Stag Dance

A Novel & Stories

De: Torrey Peters

Narrado por: Lee Osorio, Briggon Snow, Eileen Noonan, Pyrrha Nicole

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “This inventive, boundary-pushing follow-up to Detransition, Baby . . . [takes] on gender, transness and lives on the margins in all of their gorgeously complicated glory.”—People

“Hot, heartbreaking, and thrillingly victorious.”—Miranda July, New York Times bestselling author of All Fours

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • A VULTURE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR (SO FAR)

In this collection of one novel and three stories, bestselling author Torrey Peters’s keen eye for the rough edges of community and desire push the limits of trans writing.

In Stag Dance, the titular novel, a group of restless lumberjacks working in an illegal winter logging outfit plan a dance that some of them will volunteer to attend as women. When the broadest, strongest, plainest of the axmen announces his intention to dance as a woman, he finds himself caught in a strange rivalry with a pretty young jack, provoking a cascade of obsession, jealousy, and betrayal that will culminate on the big night in an astonishing vision of gender and transition.

Three startling stories surround Stag Dance: “Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones” imagines a gender apocalypse brought about by an unstable ex-girlfriend. In “The Chaser,” a secret romance between roommates at a Quaker boarding school brings out intrigue and cruelty. In the last story, “The Masker,” a party weekend on the Las Vegas strip turns dark when a young crossdresser must choose between two guides: a handsome mystery man who objectifies her in thrilling ways, or a cynical veteran trans woman offering unglamorous sisterhood.

Acidly funny and breathtaking in its scope, with the inventive audacity of George Saunders or Jennifer Egan, Stag Dance provokes, unsettles, and delights.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Sincere and mind-bending . . . [Stag Dance] is more exciting than anything else around.”—New York

“The four pieces in Stag Dance will leave you bruised, broken and wanting more.”—The New York Times

“[Peters is] one of the boldest, most innovative voices in fiction today.”—Bustle

“Stag Dance is funny, brilliant, and effortlessly original.”—Vulture

“[Stag Dance perfectly showcases Peters’s] acid wit, incredible talent, and eye for possibility.”—The Chicago Review of Books

“Adventurous, mind-expanding and provocative fiction.”—Bernardine Evaristo, The Guardian

“Deliciously filthy . . . Peters unravels the glorious, aching euphoria of giving in to yourself.”—Big Issue

“You never knew you needed a short story collection that includes lonely lumberjacks exploring queerness and gender, but you do.”—USA Today

“Stunning.”—Cosmopolitan

“Brilliant, mind-blowing . . . Peters’ vision is one where gender roles are never stagnant, and the world is made new by queerness.”—BookPage

“Inventive, boundary-pushing . . . [Stag Dance takes] on gender, transness and lives on the margins in all of their gorgeously complicated glory.”—People

“Incredibly engrossing . . . Torrey Peters brings her signature wit and heart to get past the labels and into the core of how we all negotiate the ways we want to be seen.”—NPR

“Precise, original, funny and fearless.”—Shortlist

“Electrifying.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Stag Dance further establishes [Peters] as an essential voice in queer literature.”—AV Club

“Peters seems to delight in complicating liberal identity politics, refusing ever to sanitise her work or narrow her focus, and glorying in some truly rollicking prose.”—The Guardian

“The stories in Stag Dance are potent and surprising and take no prisoners. How exquisitely Peters writes about the way we move toward ourselves—with the clarity of desire and the agony of resistance.”—Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House

“This is what I want from fiction. It starts at a place of real vulnerability, goes all the way down its own rabbit hole, and ends up potent and strange.”—Imogen Binnie, author of Nevada

Cringy and Beautiful

I loved the variety of writing styles tailored to each story. Very creative, imaginative and fresh, yet deeply relatable on a human level. Listened to it all in one day.

The brilliant dialogue!

I loved the creativity and authenticity. Ms. Peters is such a talented author! I very much enjoyed this read!

This stung

Scathingly honest. It's refreshing to read about the dark sides of your culture, and we need to in order to explore who we are. This does the same for me as a trans woman as horror stories in general does for me as a woman, as a white person or as a european person of privilege ø.

A Raw Look at the Trans (and Queer) Experience

Torrey Peters is an incredibly talented author. The stories in this book all hit on the nuances and ugly parts of the trans and queer experience. It’s hard to write those parts with tact and care while still being honest, and I think she nailed it. They were hard to listen to at many points- I wanted a happier ending for basically all the main characters (but nonetheless felt the endings they had were fair for how their stories went).

Fantastic

Loved this book. So well written, so smart, absolutely adored this book
Highly recommend, as well as her other book
Also stag dance, the novella is beyond amazing

How the hell did she come up with that? The language is incredible.

Uh woah

These were crazy. Stag Dance was my favorite. The chaser and the masker made my skin crawl and gave me goosebumps and nausea

A Gay Romance Novel?!

Based on the description and the sample, I was expecting something different. Not my cup of tea. As it turns out, Audible will not allow you to return a book purchased with cash.

DNF

I just could not get into it, some of the stories are so sexualized and the violence against animals was just so disturbing to me I couldn’t finish it.