Jaelyn reviewed Welcome to Dorley Hall by Alyson Greaves
Review of 'Welcome to Dorley Hall' on 'Storygraph'
3 stars
Right so the synopsis certainly got me interested (despite it only being available through Amazon Books - Boo! Edit: now re-released properly, which might also mean this got an reedit since this review?) but I feel like I need to sleep on this book a long time to figure out what it is trying to say. For the large part, it wants to talk about the trans experience - yet nearly every single character in there bar the protagonist and a few on the side are cis men forcibly feminised (and they’re grateful for it - after a few years).
This poses a few issues.
Firstly, it undercuts a huge chunk of the trans perspectives because these people are not trans. If anything, it could easily feed into TERF talking points. Second is that the fact the cis boys forcibly feminised don’t seem to experience, years on, any kind of …
Right so the synopsis certainly got me interested (despite it only being available through Amazon Books - Boo! Edit: now re-released properly, which might also mean this got an reedit since this review?) but I feel like I need to sleep on this book a long time to figure out what it is trying to say. For the large part, it wants to talk about the trans experience - yet nearly every single character in there bar the protagonist and a few on the side are cis men forcibly feminised (and they’re grateful for it - after a few years).
This poses a few issues.
Firstly, it undercuts a huge chunk of the trans perspectives because these people are not trans. If anything, it could easily feed into TERF talking points. Second is that the fact the cis boys forcibly feminised don’t seem to experience, years on, any kind of dysphoria from being forced to live as their new assigned gender. Doesn’t that undercut the meaning of what dysphoria is for trans people if you can just “get over it”? Third, it doesn’t touch on transmasculinity at all but if it did, what it would say could be deeply problematic. And let’s not even start on how this “ends justify means” could easily be used to justify the mutilation of intersex children.
But I get a feeling some of what it is trying to do is rather more complex than it appears at first. Firstly, Stef’s experience is solitary and stands in contrast to everyone else in the narrative. That contrast serves to focus on their experience as a trans woman in a way that wouldn’t be as defined if it was in a building full of trans people. Second, in order to access gender-affirming care, Stef has to be constantly telling their captors what they want to hear, undergoing invasive inspections and questioning, being manhandled and mistreated, left in the dark and subjected to demanding language and psychological abuse. Trans people going through the medical system might feel some of that is very familiar.
Further, the early experiences of the cis men at least - fears and depression around the forced changes - could be an easy analogue to trans people forced to go through the puberty of their assigned gender. Meanwhile, the “graduates” of the programme as women do play the role of trans women who are dealing with the highly prescriptive ideals of femininity that society demands.
So I think it has a lot to say. It’s just hard for me to keep track of what it is trying to say at any one time because these messages jump around the place a lot and largely focus on cis people as stand-ins. Perhaps this gets clearer with the later books, I’ve only read the first in this series that could easily be “Harry Potter at the Dorley School for Gender & Fuckery”.
Okay, besides that the prose is okay and easy, if not going to win any awards, and the pacing is rather uneven; it rushes the beginning (give us some time with Stefan and dysphoria before just announcing it) and you could easily cull a few chapters here and there. There could also be a bit more tension through the second half.
I do feel a lot for Stef and how they relate to dysphoria and masculinity. They’re well-written and the other graduates are interesting, if a little interchangeable at times. It’s a good read and I guess most of my hangups are perhaps that the intended audience is for people who already are into the forced feminisation fantasy which has never been my cup of tea. If it’s yours, then this is clearly a must-read.
This poses a few issues.
Firstly, it undercuts a huge chunk of the trans perspectives because these people are not trans. If anything, it could easily feed into TERF talking points. Second is that the fact the cis boys forcibly feminised don’t seem to experience, years on, any kind of dysphoria from being forced to live as their new assigned gender. Doesn’t that undercut the meaning of what dysphoria is for trans people if you can just “get over it”? Third, it doesn’t touch on transmasculinity at all but if it did, what it would say could be deeply problematic. And let’s not even start on how this “ends justify means” could easily be used to justify the mutilation of intersex children.
But I get a feeling some of what it is trying to do is rather more complex than it appears at first. Firstly, Stef’s experience is solitary and stands in contrast to everyone else in the narrative. That contrast serves to focus on their experience as a trans woman in a way that wouldn’t be as defined if it was in a building full of trans people. Second, in order to access gender-affirming care, Stef has to be constantly telling their captors what they want to hear, undergoing invasive inspections and questioning, being manhandled and mistreated, left in the dark and subjected to demanding language and psychological abuse. Trans people going through the medical system might feel some of that is very familiar.
Further, the early experiences of the cis men at least - fears and depression around the forced changes - could be an easy analogue to trans people forced to go through the puberty of their assigned gender. Meanwhile, the “graduates” of the programme as women do play the role of trans women who are dealing with the highly prescriptive ideals of femininity that society demands.
So I think it has a lot to say. It’s just hard for me to keep track of what it is trying to say at any one time because these messages jump around the place a lot and largely focus on cis people as stand-ins. Perhaps this gets clearer with the later books, I’ve only read the first in this series that could easily be “Harry Potter at the Dorley School for Gender & Fuckery”.
Okay, besides that the prose is okay and easy, if not going to win any awards, and the pacing is rather uneven; it rushes the beginning (give us some time with Stefan and dysphoria before just announcing it) and you could easily cull a few chapters here and there. There could also be a bit more tension through the second half.
I do feel a lot for Stef and how they relate to dysphoria and masculinity. They’re well-written and the other graduates are interesting, if a little interchangeable at times. It’s a good read and I guess most of my hangups are perhaps that the intended audience is for people who already are into the forced feminisation fantasy which has never been my cup of tea. If it’s yours, then this is clearly a must-read.