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Glamour Boutique
You can only lose your virginity once, right? Not if you’re Amy—a trans woman caught in loops of dissociation—so that she has sex for the first time multiple times, in multiple ways, through multiple levels of presence, in a search to own and redeem the self-inflicted pain of her past.
From Torrey Peters, author of The Masker and Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones, comes a novella that dives into the labor of naming your pain when there’s no easily identifiable source of trauma.
From Torrey Peters, author of The Masker and Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones, comes a novella that dives into the labor of naming your pain when there’s no easily identifiable source of trauma.
87 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2017
2 people are currently reading
1020 people want to read
About the author
Torrey Peters
10 books1,863 followersTorrey Peters is the author of the novel Detransition, Baby, published by One World/Random House, which was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. She is also the authors of the novellas Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones and The Masker. She has an MFA from the University of Iowa and a Masters in Comparative Literature from Dartmouth. Torrey rides a pink motorcycle and splits her time between Brooklyn and an off-grid cabin in Vermont.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
August 24, 2017
"I want trans characters I can relate to in stories that are relevant," is something I've opined more times than I can remember and Torrey Peters is here to remind me to be careful what I wish for. It's one thing to want to see a bit of me in the tales I read, it's another thing entirely to have my most frightening anxieties exposed on the page like tabloid gossip.
Having eschewed traditional publishing routes in favor of speaking directly to the audience she wants, Torrey now writes books specifically for trans women, which she makes available for download from her site or as bound copies for a small fee. Just as with her first two novellas, Glamour Boutique is short, honest, and absolutely riveting. There is no sugar-coating here. Unflinching is typically an adjective reserved for Dateline exposés or brutal crime thrillers, but is also incredibly apt for this new work. Within these scant 80 or so pages, she introduces us to Amy, our protagonist, locked in a carnal embrace with Reese, most recent in a long line of lovers with whom she's had awkward dissociated sex. With the aid of a bit of amyl nitrate, however, Amy finds the walls she's built over years of dissatisfying sexual encounters falling away and she finds herself having to face somethingtruly terrifying: herself as she is.
As Peters walks us through the various encounters that led Amy to this closed off way of connecting, she trods upon keenly familliar ground for me. When the still-closeted Amy names the unmentionable erotica site where far too many of us took tentative steps toward embracing ourselves I gasped. She had broken the unwritten rule and mentioned fictionmania outside of our private online forums! Torrey describes all too well the feeling of having sex while completely dissociated from the act, your partner, and yourself. She gets the shame of the secrecy, of failing again and again to be the men that society kept telling us we were.
In short, Torrey has written a book that encapsulates the staggeringly difficult and diverse relstionship I (and countless other trans girls) have had (and continue to have even long after transitioning) with my body as a sexual battlefield far more thoroughly than I've ever managed even when speaking solely to myself. A fact which we are rarely excited to discuss lest it become new fodder for nosy religious zealots and angry outdated second wave feminists seeking to debate our existence and legislate us quite literally to death. But they're conversations that we, as trans women, dearly need to be having among ourselves in order to try to heal and grow from.
It's real, it doesn't offer pat answers for deeply complex issues, and it doesn't shy from laying bare some truths many of us would rather not too closely examine. This is a book that I dont know if cis people would like unless they have known a trans woman quite intimately, as I'm not sure if there's that same impact that I'm carrying for having been so thoroughly *seen* by a piece of writing. If a measure of art is the degree to which it affords us a mirror through which to see ourselves from a different perspective and gain a wider understanding of our quirks, then what Torrey has accomplished here is most undoubtedly art. Art that made me incredibly uncomfortable and which I immediately made friends read so I could talk about it with them.
Having eschewed traditional publishing routes in favor of speaking directly to the audience she wants, Torrey now writes books specifically for trans women, which she makes available for download from her site or as bound copies for a small fee. Just as with her first two novellas, Glamour Boutique is short, honest, and absolutely riveting. There is no sugar-coating here. Unflinching is typically an adjective reserved for Dateline exposés or brutal crime thrillers, but is also incredibly apt for this new work. Within these scant 80 or so pages, she introduces us to Amy, our protagonist, locked in a carnal embrace with Reese, most recent in a long line of lovers with whom she's had awkward dissociated sex. With the aid of a bit of amyl nitrate, however, Amy finds the walls she's built over years of dissatisfying sexual encounters falling away and she finds herself having to face somethingtruly terrifying: herself as she is.
