Transitional is a memoir and manifesto by Munroe Bergdorf, trans model and activist, exploring her childhood and growing up, finding love, sex, and fame, and living as a Black woman. Each chapter is focused on a theme—'Adolescence', 'Love', 'Gender', 'Race' etc—and is mostly a memoir, with some parts moving more into guide and manifesto around the central theme of the idea that everyone transitions in some way.

I was expecting from the blurb for this to be more of a manifesto than a memoir, when really it's the other way around for a lot of the book, with a lot focused on Bergdorf's own experiences and drawing out her conclusions from that, but by the end the book moves more towards her activism and the importance of activism and spaces and communities for making change. From growing up black in a mostly white area to being fired by L'Oréal for a social media post denouncing racism, the parts exploring race and racism were particularly interesting, and by the end of the book this is connected up with Black feminist theory, linking personal together with theory. At other points in the book, there were some generalised statements about how, people are viewed in society that felt less backed up, for example how bisexuality and gender intersect, and it would've been good to know if that was based on statistics or was more of an opinion as it was presented as a fact without comment.

There are a fair number of mainstream trans memoirs out there now and this one goes over a lot of the expected areas—growing up, sex, transitioning, mental health—whilst also getting into things like the fashion industry and social media algorithms. It covers a lot in a short space, and whilst I wish there was more within the book to build upon the idea from the introduction and ending that everyone transitions in life, it offers an insight into Bergdorf's life and what has impacted her life.

I'm in two minds about Transitional - I found the first half in particular extremely engaging and well-written, and I highlighted quite a few sections. However, as the book progresses, it loses track of its theme of "transition" somewhat. At times, this train of thought is replaced by strong feelings and righteous anger, and is significantly affecting - however, at other times the aim of the book becomes slightly confused. Transitional walks the line between being a memoir and an essay collection - sometimes more successfully than others. There are some really interesting considerations of various aspects of society here - not just being trans, but race, gender more generally, eating disorders, and sexual violence (and please do pay attention to any trigger warnings linked to these topics!). At points though, especially if you have read a lot of other books on these topics, there is a slight lack of both depth and emotional connection. I found Transitional to be a really interesting read, but the implementation could have been refined somewhat.
3.5 stars rounded up to 4.