Reviews tagging 'Pandemic/Epidemic'

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

85 reviews

zombiezami's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Biphobia, Body shaming, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Racism, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Outing, Abandonment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Animal death and Panic attacks/disorders

baxstarjonmarie's review

challenging dark 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? No

4.5

I enjoyed the story of this book. It was smart, interesting, sometimes funny in a cutting way. But I found it difficult to read nonetheless. At first I was mostly bothered by the way Gretchen wrote the books only fat character, which seemed primarily to make thin people (which I am not) uncomfortable. Like many others, I also found the perspective-shifting to be a bit jarring, though by the end I felt like it made some sense.

When I finished though, I realized that even greater than the extensive fat hatred, which felt more gratuitous than the graphic sex scenes... with the possible exception of the book's primary villain, everyone who gets a close third perspective in this book seems to utterly hate themselves. It's not that I find this unrealistic — the apocalypse has to be hell on mental health. It was just really difficult to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Deadnaming, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, Outing, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

izzyvb023's review

1.0

Only rating 1 star so I don’t get roped in with the TERFs review bombing this because of the trans characters. This book isn’t bad because of trans people. It’s bad because it’s bad. 

What I wanted from this book: badass trans women with cross bows fighting their way through a zombie apocalypse.

What I got from this book: weird rapey vibes, thinly veiled misogyny, and terrible writing 

I am a big stickler for finishing things I start, but I had to DNF after 5 chapters. I simply could not keep reading. God, I wanted to like “Manhunt” so badly. I love horror! I love queer protagonists! I am obsessed with the cover design! I was SO excited to finally crack this one open. The disappointment was terrible. 

As others have correctly pointed out, every page is either a depiction of violence, sex, or violent sex. I know the author herself is trans, but tbh I would not be shocked if someone told me the book was actually ghost written by a TERF to make it seem like all trans people are overly sexual and threatening. It felt like the author just added the word “rape” in every couple of pages just to be edgy. There was no need for all that.

I think the plague setting had some really cool potential and I was excited to see a depiction of queer and gender non confirming people navigating a post apocalyptic world. However, the fact that the plague simply turns all men into rabid raping monsters was a little surprising. This is especially strange because the main characters are trans women-meaning that if they don’t take enough estrogen, they will revert back to men and thus turn into the viscous raping creatures. I understand that this is the plot; however it doesn’t make a great premise for what is supposed to be a good depiction of trans people. TBH this premise almost makes it seem like the author wants us to believe that trans women aren’t real women and they are going to maim and rape “”real”” women if given the chance. I think the setting and the whole plague in general could have been handled WAY better in a better at that actually recognizes the characters autonomy and womanhood. 

If it were just the terrible premises, I probably could have finished the book if I wanted. However, the writing was just awful! Every sentence had about 3-4 unnecessary adjectives, making each page just convoluted and unreadable. It felt as if the author thought she was writing poetry. Some of the paragraphs would have actually made beautiful poems if extracted from the book. Unfortunately, they were not poems in a poetry book: they were terrible sentences strung together in a poorly written novel. 

With the writing + the poor representation, i just couldn’t bring myself to finish this book. I’m sorry “Manhunt” — I had such high hopes for you. 


*** editing to add that apparently the author said that she believes “there should be more rape in horror.” Yeah this confirms my suspicion that she was just putting rape in the book for shits and giggles. What a deranged thing to think.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Violence, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic

jessyc's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.0

Booo corny tomato tomato!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Transphobia, Murder, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Pandemic/Epidemic

dwhiting's review against another edition

dark emotional funny medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Deadnaming, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

raine_forest_cafe's review against another edition

dark

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Cannibalism, Murder, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria, and Pandemic/Epidemic

voicenextdoor's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Misogyny, Transphobia, Cannibalism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

rkpaulson96's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.75

Overall, I liked it, though some of the book was a slog to get through.
The book starts off strong, right in the middle of action and character exposition. The middle slows down quite a bit, I thought, though the last third is all action with satisfying character growth payoff. The ideas and themes Felker-Martin explores are vitally relevant today given the rise of modern fascism and its accompanying transphobia.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

peachylite's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Cursing, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Sexual content, Transphobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Dysphoria, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Child abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Rape, Vomit, and Trafficking

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Self harm, Terminal illness, and Cultural appropriation

rachaelwho's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Good! Weird! A LOT more graphic sex and less horror than I expected. Could've done with like 1 or 2 fewer plotlines to make more sense of the remaining ones; I thought it was just about over when I was roughly 65% of the way through, and maybe it should've been two books. The biggest mark against this one for me was the ways in which nonwhite characters' race was an afterthought in a way that it was obvious to me that the author was not aware of. There was a lot of mentioning that someone was Black but never mentioning that someone was white that is like, okay, so you are trying to tell me that this book is for white people? Got it. It really stuck out and rubbed me wrong in a story that was really reaching for diversity and coming up white. I wonder if they had sensitivity readers, maybe publishers don't want to spend time & money on that for debut authors. Anyway, it's a good read if you can get past that, and alllll the trigger warnings for women & queer people of all genders. Very cinematic, some interesting perspectives.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Medical content, Trafficking, Cannibalism, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Slavery

Minor: Child death