Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

407 reviews

f18's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I figured this would be the best bet for a gender chromosome hormone apocalypse depiction that I could get behind, and it did address all the stuff that irks me about other versions (discusses how it affects trans people ofc, but also things like pcos). Unfortunately I didn't really find myself immersed in the writing but I'm not 100% sure why. I guess the style didn't click with me or maybe because it didn't focus as much on aspects of the genre I most connect to, like body horror. 

I constantly kept losing track of which POV the story was in at any time. I attributed this to the narrator not pausing long enough between scene breaks, but I see that has come up in reviews of the physical book as well. I think the character voices (not the narrator's but the author's ) blurred together. 

There's just something about the metaphor of

trans women surviving by eating cis men's testes

that is just so interesting but yeah... the book was okay, but I didn't love it like I was hoping for.

I've seen some very good critiques of this by trans readers as well. I think this book was the final nail in the coffin for me with this subgenre... but I'll probably torture myself and watch the show anyway.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Cannibalism, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Body horror, Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Slavery, Suicide, Medical content, and Grief

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Incest, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, and Cultural appropriation

spoilers for Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier, tooth trauma , misandry, gendered slurs, execution, mention of student/teacher relationship

bonni24's review

For the first 70 or so pages, this was a fairly interesting book. After entering into the second section of the book, the plot becomes somewhat stagnant. There are also a lot more changes in perspective in the middle of the chapters and some of the sections in a certain perspective were quite brief.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, Transphobia, Violence, and Medical content

savazelena's review

dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Feels like it was written for me personally.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Outing, Dysphoria, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Cancer, Domestic abuse, and Death of parent

zombiezami's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Biphobia, Body shaming, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Racism, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Outing, Abandonment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Animal death and Panic attacks/disorders

baxstarjonmarie's review

challenging dark sad 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? No

4.5

I enjoyed the story of this book. It was smart, interesting, sometimes funny in a cutting way. But I found it difficult to read nonetheless. At first I was mostly bothered by the way Gretchen wrote the books only fat character, which seemed primarily to make thin people (which I am not) uncomfortable. Like many others, I also found the perspective-shifting to be a bit jarring, though by the end I felt like it made some sense.

When I finished though, I realized that even greater than the extensive fat hatred, which felt more gratuitous than the graphic sex scenes... with the possible exception of the book's primary villain, everyone who gets a close third perspective in this book seems to utterly hate themselves. It's not that I find this unrealistic — the apocalypse has to be hell on mental health. It was just really difficult to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Deadnaming, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, Outing, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

fanglyfish's review

challenging dark emotional tense fast-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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Transphobia, and Violence

Moderate: Fatphobia

Minor: Slavery

strawbrey's review against another edition

dark

5.0

perfect nasty delightful

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual violence, Transphobia, and Murder

baileydb96's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

A really cool idea/premise but the execution fell short for me. Problems with pacing and POV. Also, the violence felt really gratuitous at times. The list of trigger warnings is a mile long.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Medical trauma, Murder, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Deadnaming and Fatphobia

alex_paget's review against another edition

I really wanted to like this book, but 50 pages in with no breaks in gore and no plot, I was done. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Rape, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Self harm

airheadphilosopher's review

dark emotional tense slow-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? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Transphobia, Violence, Trafficking, and War