Stag Dance by Torrey Peters
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Stag Dance by Torrey Peters is my first time getting close to adult topics with trans characters. This book is a collection of three short stories, ‘Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones’, ‘The Chaser’, ‘The Masker’, and a novella, ‘Stag Dance’. The author uses the first-person narrator throughout the book to navigate the stories.
What it is about
‘Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones’ is set in Seattle and other spaces in the United States. It is a sci-fi dystopia that explores a future where humans are not able to produce sex hormones naturally. This story reflects on love and attraction between transwomen.
‘The Chaser’ is a realistic fiction story that explores identity, masculinity and first-time experiences of two boys in high school. One of them is attracted to femininity while the other is femme. It is set in a private school and the school farm.
‘The Masker’, set in Las Vegas, is a realistic fiction story that explores the dynamics between men attracted to cross-dressers and transwomen, showing desire, shame and vulnerability.
‘Stag Dance’ is a novella set in a lumber camp, where Babe, the main character, discovers his preferences and inclinations to cross-dress.
How it is told
The author introduces ideas difficult to talk about, exploring deeply the psychology of her characters and their environment. She shows discrimination, desire, envy and compassion.
The tone in the book is casual with a realistic development of the characters and strong research behind each of the works.
The book is easy to read, with paragraphs rich in slang of the setting. For example, in ‘Stag Dance’, where words belong to the time and job setting.
The four works have figurative language such as simile and metaphor, also symbolism, such as ‘only bricks get stuck to other bricks’, which is charged with discrimination and strong emotional understanding of the characters’ desires and fears.
‘What was hot for me before was that he was feminine and available and I set all the terms.’
Torrey Peters, Stag Dance, p. 69
Who will enjoy it
This book will be enjoyable for queer literature readers, students of genre and everyone who wants to enjoy something new. The topics are made for adults, and I recommend keeping this for adult readers.
Verdict
I really enjoyed this book, 4 out of 5
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