Detransition, Baby (by Torrey Peters)

My second Camp ToB read.  I loved No One Is Talking About This, but the commentariat seems to have...  not loved it.  I somewhat suspect the opposite will happen with Detransition, Baby, which is incredibly well regarded and reviewed, but which I disliked.  

Reese is a deliberately flawed character but I found her too horrible to sympathize with.  Which would be fine, except the novel seems to want you to sympathize anyway. Katrina is completely implausible in her behaviors and reactions. (Why would she want to share a baby with Reese who, again, is awful to her.) Ames seems masochistically entwined with her too, but I can understand the solidarity and love that is between them.  As a character, Ames is the best of the three, but also not particularly coherent.

As I sifted through Goodreads to find some reviews that might agree with me, the ones I did find complained about the ending (which I actually liked a lot) and the writing (which I was fine with).  So maybe I am just not on this book's wavelength. I did learn a lot from this book: the origin of the term transgender, the complexities of detransitioning, and much about genital dysphoria and sex in the trans world.  So ultimately I'm glad I read it but in the end, and maybe because I am a cis woman, this book was Not For Me. Which is okay.