Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC from netgalley in exchange for a review.

The second I saw "The History and Future of Transness in Cinema" I knew I had to have this book. I do enjoy Media Studies as a field and the history of trans images particularly in horror movies are something I have spent quite some time thinking about and feeling devasted because of it. Thankfully, albeit slowly, there is starting to be a bit more representiation in modern horror (Bit 2019, Hellraiser 2022, We're All Going to the World's Fair 2022, They/Them 2022, Evil Dead Rise 2023, T Blockers 2023), but I also enjoyed reading what came before.
This book is an incredible addition to queer media studies and I really enjoyed reading it! This book does start out a bit academic, but you don't need to be a scholar to understand it and once you get past the first chapter, it all becomes easily accessible. If you are in any way interested in representation in movies then everything described here is easily understandable.
While it is a slow read at times, in part due to the often lenghtly descriptions of a film's plot, that makes it easily accessible if you haven't seen a movie. If you have and you aren't like me, who wants to read every word in a book, you can always skip the summary and get to the analysis faster. I also liked that while a big portion of this text is centered on trans women, as they were portrayed more often in early trans film (although often in very transmisogynist ways), trans man and nonbinary characters also play a role. An incredibly number of topics from documentary depictions, horror, Cronenberg's Media, the Matrix, cis-as-trans casting, Christine Jorgensen, the 1960s, 70s and 80s, and finally The New Frontier of the Trans Film.
So if you want to enjoy a really interesting look into trans media (the good, the bad & the severly transmisogynistic) I can only recommend you check out this amazing piece of queer media study.

And lastly, I'll finish this review with the list of movies I've written down to check out after reading this book:

In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden (In a Year of 13 Moons) - Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Cruising - William Friedkin
City of Lost Souls, I Am My Own Woman, Transexual Menace - Rosa von Praunheim
Second Serve - Anthony Page
Dressed in Blue - Antonie Giménez-Rico
TV Transvestite - Michele Capozzi & Simone de Bagno.
Paris is Burning - Jennie Livingston
Southern Comfort - Kate Davis
Videodrome, Rabid, Crash & Crimes of the Future - David Cronenberg
By Hook or by Crook - Harry Dodge, Silas Howard
Maggots and Men - Cary Cronnenwett
Lingua Franca - Isabel Sandoval
So Vam, Bad Girl Boogey, T Blockers - Alice Maio Mackay