Arthnold's Book Corner makes its triumphant debut.

If you're looking for a good Hate-Read definitely consider Detransition, Baby by trans-identified Torrey Peters. Try and get a copy from a library or a woke friend because the author does not deserve your hard-earned [insert local currency].

My review on Amazon was as follows (spoilers are hidden, clumsily).

This review contains spoilers. If you want to read the book yourself, I urge you to reconsider, but also skip this review.

This book is gross. It makes my skin crawl to read it, and I am left with the feeling that all the fawning praise heaped upon it is because it's woke and subversive, not because it's actually a good book that people might want to read. I feel like I've been roped into some autogynephile's sissification fanfiction. Blech.

Reese, our trans-identifying protagonist can't give birth for obvious reasons, so we get 300 pages of misogyny and moaning about that. The 'erotic thrill' she gets from the thought of maybe contracting HIV is compared with the erotic thrill women must get when they might get pregnant. Being beaten by a man is a profoundly erotic experience because what could better affirm her femaleness than being a victim of a horrible crime? 'Cis' women don't know how lucky they are to have functioning reproductive organs, and any woman who doesn't want a child should immediately have a hysterectomy. And other vile rubbish.

Reese is what we might charitably call 'a hot mess'. Frequent affairs with married men ruin several relationships, both her own and those of others. She is in a 'lesbian' relationship with another trans-identifying man called Amy for several years, but then she has an affair with a man who beats her (so erotic! so affirming!) and then walks out on Amy. Years later Amy, now Ames (pron. Aims? Ahmess?) is a man again and has knocked up his boss, Katrina. For reasons known only to himself, he wants Reese to 'co-mother' with the actual, biological mother of this child who, despite initial misgivings, ends up being totally okay with letting a random stranger 'co-mother' with her.

[Spoilers went here]

Reese has a minor conniption when she sees a poster with an offensive anti-transgender slur on it (beginning with T, for those who need it spelled out) but peppers her speech with homophobic and lesbophobic slurs because that's fine, apparently. She sees no problem in in constantly having affairs with married men and, yes, while it does take two to tango, she refuses to admit that this kind of behaviour might be off-putting to people. She also swans around New York thinking she's better than everyone else because she has 'trauma' and 'mommy issues' when the woman literally sleeps in a bathroom and doesn't have a job. Who is she to judge anyone?

We are also treated to stories of Ames's trans awakening, included detailed descriptions of how erotic he found wearing womens' clothes, and how he pays dominatrixes (dominatrices?) to indulge his own 'mommy issues'.

I am against burning books on principle, but I might make an exception for this one.

I regret having bought it tbh, but if I can encourage my gender-critical friends to hate-read it, so much the better.