Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

208 reviews

analenegrace's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was a uniquely fascinating post-apocalyptic novel, especially to listen to. 

Often, post-apocalyptic novels are focused on survival but not on those whose survival looks very different, and this book, with a trans author and a trans narrator, examined a world where trans people's experiences are dictated by a disease that targets testosterone and turns people into zombie-like monsters. Currently, we are facing a serious problem of TERFS (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) who target trans people simply for existing, at times violently, and this book wonders if how much worse they could get. 

Our characters are not always likable, and it is questionable how many main characters this book has, although I would generally say five. Plot-wise, at times, it felt like things were moving a bit too fast, and the plot never really settled. There are no breaks in this book beyond the sex scenes, which are important to the plot anyway; instead, the characters are constantly physically and mentally on the move, never stopping. 

My biggest criticism was related to the pacing and how the audiobook did the narration. I haven't seen a physical copy, so maybe it's like this in the book as well, but the internal monologue would shift narrators constantly, mid-chapter, without warning, and often shift locations in the same way, and it made it somewhat hard to listen to. The audiobook narrator also did accents for some but not all of the characters, so when she did them, it came as quite a shock. 

I really recommend this one but with heavy warnings for brutality, violence, sexual violence, external and internal transphobia, and death. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Violence, Body shaming, Dysphoria, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Cursing, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Torture, Transphobia, Confinement, Death, Body horror, Outing, Murder, Sexual content, Rape, and Physical abuse

cassa's review against another edition

I wish it didn't rely on shock value all the time, both for sex scenes and how everything is described. Strangely slow pace.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal death, Gun violence, Blood, Sexual violence, Hate crime, Fatphobia, Sexual harassment, Gore, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Murder, Medical trauma, Rape, Violence, Transphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, and Cannibalism

Graphic rape scene

noonanjohnc's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Abortion, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Medical content, Torture, Abandonment, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Misogyny, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Body horror, Deadnaming, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infertility, Sexism, Drug use, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Mental illness, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body shaming, Confinement, Racism, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, War, Colonisation, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Lesbophobia, Toxic relationship, and Trafficking

intheo_ry's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I enjoyed this book, but I feel like I would have enjoyed it more if it had focused on different characters more than Beth and Fran. I found Indi and Ramona the most complex, interesting characters but it was only briefly from their perspective. It was dark but only one scene properly turned my stomach

which was the hanging and torture of Karin

. I felt there was a lot of sex scenes and a lot of them unnecessary to the story. The ending happened quick, I was 20 pages from the end with so much going on which made it feel rushed. Part 2 in the bunker was the best, and I wish they had delved into parts of that more. This in particularly would have been interesting from India's perespective as she was going through a lot of emotions and internal battles that I would have loved to read more about. I think it did a very good job of showing a lot of complicated, internal struggles that trans people have and the constant fear of being murdered. The moral of the story is that (even in a non-apocolyptic world) TERFS always have blood on their hands!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Transphobia, and Sexual assault

bookynooknook's review against another edition

challenging dark funny sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Transphobia, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Rape, Lesbophobia, Animal death, Sexual assault, Gore, and Pregnancy

breadhag's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

I was really excited about this book and the new perspectives it could bring to horror, but it just wasn’t well-written and only about 40% of the book felt necessary/beneficial to character development or plot, in my opinion. If I wasn’t listening to an audiobook which made it easy for me to skip sections or tune out, I don’t think I would have finished this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Death, Murder, Rape, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Cannibalism, Torture, Transphobia, Body horror, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

abxgxil's review against another edition

5.0

This book is so devastatingly good. I don’t even have the words now to talk about it, but if it gets me to hold back tears in the break room at work, you know it’s good.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Gore, Transphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, War, and Sexual assault

spacefemme's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Gun violence

acgeorge's review

challenging dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Blood, Torture, Sexual violence, Transphobia, and Murder

Moderate: Body shaming, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Gore, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Dysphoria, and Grief

oktrouble1401213's review

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

I DNF’d at halfway because I just was so bored by all the sex and general horniness in this. The extreme horror components took me off-guard, so check TWs! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Rape, and Transphobia