Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Manhunt

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

60 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.

Content Warnings

hakaysha's review

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dark tense medium-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

3.0

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jocelynmwagner's review against another edition

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challenging 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

3.75

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rachaelwho's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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? Yes

3.75

Good! Weird! A LOT more graphic sex and less horror than I expected. Could've done with like 1 or 2 fewer plotlines to make more sense of the remaining ones; I thought it was just about over when I was roughly 65% of the way through, and maybe it should've been two books. The biggest mark against this one for me was the ways in which nonwhite characters' race was an afterthought in a way that it was obvious to me that the author was not aware of. There was a lot of mentioning that someone was Black but never mentioning that someone was white that is like, okay, so you are trying to tell me that this book is for white people? Got it. It really stuck out and rubbed me wrong in a story that was really reaching for diversity and coming up white. I wonder if they had sensitivity readers, maybe publishers don't want to spend time & money on that for debut authors. Anyway, it's a good read if you can get past that, and alllll the trigger warnings for women & queer people of all genders. Very cinematic, some interesting perspectives.

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23abaigeal's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

1.5

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kaleereads's review

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dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

3.5

Content Warnings

vangoghssunflowers's review against another edition

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dark tense

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? No

3.25

Mostly disappointing. I thought the premise was exciting, but thought it lacked luster in the end.

I think this book would’ve succeeded if it stuck to one character’s point of view over multiple novels. Too much jumping around from person to person, with some sections going in for paragraphs before you find out who’s eyes you’re seeing through. The writing style was not tight enough to immediately differentiate characters from one another, so I was left confused and often had to reread portions once I realized I was picturing the wrong person. We’re introduced to far too many characters and too many points of view. “Show don’t tell” taken too far.

I also thought there were far too many sex scenes that didn’t further the plot. There were also many instances of unnerving descriptions of sexual content.

Personally, I thought there was also very little buy in for our characters. I disliked most of the people we met and didn’t believe in their relationships. While I get it’s the end of the world, why would these seemingly strong bonds form between characters out of nowhere?

I’m honestly supposed to believe Robbie and Fran are connected after one day of knowing each other and one night of sex? Which also, VERY WEIRDLY happened after Beth was brutally raped?

I thought the strongest aspect of this book was the world building, but certain structures felt unfinished and underwhelming. I very much disliked Teach as a villain. She had no substance besides being a TERF. Literally every piece of dialogue we get from her is just a super villain monologue. We get it, she’s evil. But does she really only ever talk about her womb? Really?

Overall, 3 star read. Premise and world building did a lot of heavy lifting for the confusing structure and lack luster plot.

Content Warnings