As Peters walks us through the various encounters that led Amy to this closed off way of connecting, she trods upon keenly familliar ground for me. When the still-closeted Amy names the unmentionable erotica site where far too many of us took tentative steps toward embracing ourselves I gasped. She had broken the unwritten rule and mentioned fictionmania outside of our private online forums! Torrey describes all too well the feeling of having sex while completely dissociated from the act, your partner, and yourself. She gets the shame of the secrecy, of failing again and again to be the men that society kept telling us we were.
In short, Torrey has written a book that encapsulates the staggeringly difficult and diverse relstionship I (and countless other trans girls) have had (and continue to have even long after transitioning) with my body as a sexual battlefield far more thoroughly than I've ever managed even when speaking solely to myself. A fact which we are rarely excited to discuss lest it become new fodder for nosy religious zealots and angry outdated second wave feminists seeking to debate our existence and legislate us quite literally to death. But they're conversations that we, as trans women, dearly need to be having among ourselves in order to try to heal and grow from.
It's real, it doesn't offer pat answers for deeply complex issues, and it doesn't shy from laying bare some truths many of us would rather not too closely examine. This is a book that I dont know if cis people would like unless they have known a trans woman quite intimately, as I'm not sure if there's that same impact that I'm carrying for having been so thoroughly *seen* by a piece of writing. If a measure of art is the degree to which it affords us a mirror through which to see ourselves from a different perspective and gain a wider understanding of our quirks, then what Torrey has accomplished here is most undoubtedly art. Art that made me incredibly uncomfortable and which I immediately made friends read so I could talk about it with them.
March 6, 2021
torrey peters’ novella predecessor to “detransition, baby” is short and not-so-sweet. it packs a punch in a way that isn’t necessarily surprising considering the course of the story but is still jarring. i’ve grown familiar with peters’ particular brand of nihilistic trans fiction, but this one was a different sort of feeling than “the masker” and “infect your friends and loved ones.” there is an overt realism in “glamour boutique” that captures the ennui of gender exploration and sexual liberation, but does not glamorize it. this is the nitty gritty of trans fiction and peters manages to strip away any bells and whistles.
September 22, 2017
This story takes you through layers of the main character Amy's past. Like peeling an onion, the further down you go the more raw it gets and the more likely you are to cry.
Each layer of Amy's past resonates in its own way. Her relationship with Reese in the present; her relationship with Rosie in the past; and at the heart of the story her encounter with Patrick and tie at the Glamour Boutique, a store for crossdressers and trans women. In each of those sub-stories, Torrey Peters demonstrates her knack for combining dark humor with light moments and pathos. The result is a story that puts the reader through quick emotional swings and feels like completing a long journey even though the novella is less than 100 pages.
Certainly many readers, especially trans women, might find it hard to avoid identifying with some of Amy's experiences. It's an interesting and powerful thing to feel called out by a story in a way that lands so close to home. But the advantage of that is having the chance to share some of the redemption and emotional resolution that Amy reaches. I'm sure I'm not the only one to cry at the end of the story.
The author's note at the end of the novella mentions that it's part of a larger unfinished work. This definitely shows in characters and arcs that are set up in the story, especially in the first part, and not paid off or resolved. If that bothers you then you'll have to hope that the author will be able to finish the full novel. But this novella is about Amy and her story is tied together well in the end (even if there is no doubt more to say about her in the longer story as well).
Stray quotes and bits that stuck with me:
"Amy was ideal for the task because she knew enough about engines and tools to play assistant but she also understood that fixing motorcycles with a trans guy was gender-performance validation time for them both"
"Tumblr-industrial complex"
Student Switch Day and the experience of identifying with someone or being jealous of them without knowing how to express it without harming them
The sudden fluctuation between intimacy and alienation that happens between Amy and Patrick and between Amy and Jen
Each layer of Amy's past resonates in its own way. Her relationship with Reese in the present; her relationship with Rosie in the past; and at the heart of the story her encounter with Patrick and tie at the Glamour Boutique, a store for crossdressers and trans women. In each of those sub-stories, Torrey Peters demonstrates her knack for combining dark humor with light moments and pathos. The result is a story that puts the reader through quick emotional swings and feels like completing a long journey even though the novella is less than 100 pages.
Certainly many readers, especially trans women, might find it hard to avoid identifying with some of Amy's experiences. It's an interesting and powerful thing to feel called out by a story in a way that lands so close to home. But the advantage of that is having the chance to share some of the redemption and emotional resolution that Amy reaches. I'm sure I'm not the only one to cry at the end of the story.
