Dear residents of Apartment No:26’s Attic Floor—those brave enough to break molds and unafraid to swim in the complicated waters of modern relationships—hello!
Today on our table lies a work that became a “cult” phenomenon the moment it was published, tackling the experience of womanhood and queer family-building practices in their rawest, most honest, and most shattering form: Torrey Peters’ “Detransition, Baby,” translated into Turkish by Umami Kitap in April 2025.
This novel is not merely a trans story; it is a massive assault on parenthood, gender, and the institutionalized forms of love.
A Triangle, a Baby, and Shaken Taboos
The story centers on the intersecting paths of three characters in New York’s both glittering and exhausting atmosphere:
Reese: She once had everything and lost it all. While sharing that “petit-bourgeois comfort” dreamed of by a generation of trans women with Amy, she now finds herself trying to soothe her loneliness with married men. Her one great desire: to become a mother.
Amy/Ames: Reese’s former partner. After detransitioning and beginning to live as Ames, this change does not bring the happiness he sought; losing Reese means losing the only family he ever had.
Katrina: Ames’s boss and lover. When she learns she is pregnant, Ames makes her an offer far outside the conventional: Could the three of us raise this child together?
Ambience: A Night Walk Through Brooklyn Streets
While reading “Detransition, Baby,” you will find yourself on the dirty yet enchanting streets of New York, deep inside an internal reckoning. To complete this atmosphere, my recommendation:
Music: Imagine Mitski’s melancholic tones or Arlo Parks’ soft yet piercing voice playing in the background. Let these sounds mingle with the city’s noise to accompany the characters’ inner turmoil.
Lighting: A rainy late afternoon, behind the fogged window of a café, under the neon lights reflecting from the street.
Drink: A glass of chilled white wine or a strong New York-style Americano.
What They Said About the Book
❝ Detransition, Baby is so good I wanted to scream! — Carmen Maria Machado ❞
❝ A novel that upends our traditional and gendered notions of parenthood. — The New York Times Book Review ❞
Why You Should Read It
A Courageous Lens: It looks at social issues through a queer lens—a perspective long missing from the literary world.
Complex Experience of Womanhood: It refuses to take refuge in clichéd answers about what womanhood is, how it is constructed, and how it is lived.
Miraculous Style: Both brutally wounding and filled with boundless tenderness. The raw language of the characters will make you laugh at times and plunge you into deep reflection at others.
This is the kind of book that changes the air in the attic—raw, fearless, and deeply human.
