Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

16 reviews

jp_riemersma's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Sexual assault, Self harm, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Death, Infidelity, Hate crime, Dysphoria, Biphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Rape, Transphobia, War, Violence, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Murder, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Sexism, Gun violence, Gore, Genocide, Deadnaming, Cannibalism, Body horror, and Body shaming

sydneynorman's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Classism, Death, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Gore, Hate crime, Murder, Sexual harassment, Animal death, Body horror, Sexism, War, Outing, Pandemic/Epidemic, Transphobia, Violence, Alcohol, Dysphoria, Medical content, Pregnancy, Rape, Self harm, Confinement, Cursing, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Chronic illness, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Body shaming, Bullying, Gun violence, Infertility, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Suicide, and Torture

Moderate: Infidelity, Death of parent, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Addiction, and Self harm

Minor: Deadnaming

books_24's review against another edition

Absolute garbage 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Homophobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, and Drug abuse

kys_chai_and_books's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Body horror, Cannibalism, Deadnaming, Fatphobia, Medical content, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Blood, Violence, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Domestic abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Gun violence, Racism, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Death, Murder, Rape, Misogyny, Dysphoria, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Pregnancy

smbd_the_reader's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Some words upfront.

This book is very much over-the-top, spatterpunk-esque and horny and the author is well known to be a drama queen with more vile takes than one person should reasonably be capable of having.

As such, I cannot recommend reading this book to everyone and cannot really recommend buying it to, well, anyone.

If you want to read it and have any triggers whatsoever I'd recommend looking up a list (or several) first. This review contains mentions of rape and TERf rhetoric but nothing overly detailed.


That being said, I genuinely enjoyed this book.

I loved the complexity of the characters, the varying responses to trauma, the way different trans people were treated by their surroundings, the inner thoughts of the characters, internalized transphobia and all.

Gretchen-Felker is also absolutely amazing at writing gripping storylines and visceral imagery that completely entrance you, rarely has a book had this much of an emotional impact on me while reading.



The TERFs were very close to real life, minus the force of a society that would not approve of their more extreme antics. There’s a hint of exaggeration at times, though a lot of it is taken fairly directly from actual TERF talking points.

Which may seem unrealistic and over the top to some but really, that’s just TERFs, baby.
One thing that had me sort of taken aback was

TERFs willingly adding boys into their militia, so long as they rejected their identities, let themselves be sterilized and so on. It fits with the hypocrisy and the need for violent domination of others, but generally TERFs are very bioessentialist about sex and gender and can get extremely violent about their disdain for anyone who’s AMAB so that was a little odd.

What was not odd to me in the slightest is the attempted rape of Fran with the TERF in question then freaking out when she realized Fran has a penis and trying to paint herself as a victim. It’s so extremely on-brand that I almost had to laugh, in that “god they sure would, wouldn’t they?” way.


Overall the one thing that I'm not sure how to feel about is the ending. A lot of things were building up to, at best, a Pyrrhic victory at that point and while I am glad that so many survived there seemed to be some degree of plot armor involved which makes it at least somewhat less satisfying.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Violence, Medical content, Fatphobia, Religious bigotry, Sexism, and Transphobia

klwilby's review

dark tense fast-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

5.0

Dark, gruesome, and unflinching. I don’t read much horror but I could not put this book down. There was beautifully, brutally complex relationships throughout — I will say I would’ve loved to spend even more time with the three main characters, particularly Robbie. I’ll also say that I was surprised to see so many negative reviews of this book. It seems many readers violently missed the point of this book, or simply find depictions of queer bodies and intimacy to be inherently more graphic than cishet bodies and intimacy. Don’t let that stop you from picking this (admittedly bloody) gem. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Deadnaming, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Outing, Misogyny, Self harm, Animal death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Violence, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Trafficking, Death, War, Rape, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts

bites_of_books's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

An apocalypse book where a virus is triggered in people who have higher levels of testosterone, causing them to become feral beasts.

This is a book where the author has zero sympathy for the reader, they describe everything in raw and gory detail and hold back nothing. The atmosphere is rich in the toxic nature of the characters and also the general anxiety that it is to live in a world where various groups of people are trying to survive. We follow Fran and Beth, two trans women who are trying to survive in a world where they hunt men who have turned feral in order to harvest their organs for selling and also to acquire the hormones they need to avoid turning into these feral beasts. To top that, they also need to be wary of a group of TERFs who are building an army, trying to be the new law of the land. 

I highly encourage you to read and listen to trans reviewers since a lot of the book is from that perspective. Trans experiences are not represented in literature enough and even less in horror so this book is highly valuable because it does put those experiences front and center. 

The overall plot of the book jumped around a bit too much for my liking, it seemed like the first half of the book was about one thing while the second half focused on something completely different. While our main characters arcs do take precedence, there were a couple of other characters that came in and out of the story never fully solidifying their connection to the main characters.

I'd highly recommend checking all the content warnings, if you do want to venture into this book. I'd say that if you like apocalypse stories with a completely different perspective, full of gore that doesn't hold back, this might be the book for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Gore, Grief, Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, War, Antisemitism, Body horror, Cannibalism, Blood, Body shaming, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Deadnaming, Death, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Outing, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Slavery, Transphobia, and Violence

nixieba25f's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Body shaming, Cannibalism, Child death, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Outing, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, War, Ableism, Blood, Confinement, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Bullying, Dysphoria, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and Cultural appropriation

laurenkimoto's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

This book is unhinged, violent, vulgar, provocative, and wild in the best way possible. 
This dystopian/horror is the first one I have really enjoyed in a long time.
I will be thinking about this book until the apocalypse comes 

Very minor spoiler: JKR gets her comeuppance.    

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Biphobia, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Classism, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Violence, Transphobia, Trafficking, Grief, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Homophobia, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Outing, and Medical content

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Drug use, Gun violence, Infertility, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Racism, and Self harm

emmague89's review

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Torture, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Grief, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, Fatphobia, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Dysphoria, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Biphobia, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Transphobia, Trafficking, Sexual violence, Self harm, Mass/school shootings, Gore, Genocide, Drug abuse, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Cannibalism, Child death, Chronic illness, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, War, Vomit, Violence, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Slavery, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Sexism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Religious bigotry, Rape, Racial slurs, Racism, Pregnancy, Police brutality, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Misogyny, Mental illness, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, Homophobia, Hate crime, Gun violence, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, and Death of parent