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I found this book through a personalized shelf review at Powell's in Portland during Pride. So it seems appropriate that this genre-mashing novella is about the messy middle part of figuring out sexuality, gender, gender expression, and kink, not the neatly-packaged "proud" coming of age stories that are littering the market about trans lives. Almost every few pages, I found myself flip-flopping on what I hoped the narrator would do, enveloped in shame, arousal, awkwardness, subservience, and cu...
Bruh this was terrifying
Disturbing, dark and interesting, a glimpse at ways in which fear can drive one's choices and betrayals. Didn't really enjoy it, despite the clever turns of phrase, because of how sad it was: Peters's other books I've read feel more hopeful, but it was very interesting, too.
I will be thinking about this one for a long time. Peters is a *gift*.
Calling this a novella is generous. It reads like a sissy erotica subreddit post. It is basically a justification for fetishizing the female experience and an attempt to rationalize it, while suggesting that violence against women is sexually arousing.Some relevant quotes:"He slapped me as I had seen women slapped in movies... he could treat me as a vulnerable woman.The thought turned me on.His slap had been the most feminizing thing that had ever happened to me, the most pure forced feminizatio...
Krys is young and pretty. She has recently transitioned and goes to a famous conference in Vegas for transwomen and cross-dressers. She's shy and feeling out of place and an older, confident and experienced transwoman wants to take her under her wing and protect her from all the pain that she had to go through when she transitioned. But Krys has a long-time fantasy of force-feminization and being objectified by a handsome guy, and there he is. Handsome and with a reputation for being a bad boy.
Brutal, elegant, honest, delicate, heartfelt, erotic, harrowing, and utterly mesmerizing. I am in tatters.
In case the cover doesn't give it away. The Masker is an unusual addition to the shelves of transgender erotica. It is a dark, smart sort of literature that reminds me of Mykola Dementiuk.Torrey Peters has written a story about the intersection of fantasy and reality. It is a story that takes an honest (and often painful) look at the many sides of transgender culture, including crossdressers, sissies, forced feminization, female masking, and transsexualism. It is a story of egos, attitudes, opin...
In preparation for Peters' Detransition Baby, I thought I would read her novellas so that I could get a feel for her writing style. This slim novel deals with the internal conflict which lies deeply-seated within a young girl - wanting to be sexually objectified and subdued by a male other as a 'sissy boy' on one hand and to come to terms with her destiny; transitioning into a full-fledged woman. It almost reads like a parable of sorts since Krys, our protagonist, meets two characters who exempl...
God, Torrey Peters writes beautifully. She transports the reader from jump into the lives of her gorgeously flawed characters. I loved sitting with the layers of revulsion and desire and betrayal. I loved that even though it’s a story delving deep into trans experiences it also triggered some beautiful/scary self-reflection for me as a cis girl: the discomfiting way in which what most repels us is in some way close kin to what we most desire, the way in which we are disgusted by characteristics
the first words that pop into my head to describe this book are "uncomfortably seen". the way torrey peters brought me straight back to my thought processes pre-coming out with krys' internal monologue was intensely insightful, and though the book brought back the memories of a time past, it also made me more aware and appreciative of how far i've come since the days of incessantly googling phrases like "is it possible to want to be a woman" and ending up on transphobic message boards telling me...
dark, brutal, and eerily erotic, torrey peters stuns with a tale that’s part fantastical realism and part gender horror. the stream of consciousness is especially provocative, showing a very precarious internal battle in krys that borders on masochistic. gritty and intense, a wild ride in a compact package. i would have loved if the narrative was expanded a bit and we got more info about krys’ life in iowa and the world beyond the vegas strip. a thrilling, quick ride of a novella that’s sure to
Kris, a recent graduate, working in a railway museum in rural Idaho, goes to a Vegas transfemme/crossdressing conference in an attempt to work out if she’s actually a transwoman, or just a male crossdresser. Kris splits her time in Vegas between two archetypical elder figures: a judgemental older transwoman who sees her bottom surgery as making her more legitimate than others, and who despises crossdressers as perverting her identity; and a married doctor who insists that crossdressers who trans...
Yikes
Despite being a really quick read, there is a lot to think about in these pages. At the book's heart, it's about a young girl stumbling through the messy process of learning who she is. Ultimately, she is given two paths, and each one comes with a guide. The character seems to be driven by desire to a great extent, but something that lurks below the surface is that the self-professed guides down each of the possible paths is significantly older, and each confidently purports to know what the mai...
Damn. This was a whirlwind of 90s internet, sadness, and longing. I read it in one go, and wish there was more. Torrey rules, and I can't wait for whatever she writes next. If you're a sissy, or a trans lady, or someone adjacent... This will ring some bells, and make you feel awkward in some interesting ways. Read this book. It's for us.
Unsettling, clever, dark, philosophical.
This book might seem to be incredibly modern given the setting (Los Vegas) and subject matter (crossdressing and transition) but actually feels like something of a traditional fairy tale, right down to the typesetting and use of illustrations. Peters crafts a story that is structurally quite simple, coming down to a choice the protagonist is forced to make between two paths: one which seems easy and pleasurable, and another which seems difficult and uncomfortable. Like in all fairy tales, appear...
I'm a confirmed Torrey Peters stan now
This felt like more of a short story than a book - it didn't take me long to read at all and being honest, I was quite disappointed that it was over so quickly. I felt a lot more time could have been spent exploring the themes that many trans folk go thru, i.e. what does all this mean - is it who I am or is it just a fetish? That's not an easily solvable thing and can take years of self-exploration, therapy and experimenting before someone finds the answer. And that isn't helped by some of the a...