Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

138 reviews

vexedfox's review

challenging dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

This book was impossible to put down in a grabbing an electric fence sort of way. The world-building was superb and the characters were heart-breaking. This was hard to get through but I'm glad I did.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Gun violence, Outing, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Gore, Vomit, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Dysphoria, Fatphobia, Miscarriage, Suicide, War, Death, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Racism, Police brutality, Sexual content, and Transphobia

uhm_kai's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

1.0

While the concept on which this book is based is interesting, and should be cool, the execution here is horrifying. The book contains body horror after body horror, written in mediocre prose, and honestly presents a really poor image of trans women. The characters are constantly sexualised, and constantly sexualise other characters at inappropriate and unrealistic moments. The concept could have been great, but unfortunately this book is just not it.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Transphobia, Vomit, War, Eating disorder, Sexism, Dysphoria, Fatphobia, Genocide, Self harm, Suicide, Cannibalism, Misogyny, Murder, Torture, Trafficking, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Blood, Body horror, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Rape, Body shaming, Death, Gore, Grief, and Medical content

earthbound_edits's review

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? It's complicated

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Transphobia, Violence, Cursing, Torture, Dysphoria, Blood, Homophobia, Suicide, Gun violence, Gore, Rape, Murder, and Body horror

flags's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.5

A brutal take on the zombie genre, body horror and sharp commentary with diverse cast of characters. Uses the conventions of the genre to create a world that takes the hateful contentions of transphobes to their logical conclusions. Every protagonist is wonderfully complex with insecurities and skills and hang ups and something at stake in the narrative. Might be hard to parse if you aren't familiar with the humour, controversies, and cultural touchstones of the lgbt and queer communities, but it's very clear about it's politics as a novel so when it talks about gender and race it's obvious what it's trying to say. There's also a frequent amount of sex scenes for various reasons and they aren't superfluous as they all say something about the characters involved. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Suicide, Sexual violence, Cannibalism, Gore, Violence, Drug use, War, Sexual harassment, Murder, Transphobia, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Gun violence, Deadnaming, Physical abuse, Body horror, Vomit, Outing, Misogyny, Hate crime, Sexism, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Dysphoria, Death, Classism, Body shaming, Medical content, Alcohol, Rape, Racism, and Child death

Moderate: Religious bigotry

erikathered's review

dark sad tense fast-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

4.5

This novel may not appeal to everyone as it's written from a very particular perspective and for a very particular audience. But if you're within that audience, if you're interested in dark, tense fiction that explores trans experience through a new lens, you'll love this book. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Trafficking, Gore, Outing, Body horror, Transphobia, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Rape, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Grief, Blood, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Violence, Death, Cursing, Dysphoria, and War

Moderate: Suicide, Slavery, Fatphobia, Deadnaming, Toxic friendship, and Eating disorder

Minor: Self harm, Ableism, Colonisation, Cancer, Racism, Death of parent, and Terminal illness

careinthelibrary's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

3.5

The world is unkind to trans women and this nightmare of the future is even crueller.

The violence is so visceral. Picking this up was like choosing to plunge full-body into a pool full of sparking livewires (in the best way). It's electric. It's harsh, dark, ultraviolent, perverted, fast, tense, and all of this makes it so realistic. Wonderfully horrific.

This is SO trans. Not just transgender but transgressive. They refuse to fit into the ideal box set up by neoliberal society. They don't always pass. They're pre- "the surgery". They're violent. Loud. Not sexless, in fact they're horny. They're T4T. They don't always use the most pc language for themselves. They don't fit into the gender binary that many demand trans women must in order to be respected or acknowledged as women.

I loved Fran and Beth. They are perfectly imperfect. This makes them so interesting, so real, so compelling. I also loved Indi's character so much. Her fatness isn't hidden away but always described with dignity. She is desirable, intelligent, hardworking, badass. Things we don't see fat people depicted as very often.

The middle chunk of the book got a little chaotic for me with too many perspective changes (it's hard to follow on audio) and plot that I wasn't as interested in. But then the ending got me good, leaving me with tears in my eyes. As hard and cruel as this story is, there is also so much love and tenderness. The sense of community between the four main characters is everything.

I don't like explicit sex in books (I usually just skim-read over those scenes) so obviously this part of the book wasn't my favourite. But that's a me thing, nothing I'd knock down the book's rating for. That being said, there's a lot of criticism about the sexual content in this book and most of it seems to be coming from cis women who are offended by it. So I'll iterate my stance on that.

Depictions of misogyny do not make it a misogynist book. Review bombing a woman's book because you don't agree with her politics does make you misogynist.

I won't police women's depictions of rape which is unfortunately such a common experience of womanhood, and especially trans women's experience. It is graphic and disturbing in Manhunt and I believe it's meant to shock to prove a point and elicit a response. Mine was sympathy, anger, disgust, and kinship. Unfortunately others have failed to sympathize with these women protagonists and instead are apathetic or irritated by its provocative violence. I wonder if these readers resonated more with the ideology of the XX TERFs. I didn't feel that the sexually violent scenes were glorifying or romanticizing sexual assault and I won't presume to tell women how they should or shouldn't discuss, depict, and process sexual violence. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Cannibalism, Gun violence, Trafficking, Transphobia, Cursing, Dysphoria, Physical abuse, Gore, Body horror, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Self harm, Death, Blood, Hate crime, Medical content, Sexism, Sexual assault, Outing, Violence, and Misogyny

Moderate: Antisemitism

Minor: Incest

lucajgrainger'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? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Dysphoria, Cannibalism, Blood, Sexual content, Murder, Death, Gore, Violence, Transphobia, Sexual assault, Rape, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Gun violence

mxajlikesbooks's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Torture, Body horror, Cannibalism, Grief, Outing, Sexual assault, Death, Dysphoria, Rape, Violence, and Transphobia

sphinxofblackquartz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? Yes

2.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Body horror, Cannibalism, Transphobia, Violence, Hate crime, Death, Sexual assault, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Homophobia

Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Medical content

Minor: Antisemitism, Genocide, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, War, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Suicidal thoughts

paracosim's review against another edition

dark tense fast-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

3.0

This book felt incredibly disjointed in a lot of ways, like it was more a series of vignettes rather than an actual cohesive plot. I liked most of the characters, and there were a lot of great points raised

(like in Beth’s flashback from when everything was just starting, and she and two other trans women were forced out of their housing by the cis women)

but overall…meh. A lotta gore, a lotta death. (Whew—I don’t think I’ve had a content warning this long since I read A Little Life.) The last few chapters were awesome though lol. I read this for a book club and we all had some Thoughts on it; I don’t think I’ll ever pick it up again, though I will remember parts of it fondly. I just have a few points of contention…
nsfw, cw rape

okay so when Beth was raped and then Robbie saved them, I was like WTF when Fran and Robbie were just suckin’ n fuckin’ while Beth lay there crying in agony later that night. Like, GUYS??? First of all eww none of you have bathed please don’t put your tongue in her ass (that specific line will haunt me akdkvklsksl). Second, Beth is heavily injured??? Give her some love and comfort??? screams

But overall, all I can really say about this book is: dude, Fran straight up f*cking sucks.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Dysphoria, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Violence, Cannibalism, Body horror, Gore, Murder, Outing, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Animal death