Core

(Note: I read the version that's up on AO3 through chapter 15. The print edition is unavailable at the moment and I have no idea how different it is. Probably not very!?!)/

The five stages of Dorley:

I wouldn't go to Dorley -> ok fine I would go to Dorley -> oh. I see. I already did go to Dorley -> wait was RLT worse than Dorley -> I should get a novelty mug that says "I was castrated and all I got was this novelty mug"

Dorley Hall ends up a surprisingly rich lens to view our experiences through. That's not all it is, obviously, but the trauma they share and bond over—it hits. The medical trauma is something I both appreciated and dread reading more of in future books (which I will be reading why yes I did jump straight into chapter 16 oooops!!).

Really curious where this treatment of gender is going! Their gender is coercively reassigned yet they embrace it; I'm chewing on it still but there is some parallel to be drawn with the Janice Raymond "medically constructed female" line of screed, maybe — after all, they really were moulded into women in an evil laboratory against their wills (initially, anyway). But of course I should emphasise the text doesn't buy into that, because it's actually written by someone who understands nuance and empathy (shocking!).

The easy answer is "well they were all basically eggs so they're happy with it in the end" but the text explicitly rejects this explanation (and rightfully so). Yet it obviously doesn't buy into John Money nonsense either—many do "wash out" of the "programme", never to be heard from again.

So what it leaves you with is a group of women who are emphatically women (mostly) who cannot be labelled cis/trans, who view their old selves as truly dead (with a heaping of trauma attached), whose genders were coercively assigned to them and yet they accepted them. I think what I like about this is that on one hand it *is* analogous to (a) transsexual experience, and you can read it simply qua analogy, but it's obviously not *just* that; there are many points where this analogy breaks down and it asks you to look past the analogy. I don't have a conclusion to this, yet, and I don't think the text will ever hand me one. But I'm excited to see yet more nuance added to this in the later books to make it even harder to read. I love this aspect, basically.

Suffice it to say the characters are also lots of fun and I want more of them; I'm excited for where the plot is going; and I'm dreading a bit that the pacing is already quite uneven, and since this is a web serial I just know it'll get worse. Oh well, I'm a Dorleypilled true believer in need of novelty mugs now, I'll read it anyway :)

Review to come, I think, but *The Third Sex* was utterly electrifying, edifying, rage-inducing. Excellent and essential work.

disappointed :(

The hottest new sport in the UK is Ranked Competitive Breast Growth, where cis men (and ONLY cis men) compete to see who can grow the biggest tatas in three years. Winner gets a million dollars. Obviously this sport would appeal to lots of cis guys, and no other demographic! But if you do get exposed to not be a cis guy you're instantly booted from the competition. (Despite this, orchiectomies are considered meta.)

This should be ridiculous, but somehow it manages to seem grounded by the end. The first half is a bit like an absurd trans sitcom: four roommates all participate, and hijinks ensue, all of them basically convinced they're the trans one going undercover in the competition who must keep their cover lest the others get them booted from the competition. However, the narrative doesn't shy away from what a hostile situation this is, and it's crystal clear about what drives them all to participate. (Surely there are no parallels to reality here, it's pure fiction I'm told.) For this reason the second half shifts to be less of a sitcom and more of a (sad) character study.

I'm beginning to think I don't treat my fellow trans girls very well.

This really worked for me! I would say I found the first half more fun, but the second half was what got me hooked.

It's not perfect — for example, there's a segment that basically goes on a long tangent to summarize one of Bhatt's essays. While it's a good essay I found it a bit grating; it does get weaved in afterwards in a way I liked, but in the moment it was still very clunky.

All in all though I'd recommend it as a fun read, at least if a transfeminist sitcom sounds appealing. Quite similar to Sisters of Dorley but also distinct enough to have its own things to say. If the next book was already out I'd be reading it immediately

she really was back! a bit predictable but also a lot of fun. a lot of readers seem to hate Carrie and I think they simply don't get it. why didn't she and Nicki kiss though

Full review:

This was a fun one! Keeping up the TJR streak of fun enjoyable books for me (we're ignoring Malibu Rising).

This is a book about tennis, but it's really a book about desire. The premise is that of Carrie Soto as a world-renowned tennis star—the best there ever was—whose status as The Best suddenly becomes threatened, making her return to the sport despite her old age (for tennis... she's in her late thirties), with her dad as her coach. So in one sense, this is an underdog story: the entire world assumes she can't come back. In another sense it really isn't, as Soto's goal initially isn't to take back her title, it's to keep it. This alone makes Carrie an abrasive character: she has already proved herself, and what she's fighting for isn't to prove herself, not really, she's already done that: her impetus to come back is to stop someone else from overshadowing her legacy. More than that, she insists on bluntly stating what she believes (i.e. that she is The Best), and she will use any advantage she can get her hands on to win. This all makes following her comeback a lot of fun! I also never found her unlikable, though a lot of readers seem to.

Although on the surface it shares characteristics with sports anime of all things (and a hint of Marty Supreme, if it was actually about ping pong), it's really a grounded story. For me, that comes down to her relationship with her dad Javier (who is also her coach), which acts as the gravitational pull of the novel. We get the play-by-play of many tennis matches (and it is exciting! at least if you like tennis), but I think each and every one really characterises and reflects Carrie, Javier, and their relationship. (There is nominally a romance here, too, albeit a boring one.)

TJR ranking: Atmosphere > Daisy Jones & the Six > Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo > Carrie Soto is Back > Malibu Rising