Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

218 reviews

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

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

izzyvb023's review

1.0

Only rating 1 star so I don’t get roped in with the TERFs review bombing this because of the trans characters. This book isn’t bad because of trans people. It’s bad because it’s bad. 

What I wanted from this book: badass trans women with cross bows fighting their way through a zombie apocalypse.

What I got from this book: weird rapey vibes, thinly veiled misogyny, and terrible writing 

I am a big stickler for finishing things I start, but I had to DNF after 5 chapters. I simply could not keep reading. God, I wanted to like “Manhunt” so badly. I love horror! I love queer protagonists! I am obsessed with the cover design! I was SO excited to finally crack this one open. The disappointment was terrible. 

As others have correctly pointed out, every page is either a depiction of violence, sex, or violent sex. I know the author herself is trans, but tbh I would not be shocked if someone told me the book was actually ghost written by a TERF to make it seem like all trans people are overly sexual and threatening. It felt like the author just added the word “rape” in every couple of pages just to be edgy. There was no need for all that.

I think the plague setting had some really cool potential and I was excited to see a depiction of queer and gender non confirming people navigating a post apocalyptic world. However, the fact that the plague simply turns all men into rabid raping monsters was a little surprising. This is especially strange because the main characters are trans women-meaning that if they don’t take enough estrogen, they will revert back to men and thus turn into the viscous raping creatures. I understand that this is the plot; however it doesn’t make a great premise for what is supposed to be a good depiction of trans people. TBH this premise almost makes it seem like the author wants us to believe that trans women aren’t real women and they are going to maim and rape “”real”” women if given the chance. I think the setting and the whole plague in general could have been handled WAY better in a better at that actually recognizes the characters autonomy and womanhood. 

If it were just the terrible premises, I probably could have finished the book if I wanted. However, the writing was just awful! Every sentence had about 3-4 unnecessary adjectives, making each page just convoluted and unreadable. It felt as if the author thought she was writing poetry. Some of the paragraphs would have actually made beautiful poems if extracted from the book. Unfortunately, they were not poems in a poetry book: they were terrible sentences strung together in a poorly written novel. 

With the writing + the poor representation, i just couldn’t bring myself to finish this book. I’m sorry “Manhunt” — I had such high hopes for you. 


*** editing to add that apparently the author said that she believes “there should be more rape in horror.” Yeah this confirms my suspicion that she was just putting rape in the book for shits and giggles. What a deranged thing to think.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Violence, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic

sufferingbrooklynite's review against another edition

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Transphobia, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and War

dwhiting's review against another edition

dark emotional funny 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Deadnaming, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

raine_forest_cafe's review against another edition

dark

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Cannibalism, Murder, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria, and Pandemic/Epidemic

elijahcole's review against another edition

dark 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

5.0

horny and horrifying fight against the terfs against the end of the world. so trans and focused on queer community while also being absolutely disgusting and horrifying (/pos). loved it so much. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Transphobia, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual violence

queer horror, transgender author, queer author

gardenofeden's review

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Transphobia, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Deadnaming

Explicit SA scene that I wish I knew about beforehand happens early on in the book. It is on pgs

55-56

bookwormteddy's review

dark emotional 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

this book is… brutal. i had to put it down and step away from it on multiple occasions. there’s a quote from it that says: “you were just afraid to be uncomfortable” and i think that’s apt. in part because of the visceral violence on page but more so the way this book challenged me to examine my own internal biases as a trans person who is exempt from transmisogyny. felker-martin writes with gut-punch frankness that’s both unsettling and extremely refreshing. i laughed and cried and was thoroughly nauseated.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Rape, and Transphobia

Moderate: Body horror, Sexual content, and Cannibalism