Reviews tagging 'Death'

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

217 reviews

promisesatsundown's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

It’s like The Last of Us meets 28 Days Later but if 28 Days Later only effected cis men and then all the remaining cis women completely lost their minds and became rabid J.K. Rowling TERFS but were really bad at executing their plans for post-apocalyptic world domination and wind up getting themselves killed. Overall a wonderful, gory queer horror book with great social commentary on the hardships of being a trans woman. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Sexual content, Transphobia, and Violence

Moderate: Fatphobia, Hate crime, Homophobia, Medical content, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

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

frank_the_they's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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

4.5

An excellent concept and exploration of TERF culture in an “apocolyptic” future. Was slow to get into, but then took me for a ride.  Writing good enough to enjoy and not take away. Mostly lots of starts for content

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Transphobia, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Dysphoria

corsetedfeminist's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

5.0

The best word I can think of to describe this book is primal. 
It details the aftermath of an apocalypse that targets testosterone, focusing on the struggle of trans women to survive in a world even more cruel to them.
This book comes with actually all of the trigger warnings, but hidden beneath the violence and gore is a surprisingly powerful discussion of feminism, trans love, found family, and the need for marginalized groups to stay together instead of going to war amongst ourselves. 
Everyone in this book is at best morally grey, and the romantic relationships are dysfunctional at best, but the treasure of this book is the queer community that gathers despite the conflicts and horrible decisions. Despite this, the main characters are incredibly multifaceted and lovable, even when they make the worst decisions and have to face the consequences thereof. The entire book is a struggle between protecting yourself and keeping each other safe in a heartbreaking way.  
This book is horror at its best- violent, bloody, profound

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Deadnaming, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Rape, Transphobia, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Outing, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

statefossil's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

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

3.75

All of the good action happened within like the very last bit of the book. I anticipated this book having more hunting of men and less sex. There were obviously bits I liked (SPOILER:

Sophie's death, Robbie's intro, Indy's history -the little that we get of it

). 

Throughout the book, I knew one thing was going to happen and then when it did happen, it made me sad despite me seeing it coming the entire time while reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Rape, Torture, Transphobia, and Violence

Moderate: Dysphoria

Minor: Self harm

23abaigeal's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Deadnaming, Death, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Outing, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

vangoghssunflowers's review against another edition

dark tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? No

3.25

Mostly disappointing. I thought the premise was exciting, but thought it lacked luster in the end. 

I think this book would’ve succeeded if it stuck to one character’s point of view over multiple novels. Too much jumping around from person to person, with some sections going in for paragraphs before you find out who’s eyes you’re seeing through. The writing style was not tight enough to immediately differentiate characters from one another, so I was left confused and often had to reread portions once I realized I was picturing the wrong person. We’re introduced to far too many characters and too many points of view. “Show don’t tell” taken too far. 

I also thought there were far too many sex scenes that didn’t further the plot. There were also many instances of unnerving descriptions of sexual content. 

Personally, I thought there was also very little buy in for our characters. I disliked most of the people we met and didn’t believe in their relationships. While I get it’s the end of the world, why would these seemingly strong bonds form between characters out of nowhere?

I’m honestly supposed to believe Robbie and Fran are connected after one day of knowing each other and one night of sex? Which also, VERY WEIRDLY happened after Beth was brutally raped?

I thought the strongest aspect of this book was the world building, but certain structures felt unfinished and underwhelming. I very much disliked Teach as a villain. She had no substance besides being a TERF. Literally every piece of dialogue we get from her is just a super villain monologue. We get it, she’s evil. But does she really only ever talk about her womb? Really? 

Overall, 3 star read. Premise and world building did a lot of heavy lifting for the confusing structure and lack luster plot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, and Dysphoria

plumpeony's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Medical content, Cannibalism, Murder, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Deadnaming, Fatphobia, Death of parent, and Classism

katiecentabar's review

challenging dark funny sad tense fast-paced

4.75

This book is erotic and gory in equal measure, definitely not for the squeamish, but absolutely worth the read for anyone on the fence. 
The relationships and community of these characters made me cry and so did the reality of their post-apocalyptic gender essentialist world. Only docking a quarter star because the gore got to me a bit. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Transphobia, Violence, and Dysphoria

our_lady_of_perpetual_bad_luck's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infertility, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Cannibalism, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Cursing, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Outing, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Confinement, Deadnaming, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Excrement, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Alcohol