Reviews with content warning for Child death - Manhunt

This book really gripped me the whole time I was reading it-- I think I read it nonstop over a period of like 2 days, often late into the night. It pulled me into the story even when I had just planned to read a page or two while "multitasking" at cooking or working on personal projects. I was initially intrigued by the premise before the book came out, because I've read or seen so many different "gender apocalypse" stories which conveniently leave out trans people. As a trans woman myself, I obviously want to see a familiar perspective that is often neglected in fiction (I definitely need to broaden my horizons, but I think this is the first novel I've read with trans women protagonists), but I also think it's just good world-building, showing that the author has done some research and is willing to dig into the complicated nitty-gritty of what the effects of their chromosome apocalypse (or hormone plague or whatever) would actually be like, beyond a tired "battle of the sexes" type of story. I think that this book succeeds at telling a deeply human story of survival in the face of apocalypse, in such a way that the supernatural man-beasts take a back seat to the bone chilling political and genocidal violence that threatens to drown the main characters. That could be a plus or minus depending on how much sci-fi chaos people want in their post apocalypse, but I personally think this is the smart way to tell a post apocalypse story, in which the zombies or monsters become just another faction, or weapon, for the characters to navigate.
The level of violence in this book is a lot, and the constant peril that the trans characters are in, in addition to the persistent self hatred and interpersonal vitriol, is often overwhelming. It was heartbreaking to read about Beth and Fran's fraught relationship, and seeing the former woman express such beautiful compassion and love, and be met with such deep rejection and loneliness, even from her close friend, was crushing, if accurate. It's sad that the level of trans misogyny and transphobia feels so believable and true to the current moment. Fran's character is understandably grating a lot of the time, and at times it feels like she and Beth almost veer into stereotypes, but not quite. The complex internal narratives and contradictions of the characters save them from being one-note, or simple didactic archetypes to illustrate a political point. I appreciated that in the context of Fran,

her betrayal of her friends was not excused, or easily forgiven, but neither was she made into a completely hate-able cast off (in my mind, that would have played into ideas of trans disposability that the story really tries to oppose). Her selfishness is abominable, and deeply human.

. Speaking as a trans woman, I feel like Fran and Beth can represent different aspects that live inside all of us. Learning to look at the ugly parts of our personal image, and learning how to turn away from selfishness and towards solidarity, is an extremely difficult thing to do, but an act of reflection that I think this story really tries to draw out.
By far the most difficult sections of the book to read were the passages from the POV of

Ramona, the TERF soldier. Those parts of the book, unfortunately sometimes felt the most didactic, and the closest to what would have been a worse book as a whole-- a graphic morality tale in which the transphobe POV finds her humanity through the fridging of her favorite sex object. I don't think this was the intention at all, but unfortunately, Feather is one of the few regular characters in the book whose interior narrative we never see. Even a single passage showing their perspective during one of Ramona's scenes would have made a huge difference.

.
I recently finished the book, and upon reflecting more on the story, something I noticed was how all violence, including sexual violence, is presented in the book. The characters are always making pragmatic and strategic decisions about how much violence they can endure, at what cost, and when they can afford to fight back. This kind of grim pragmatism in perspective feels jarring and gross to read, and it should. It's the honest reflection of a bunch of people living through nonstop trauma, in which there often is no "safe" choice, and the only ways the characters can exercise control is by trying as hard as they can to pick how and when they can resist, and when they have to dissociate to live and fight another day. I've read criticisms that the violence and sex in the book is often described in a uniformly graphic style, regardless of the context. I can see that as a valid criticism, since it could be seen as not making a distinction, for example, between consensual sex and sexual violence, or violence and sex at all. In my view, that distinction is still there, but the stylistic unity across scenes shows that in the minds of the characters, the horrible violence they have endured never really leaves their minds, or bodies. It haunts them as they run, as they fight, as they hold their loved ones and are re-traumatized by their enemies. It's gruesome and crushing to read, but in my mind, those are some of the most realistic and affecting parts of the story that really make an impact about the type of world the characters are living in, and what types of perspectives they have been forced to abandon through trauma.

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nightmare_maven's review

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challenging dark 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

4.0

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kylajaynebooks's review

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challenging dark emotional funny sad tense slow-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

*wow*

This read like a movie - it was brutal, nasty, horrifying, real, depressing, funny, reflective, sarcastic and I loved it so much.

It has so much to say and really makes you question feminism and how it absolutely does not always include everyone. It explores gender identity, mental illness, toxic relationships, eugenics, sex work, genocide and dictatorships

Just wow this was a gory disgusting sexy masterpiece

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atenderwitch's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-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? Yes

3.0

I don't care about war or for multiple povs but also it was v exciting and erotic

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ollie_again's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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

It wasn't the few who'd cheered that frightened her; it was the rest, watching with guarded expressions, not looking at those among their number who cried Go back to Maryland, you fucking Nazis and Fuck TERFs! The women who looked at each other in a way Beth didn't understand, a way sealed forever with the cold and rigid bounds of cisness but which nonetheless told her without room for doubt that they couldn't leave too soon.
That was what scared her.
The women who stayed silent.

Incredibly campy and grotesque. I don't read much horror and even less of gore, I somehow couldn't keep my hands off of this book though. Pretty much everything bad and worse happens and with each chapter, I couldn't believe there would be more to come. And there was.

When I picked this up I thought I knew what I'm going to get, TERFs are the main villains and our main characters are trans folks. I thought I knew what the book will do. Well... not really, you get all the obvious with it: the violence against trans people, body dysmorphia, rampant verbal attacks and TERF rhetoric. But what the author managed to do with all these things, how fucked up it all really gets... in all directions, my brain couldn't keep up. The legacy of Mary Shelley lives on and the question of who is the real monster has always the very same answer. Layers upon layers of proof that people, with the same ideologies, opinions like those living and breathing among us in real life, are much more terrifying than anything else. Everything's all-to-familiar.

And at the same time as the cover (which is absolute perfection) suggests this book is also incredibly funny. Not appropriate humour maybe, but funny nevertheless. Chuckle through the pain.

I'd give this book full five stars if not for the overall ending, that was a bit underwhelming for me. Regardless of that, I'll be on the lookout for another book by Gretchen Felker-Martin even if it's not my typical genre.

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kingweirdo's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective 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

I might have to come back and write more after some time to think about it, and I have to preface any review with HUGE TRIGGER WARNINGS for anti-trans violence and also very real trans trauma

but

This is one of the most touching, heartbreaking, brutal books I've ever read. I was so in love these characters, and even sickly attached to the villain narrator. Every chapter held a gut-punch, whether it was a horrible death, or act of violence, or a transphobic microaggression, or just the horrible things that the characters said to themselves while surviving the actual end of the civilized world.

And while this book is PACKED with blood and guts, bullets and knives, and breathtaking fights to the death, the world is so smartly built and the premise is SO wrought with symbolism. The entire conceit establishes a Binary sex problem and then immediately starts dismantling it and showing a dozen gaps in that easy essentialism. It asks us horrifying questions about identity and community, it leaves no population unscrutinized, it reminds us of how much there is to fear from our fellow humans, and it also gives us such remarkable tenderness.

I wept. I usually hate series, but I'm honestly begging the author to extend this universe and give us more.

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