Hil Malatino’s Side Affects explores the distinctive ways that “being trans feels bad.” Malatino is determined to provide both a more textured and unvarnished view of transition—from the exhaustion of those trying to offer support to other trans people, to the often-unspoken interpersonal envy that ruptures communities, to the rage that everyday encounters of transphobia foment (and which is then pointed to for justification of further phobia). The book provides an insider’s view of the bleaker and more frustrating aspects of transition, too often downplayed since transgender people were forcibly enlisted as combatants in the so-called culture wars.

Read the full review at Boston Review.