The author's note at the end of the novella mentions that it's part of a larger unfinished work. This definitely shows in characters and arcs that are set up in the story, especially in the first part, and not paid off or resolved. If that bothers you then you'll have to hope that the author will be able to finish the full novel. But this novella is about Amy and her story is tied together well in the end (even if there is no doubt more to say about her in the longer story as well).
Stray quotes and bits that stuck with me:
"Amy was ideal for the task because she knew enough about engines and tools to play assistant but she also understood that fixing motorcycles with a trans guy was gender-performance validation time for them both"
"Tumblr-industrial complex"
Student Switch Day and the experience of identifying with someone or being jealous of them without knowing how to express it without harming them
The sudden fluctuation between intimacy and alienation that happens between Amy and Patrick and between Amy and Jen
January 12, 2024
Beautiful and made me feel a lot of things. Very similar to Nevada in some interesting thematic and contextual ways, it's clear that this whole generation of trans women writers were processing similar coming out experiences/early experiences of transness. Seriously gorgeous writing here. The final scene is really touching.
September 5, 2017
My favorite tag was "Deals, Bets, or Dares." I liked it to be a slow change, magic was fine but science was better. Modern day, not fantasy/sci-fi setting. I'd love to sit in a car and talk with Amy about all this--the strange ball of shame both pre- and post-transition that keeps us from looking at our paths here. I love that this book makes drama of all those feelings, a story about those stories.
September 5, 2017
Definitely an excerpt for a larger work but I'm excited about the novel. Peters explores the uncomfortable ways trans women can have more of a sisterhood in their history with fetishistic men than with cis women sometimes. Acknowledging that queer space of shame around femininity would take much more transformative changes to society than trans women need to survive in the world as it is now, though.
February 28, 2024
A precursor excerpt from what would become Peters' Detransition Baby. Like The Masker, this is a vignette which conveys a collection of messy realities regarding how many trans people explore and find themselves in a world whose paths to trans sexual self-expression and self-discovery are often strange and confusing and taboo. Like The Masker, I appreciate this work for its offering a raw and unfiltered portrayal of naive trans sexuality.
September 11, 2018
So incredibly eye-opening and affirming and terrible. Like I cried for every hundred-something page. Things about my own life felt so clear because of this book. I felt permission and tactics for reflection on my own hard past, and this book gives words to a lot of painful feelings.
January 12, 2020
I didnt realize this was part of the upcoming novel which explains why it felt less conclusive I guess. Just seems like similar themes to the masker but not as interesting. . imma still read the whole novel tho wen it comes out
March 9, 2023
The passage that said verbatim intentional use of kink by some people who have been through terrible trauma to ‘sexually defang’ their worst experiences stayed in my mind like absolute crazy
Honest and sexy and smart and I will!! Read detransituon baby
Honest and sexy and smart and I will!! Read detransituon baby
October 8, 2017
TOOOOOOO RELATEABLE!
August 7, 2018
An insightful, unafraid examination of the loneliness and yearning inerrant in transfeminine sexuality
December 18, 2020
Torrey Peters is incredible
June 8, 2022
Interesting little back story of detransition baby. Might read the predecessor but for now, I have no interest in it.
April 27, 2024
There were some moments in here that were very uncomfortable to read. Raw, real, cathartic.
April 15, 2025
oh no i hope this doesnt awaken some sort of deep longing in me that sets in motion a series of life changing decisions...
September 2, 2017
The mediums, spaces and moments that help us come to love ourselves and a selected few can be vivid. Glamour Boutique takes the reader through Amy’s life in Brooklyn and back in high school where everyone was only willing to see a boy. This story shares the first moments when a trans person steps out and looks to see herself with her own eyes. This book weaves each scene through the reflection of Amy’s thought life.
Glamour Boutique lets the reader consider what it means to be in two places at one time. This text allows the reader to consider a trans woman’s first memories of sexuality and how they are informed by social pressure, how they are subjugated by social pressure. Torrey Peter’s Novella explores how societal mores can lead to dissociating.
I would recommend this book. The narrative of the characters is well developed and the plot carries a strong beat that can be felt days after.
Glamour Boutique lets the reader consider what it means to be in two places at one time. This text allows the reader to consider a trans woman’s first memories of sexuality and how they are informed by social pressure, how they are subjugated by social pressure. Torrey Peter’s Novella explores how societal mores can lead to dissociating.
I would recommend this book. The narrative of the characters is well developed and the plot carries a strong beat that can be felt days after.
August 27, 2017
I love me a Torrey Peters novella. They keep getting better and better. "Glamour Boutique" is probably the most lyrical and my favourite so far, though I dig them all.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews