Loved this collection! I appreciated the mix of personal, political, and cultural and I also liked how she was able to write about art, film, and books that I wasn't previously familiar with in a way I could follow and that was still engaging. The insights about journalism, trans healthcare, and motherhood were also thought-provoking.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC!

I really found this collection to be insightful and unique. This collection brought to light a number of trans history and the current politics insights that I had not been aware of. The author has a strong voice and the essays are well thought out and engaging.

This will soon become a staple in our reading and I’m so thankful to be given a chance to read early. I found Walker’s voice unique and perspective to be something much needed. I cannot wait to see what she has to offer us next.

AGGREGATED DISCONTENT by Harron Walker is a strong addition to the memoirs and essay collections published in the last few years. These essays cover a range of topics and feel especially necessary given the unrelenting attack on trans rights--and trans people. It took me a little longer than I expected to read each essay, in part because I didn't want to rush through them, and taking my time was very worth it.

I really enjoyed this collection. I took my time with each essay since the subject matter could be very heavy. I will definitely look for this author in the future!

A searing journey through the highs and lows of twenty-first century womanhood from an award-winning journalist beloved for her unflinchingly honest and often comedic appraisals of pop culture, identity, and disillusionment

What an essay collection. Harron Walker addresses everything from working in media to trans healthcare and parenthood to incredible culture analysis. She does it with humor, snark, lots of sources, and so much moxie. I loved it. I'm going to be keeping an eye out on Walker's future work, because it's so good.

A funny and fresh collection of essays. It was very interesting to see life through Harron's perspective and offered interesting reflection on the daily interactions she has that I as a cis person don't even consider.

I'll be looking more into her writing, I hope this book makes her a household name.

I couldn't put my finger on why I didn't love Walker's voice and then we got to the essay on what cis people expect from a trans author there is is, I thought. Recommend.

Overall, I found this interesting and extremely unique. As with most books that are formatted this way, I of course was more interested in certain stories than others. If you were intrigued by this title and found the subject matter to be aligned with your interests, I’d say give it a go! Wasn’t my favorite but I finished it and fairly quickly, so those are good signs.

Aggregated Discontent is a stunning collection of personal essays about transness, pop culture, and more. I love Walker's writing style. Normally I would try to space out the essays but I couldn't stop myself from immediately moving to the next! I highly recommend everyone give this a read.

Sharp, clever, meandering essays on trans identity, healthcare, employment, and pop culture. I thoroughly enjoyed this jaunt through journalist Harron Walker's head and will be thinking on these topics for a good while. (Also, this cover is everything and made me feel very cute reading it in public :))

Likely any book of essays by a trans person is going to supply perspective and insight new to my experience of the world. Harron Walker's getting in early with me, and I'm grateful for her work.

I am, for instance, well aware of right-wing attacks on healthcare for trans people, but Walker's discussions (in more than one essay here) of anti-trans legislation have clarified for me that when we speak of attacks on trans people's right to exist we're being entirely literal. To put it another way, I knew that before, but Herron Walker made me understand it physically, viscerally.

Had I not been reading this book at the same time as a novel featuring a trans character, I probably wouldn't have registered that the character has no trans friends, no connection to a queer/trans community. Entirely possible, of course, but, as HW points out in the essay "Obvious Community Member," something that needs accounting for.

Walker's descriptions of trans people having only sex work as an option for making a living, and how the treatment of sex workers effectively criminalizes being trans, brought home to me some things I knew only in the abstract or from journalistic coverage, which no matter how well done functions at a remove from the conditions and people it describes.

Or consider "firsts" -- first trans woman to do A, first trans man to do B, etc. But

The obsession with claiming “trans firsts,” both real and imagined, continues because “trans people are in a constant state of being discovered,” as the historian and filmmaker Morgan M. Page once wrote.

Because of course, since trans people have historically been erased, or invisible to begin with, firsts are illusory; worse, they contribute to the process of erasure, since if something is first then there must not have been anything preceding it.

No doubt I'm well behind the curve in knowledge of trans history and politics -- most of the people Harron Walker cites as important figures are new to me -- and for all I know, the points I mention above as illuminating are actually commonplaces, ditto everything else I learned. I can only read as myself, though: got to start somewhere.

