Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

29 reviews

carly_they_themsen's review

challenging dark funny 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

4.25

what the ffffuuuuuuc this book is so fucked up!!!!! wtfwtfwtfwtf such a genius setting and incredible dynamic between the main characters, and teach is the scariest villain ive ever read. and the climax!!!! holy guacamole this book messed me up 😭😭😭

i have little tiny small complaints like the parallel storytelling got out of hand sometimes and was cutting back and forth from scene to scene too fast and made the book feel overly cinematic, and there's little writing quirks like how whenever's there's two characters interacting one of them is always "the <adjective>-er woman" (beth looked at the shorter woman, indi hugged the younger woman, fran glared at the larger woman ...) other things like that that broke my immersion somewhat

all of that said my favorite favorite part of this book is this line from the acknowledgement: "[thank you] to all the trans women i've ever loved, to your perfect shoulders and the arches of your necks, to your lovely wrists and fingers."

gsshshfhdhdhwjwjdjfgfdlllg give me more transpocalypse torrey peters worship about the tenuous but powerful nature of t4t love RIGHT NOW!!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Gore, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual content, and Transphobia

Moderate: Fatphobia

Minor: Slavery

terfs, chasers, public execution, brutal violence

terfs who are chasers, forced feminization of children , death during childbirth

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

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

Minor: Deadnaming

arrr's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Wow this book is a trip! If you're mad at toxic cis men and terfs, then this book is super cathartic. If you're trans and fragile, then be warned that there is a lot of trauma here. Like. So. Much. Trauma. Queer zombie apocalypse tho, very early 2000s vibes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

audrilou's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

5.0

I adore this book. The ending had me heaving big heavy sobs for minutes. Its a dark dark read, especially if you are trans. Because of that closeness, I felt so much more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Dysphoria, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

childofmongreldogs's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

4.0

To start, this has a helluva lot of triggers to keep in mind. This book would 100% be an x-rated movie. There's a metric shit ton of blood, gore, curses, death, torture, sex, sexual assault etc along with things like dismemberment and just gross things in general. This is a read at your own risk kind of book.

This wasn't a book that I loved but the concept was really interesting and the writing was good. I sincerely don't really have much to complain about it either which is a nice change from a lot of the books I've been reading lately.

Basic concept is that the end of the world happens. This is definitely an interesting take on the idea of gendered diseases/pandemics that we've seen in other forms of media. This novel just takes into consideration the existence of trans people. Men (or, rather, anyone who has a significant amount of testosterone) ends up turning into a monster.

Honestly, I'm not one for excessive gore. I think my only exception to this would be Stephen Graham Jones but I might make another exception for Felker-Martin. This novel is exceptionally gory and pretty gross. Yet, she does a great job of selling us these characters, even the villainess of the story with this back drop of violence and dirt. I'll say here that Beth absolutely devastated me on so many levels.

If I had all day or the inclination to, I'd go point by point on some of the most unfair and ridiculous arguments made about this book being bad. Instead, I'll save myself the energy and just that I found a lot of other reviews to be absolutely ridiculous. Like, being mad about men being portrayed as blood thirsty monsters. Sorry, that's the story? There's a male main character who obviously isn't a monster lol. Finally, on this, while there is a lot of sex, it's really brief and not really that crazy. I'm surprised anyone has mentioned this when people were screwing and fucking in the Walking Dead, the Last of Us, Dawn of the Dead, literally any apocalyptic media has people getting down and dirty. I know for a fact some of you are reading erotica L M A O. Why are you mad at this one?

I felt that the narrative was actually really kind to the antagonists as well which was a genuine surprise to me considering how up in arms people got over this. Spoiler: the main antagonists beyond the blood thirsty monsters/zombies are called TERFs and they go around as a large group and route out those who aren't "XX" chromosomed. I will say that the reason this doesn't get a five stars for me is because of how after school special the author seemed at times about this point. I'd actually go so far as to say that the novel went too far in siding with the antagonists, even. Though, I suppose that fairness also lends some credibility and realism to their motivations.

Final sidenote that I finished the last half of this novel as an ebook instead of audio. There was nothing wrong with Katherina Pucciariello (the narrator) but this was definitely not the kind of book I wanted to listen to while in the car or washing dishes. She did a good job of differentiating the voices of the characters too. Just not my cup of tea.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

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.

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Content Warnings

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

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

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Medical content

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

babybasil's review against another edition

tense fast-paced

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

1.0

To say the book as a whole was bad would be incorrect. The premise was cool. It could have been so amazing if the writing wasn’t so flat. I nearly DNFd this book, but I hate quiting, so I slogged on to my detriment. 

Firstly, if the book goes more than 3 pages without mentioning sex or someone’s genitals, it was a lucky 3 pages. Like, it’s constant. Everyone is fucking each other all the time. Everyone is thinking of sex all the time. And if they’re not thinking of sex, they’re thinking about how they or the men they’re hunting have genitals. Seriously, it was alright for the first few chapters, but by the middle of the book, I was pretty fed up. We’re introduced to half the cast via sex and, sometimes, it was just flat out weird. I believe it was Fran who just straight out asked the doctor if they could fuck and I nearly threw the book across the room. 

Another issue was the story. There was no real storyline. It was just the plot of “men are monsters now and TERFs want to kill trans people” and that was it. It never felt like there was an actual story happening, just a bunch of people fucking and killing. Even the “romance” in the book felt crazy forced. Robbie saying he loved Fran in 3 days? Crazy unbelievable since we never got the two even sharing a moment besides fucking next to an unconscious Beth the same day they met. There was a point at the book where one of the main characters was working as a prostitute essentially. She seemed to have the attention of the head hancho of a bunker, but then a chapter later, her boyfriend was told she was apparently doing a bad job??? Since when?? The characterization was never pointed out and it was just such lazy writing to move the plot on. The whole book is littered with lazy writing. 

Next, I hate terfs as much as any self respecting person does, but the way the book sought to victimize the characters constantly was a bit boring. It felt like making a terf army was the easy way out, ESPECIALLY when they later just straight up accepted trans people/men if they did grunt work and got bottom surgery. It took away all the danger of their army and was just dull. 

Then there was the perspective jumping. I love books that have multiple character perspectives, especially when we get to see how their stories over lap. But when your perspective shifts 3-6 times (usually just 2-3 paragraphs per section) a CHAPTER? It gets so fucking confusing, especially when some of the sections just start “she”. One was so bad I never really figured out who it was supposed to be. Like, who am I meant to root for? What is even going on? We went from a tense moment to yet another character fucking. It was awful! Just pick a character per chapter and stick with them. Or if you do switch, at least make it make sense. 

Another thing was the nazi imagery. I get that Gretchen was trying to make an end of the world “the terfs are killing all trans women” narrative, but using the holocaust and nazi imagery made me, a Jewish women, incrediably uncomfortable. I hate when people compare things to nazis and the literal extermination of my ancestors. It’s not a necessary allegory and she pushed it SO HARD I was rolling my eyes. At nazis. Like, enough is enough.  

Not even that but Indi’s fatphobia is so unnecessary. Like, as a fat person, I don’t think about it as horribly or awfully as she does. She’s constantly going on about her rolls or how other characters are touching her “deeply buried collarbones”. It’s so bad.  It nearly tipped into racism half the time with how the book treated Indi. 

Overall, I did not like this book at all. It was such a waste of a story idea because the virus was such a cool idea. I really don’t recommend it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Deadnaming, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Incest

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

kay_brot's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Deadnaming, Gore, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Rape, Transphobia, Cannibalism, and Dysphoria