Detransition, Baby is...a hell of a novel. It isn't The Great Trans Novel, and it isn't trying to be; it's a very specific trans novel.

Peters is writing about transness, about trans women, about society, about the impact of the messages of society and of other trans people. She's got an awful lot in this book. Most of it is *hard*.

This isn't an easy read for me, because it keeps tapping into my feelings; it isn't an easy read because it's messy and complex and people do shitty things, just like in life, and people's choices are constrained and hard.

Throughout it all, Peters keeps a sense of humour, and has a wonderful way with words; a sense of dramatic irony; and really spectacular ability to turn a phrase.

For a book about the impossibility of trans motherhood, a lot of avenues of trans motherhood are opened up; Peters complicates and questions repeatedly the assumptions and choices of her characters.

Detransition, Baby comes out next month, and already I know it will be one of the most impactful books of next year for me. I've said before I'm torn between wanting every cis person to read it and wanting none of them to. Still true.

Thank you, @serpentstail, for the reading copy. And thank you for publishing this incredibly queer novel.