Why three stars. Well -- again, I can read only as myself -- sometimes I was bored. At the heart of "Aggregated Discontent" is a long essay about the artist Greer Lankton, which in the absence of illustrations (or, alternatively, of a reader's pre-existing familiarity with the work) sort of floats above its subject. My own predilections come into play here too, in that to the extent I could visualize Lankton's art it sounded like something I'd actively avoid.

There were times, too, when I found Walker's voice irritating and her swipes misplaced. I admit that the irritation may be partly owed to defensiveness, but it also arose from weariness with a purist and, to my mind, juvenile politics (or, to put it otherwise, yes I do think there are important differences between a Kathy Hochul and an AOC). As for misplaced swipes, I offer this:

I heard a little boy berate his mother in the “Shut up, Mom!” tone that a certain type of little white child is prone to.

Little children are not appropriate targets, especially not when the context suggests that the little child in question, however annoying his tone, may just be tired. "Aggregated Discontent" got my back up in this way often enough to slot itself into the didn't-rock-my-world 3-star range.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC.

These essays either hit me deep in my soul or bounced off very quickly and I did not find myself mentally coming back to. As a person I generally don’t love short story and essay collections as I find myself getting off track but these felt very cohesive and insightful. Thank you Random House and NetGalley for this ARC.

This book was so insightful and fun to read. There were definitely certain essays that resonated more, but the author’s combining of personal anecdotes and research to highlight the trans experience on topics ranging from pregnancy, identity, and pop culture. I will admit that some of the pop culture focused ones didn’t particularly hit for me, but I learned so much from some of the other essays about trans icons that I’ve never heard of or just general anecdotes about the trans experience that overall I really enjoyed this collection. This is the perfect book to pick up here and there to give yourself time to sit with what you read in between.

Smart, fiery, a little hit-or-miss Some of these essays were absolute gold—sharp, punchy, and made me stop and think. Harron Walker definitely doesn’t hold back, which I loved. That said, a few pieces felt a bit uneven or lost me midway. Still, when it works, it really works. Wouldn’t call it flawless, but I’m glad I read it.

This was a great essay collection from Ms. Walker that gives us a whole range of writing, from criticism to fanfic-esque the way you wish things had gone to memoir to straight up investigative journalism, looking at what we're supposed to want in the world veruss what we actually have to deal with, especially for trans women. Great voice, and absolutely worth picking up this summer.

Harron is legit a genius writer and I loved reading this book of essays about her life and perspective on everything from art to film to the state of digital media. The trans experience in America is growing more difficult by the day but listening to voices of these authors is needed.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A big thank you to Harron Walker, Random House, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read Aggregated Discontent in digital format. I will share my review to Amazon, Goodreads, and Barnes & Noble upon release.

This collection of essays explores a variety of themes and ideas, but most of them confront the expectations, boundaries, and violence that come with womanhood. In her life, the ways that these things have shown up are examined with humor and frustration. Harron's voice is vulnerable and honest, but at times, exhausted. I couldn't help but feel echoes of Fleabag - the ways that feminism puts its own pressures on us to behave a certain way or be aware of certain information. It feels difficult to complain, because someone has it worse, or had it worse, or hell, could have it worse. But all in all, this is the life we're experiencing, and we have a right to have a painter's pallet of emotions about it, damnit! Harron's thoughts will make you blow air out of your nose probably a lot. You'll go "You know, that's so true," until your head falls off. I definitely learned a lot about trans womanhood and the ways that those two things are both woven together and artificially pushed apart. Harron has a lot to say, and I loved reading.

Major Tropes & Themes:

- womanhood/feminism/gender
- humorous observations
- trans women
- healthcare & reproductive freedom
- capitalism & patriarchy
- fertility
- girlboss

4/5 stars!

This was a wonderful and important book of essays that I’d liken to Trick Mirror and Everything I Know About Love. We get part memoir, part reflection from a trans woman on pop culture, art, transparenthood, HRT, white feminism, and so much more. You can tell this is written by someone with a background in journalism because it’s both attention grabbing and well-researched. I loved learning about her life and experiences, and getting interesting history and background on topics like HRT used by cisgendered people. Highly recommend this one if you want something funny, at time dark, direct, and captivating.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC!