Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

144 reviews

actuallyirina's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

This was a challenging read, often quite upsetting. The writing style was a bit jarring at first. If you're in a place where you can stomach it I think it's a good read to help you examine your biases and internalized transmisogyny. I'm trans and there was still stuff in here that I was like oops didn't realize I'd internalized that gotta keep that in check. It's a heartbreaking gutwrenching book, Beth and Fran are messy and complicated and imperfect but my god do you just want these women to catch a fucking break.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Murder, Outing, Dysphoria, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

surprisebear's review against another edition

I slogged through as much as I could, thinking I just wasn't used to horror writing. It's my least read genre. I decided to quit after I read the reviews, and even the positive reviews commented on the gruesome, gory writing. Definitely not for me, especially with the whiplash between scenes that are incredibly horny, and scenes that were the grossest, most wretched things I've ever read. Maybe there's something meaningful about gender that could be found, but I'm not willing to dig through the viscera for it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

argonautical's review

dark slow-paced

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

0.5

This book wouldn’t know subtlety if it was beat over the head with it. The concept was solid so I stuck through it in hopes that maybe it would get better but I really should’ve called it quits after the first 20 pages.

There’s such a reliance on shock value that in the end nothing is shocking because you’re just numb to everything going on. A cycle of one gruesome thing happening and moving on to the next while waiting for some semblance of a plot to appear and it never does. Simultaneously the book thinks it’s so clever with its inclusion of modern gender politics into its post-apocalyptic dystopia but you can’t be clever when everything is presented at face value, no nuance to any characters, no depth, just a shallow portrayal of gender in which the villains of the book are caricatured in how one-dimensional their ideals are (there seriously wasn’t anything more creative to call them than TERFs? That is what they are but cmon, you had free rein to unleash creativity, call them anything, anything at all, and you chose the default option, in this a fictional world in which internet-origin lingo is gonna stick out like a sore thumb as feeling incredibly out of place).

There’s no commentary of value added by the author on the themes (if we can even call surface-level discussion that) she chose to include so it serves only as a preach to the choir instead of allowing any delving into what we could understand about our society’s treatment of trans people and gender identity as a whole through the lens of this world she created. An opportunity to say something of value absolutely wasted.

The blurb labels it horror while the acknowledgements labels it splattercore. It fails at horror given the thematics are so surface-level and shock-value driven with the same cheap shocks cycled over and over that it’s impossible to feel anything but bored. Despite the prevalence of violence it fails to be splattercore either because, again, I feel nothing. It’s like the author thinks just including various traumas inherently creates horror or dread but completely forgets how important it is to add a coherent story to the mix so that readers actually have something to care about. “This thing happened and then this thing happened” is not a compelling story.

There is no development to any character, and we learn very little about any of them. And yet instead of a plot we spend the whole time following random events involving these characters we don’t know enough about to care for, often in a confusing fashion of sudden perspective changes without proper indication of who we’re following now. All wrapped up in run on sentences and cluttered paragraphs that often make it a chore to parse what’s being written.

I spent 20¢ on this book secondhand and that was still too much.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Blood, Cannibalism, Dysphoria, and Pandemic/Epidemic

super_bagel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

2.5

Take my opinion with a grain of salt. I have discovered while reading this book that I am not a fan of gore, and that I dont enjoy books with intense sex scenes or interactions that are uncomfortable.  But there are horror fans who would and do  love this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Transphobia, Medical content, Murder, and Sexual harassment

veritatemdilexi's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

4.0

 A visceral, brutal story of trans rage, pain, and love. Often deeply uncomfortable, the plot is engaging and the characters complex. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, and Toxic friendship

mstrat08's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Torture, Vomit, Cannibalism, Dysphoria, and Pandemic/Epidemic

brynalexa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Full disclosure: I don’t generally read horror. 

This book was disgusting, perfect, challenging, and relatable, unfortunately. Not for the faint of heart but absolutely worth it if you can get through the gore 🏳️‍⚧️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Ableism, Chronic illness, Deadnaming, and Torture

scheierndevin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Cannibalism, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

katreena's review against another edition

2.5

I feel like the story was very loose and not well put together. Also my my genre so maybe in bias. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Lesbophobia, Outing, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

apolloann's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny sad 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

This was a hard book to read, but wow, was it great. With just enough humor sprinkled in to make the horror digestible, Manhunt left me feeling deeply unsettled. I'm newer to the horror genre, so this was a lot to handle, but the story and characters were so beautifully written that it made the discomfort worth it.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Deadnaming, Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Infertility, Self harm, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Excrement, Trafficking, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol