'm pretty sure he says this to Katrina, that he could be a "parent" but not a "father"). After Amy fought Stanley, she became.. disillusioned? with her womanhood, and missed the emotional safety of being a guy.
There's the last chapter where Ames goes play baseball with his friend and thinks about how life before transition was like your body being a dog, and being a woman meant experiencing it directly, which could be too painful at times; there's also that thing about Amy keeping a suit for men in the closet, and Reese sometimes catching her wearing the suit, like it gave her comfort (Amy explicitely portrays the masculine display of violence during the Stanley fight as "intoxicating").
The part where this starts answering your question is when after the batting cages with Jon, that "dog" that protected him from reality before transition, and disappeared during it, hadn't returned, the wording used is that "the dog stayed dead". And from chapter 11, these two fragments may explain it:

«But of course, he has lived the last three years of his life in a way that requires so little of him—an office job of moderate ambition; a relationship that, as much as he really believes he loves Katrina, came to him without quite searching for it; friends who know him well, but not too well. Only now, with this baby, this work of his traitorous, animal body, does he need an inclination of his truest feelings.»

«But even with Katrina, his mind doesn’t connect, not fully. Not in the heavy saturated way of his years as a woman, and he can’t help but think, doubtfully, if he’s lying to Katrina. Maybe she deserves something better. More than just a proficient facsimile of a man in tune with himself, but the truth of it: a man who wants her with a body in synchrony with his mind. Even if he accepted her offer to raise a child with her, perhaps the child deserved better too. A parent whose presence was unquestionable, because it was true.»

I hope this rant answers your question? That's how I interpreted it at least (hide spoiler)]

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Unanswered Questions (1)

Is COD facility available to purchase the above books? RaghavendraRao Deshpande.

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