Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

44 reviews

katipheria's review

dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

2.25

I had a love/hate relationship with this book. The general premise of the world-building is fantastic and unique, and as much as I hate to say it, were it to become our own reality I'm sure that the world would ultimately align itself in a similar fashion

in that cis women would be more likely to fall into a TERF or at least TERF-adjacent stance, if only due to the uncertainty and fear. Even those who consider themselves to be the best possible ally are still at risk simply due to the drive for self-preservation.

It's a terrifying situation and highlights a lot of ugly truths in reality.

However, the actual story within this world just doesn't do it for me. There's a lot of unnecessary sex scenes and as someone who prefers to avoid an excess amount of that (regardless of sex/gender of participants), I found myself skimming a lot to get back to the actual plot and feeling disappointed. While I understand that an apocalyptic setting inspires depravity and these moments highlight an innate desire for comfort and companionship,

the MC Fran's general poor treatment and better-than-you attitude towards her supposed friends makes things even more unappealing.

While it's not necessarily a horrible book, it is most definitely designed to be an uncomfortable read centered around characters who don't have many redeeming qualities.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Blood, Body horror, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Rape, Toxic relationship, Violence, Biphobia, Cannibalism, Classism, Death, Sexual violence, Ableism, Body shaming, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Slavery, Toxic friendship, and Transphobia

nostradamnus's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-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? Yes

3.75

Read this if you: thought Hell Follows With Us was great, but wished it wasn't YA; want to kill TERFs; 

The two strongest elements of Manhunt are its prose and characters, in that order and on purpose; by which I mean, despite having the trappings of a traditional dystopia, Manhunt is a horror novel, and the first priority of a good horror novel (which this is) is making its readers connect with their "ugly feelings," à la Sianne Ngai. To that end, the author prioritized viscerality and humanity (however fucked it may be) over worldbuilding and plot. If you go in knowing that, I think you'll have a better reading experience than if you're expecting something more whimsical. 

What struck me most about the prose and characters of Manhunt was the way that F-M was able to weave them together to create an argument-driven novel that rarely feels like it's trying to convince you of something. One of the most poignant commentaries of the book is its perspective on the violences committed against trans woman, particularly non-passing trans women, in spaces that claim to welcome them. F-M weaves this commentary seamlessly into the narrative 

(I'd even argue that the core conflict of the novel is between trans people and the more nebulously queer, not trans vs. cis.)

demonstrating her knowledge, conviction, and persuasive ability.

(Tertiarily, I also think that the marketing campaign for this book was absolutely brilliant--in focusing on the JKR of it all, the outward appearance of the TERFs within the novel becomes more aligned with cishet women who "have gay friends," which then allows a self-selecting audience of queer people/allies who think they support trans women, only to learn that we're the antagonists. Genius!)

 

Where F-M lost me was when this honestly masterful rhetorical work was interrupted by what I can only describe as cloying complaints about issues that are at best, tertiary to the text and, at worst, self-apologetics that bully readers into compliance under the guise of being equivalent to essential issues of self that are above interlocution.

One passage in particular captures this perfectly: "Indi thought with a bittersweet pang of regret that every time she'd heard the words 'queer community'... every argument she'd had... about whether or not sex should be allowed at Pride parades-fuck you, of course it should-...no one ever had any idea what that meant." Regardless of whether or not the reader agrees with this sentiment, such a direct address combined with the otherwise very throughout considered, carefully written passage has the effect of moral forcefulness (the same kind F-M decries throughout the book), that it is in some way wrong to disagree with sex at Pride in the same way that it is wrong to disagree with the idea that the queer "community" is inherently flawed, carrying over and even creating particularly vehement, caustic environments that are unsafe for trans women. But these issues are just not equivalent in nature and further, the former is a misrepresentation of the argument F-M is trying to counter; People try to ban kink at Pride, not sex. Changing the terminology feels like some haphazard attempt to link this conversation to the narrative (which I don't believe ever says the word kink, but is very interested in sex), but it comes at the cost of my ability to take F-M completely seriously as an author interested in legitimate critique, much less active discussion.

 

My point in all of this is that F-M is an excellent creative writer and rhetorician, and so the moments where she is less than excellent are distinctly unpleasant not in the way that good horror must be, but in the way that real people often are. For a different reader, that could be a welcome thing, but for me, it was disappointing. I'll read more of Felker-Martin's work in the future, but if the flaws of Manhunt carry forward, I'll inevitably tap out of her list. 

Tertiarily: Manhunt reminded me a lot of The Handmaid's Tale, in that it engaged in the white literary tradition of reimagining violence committed in the name of anti-Blackness/misogynoir to victimize white women? It was particularly odd in this case because white trans women (our primary protagonists) face their own contemporary struggles that could have been and were taken to their reasonable conclusions within the text, but those conclusions were kind of replaced in the last act by chattel slavery? Very weird, very white. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Pandemic/Epidemic, Misogyny, Hate crime, Body horror, Transphobia, Violence, Torture, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Death of parent, War, Animal death, Incest, Toxic relationship, Blood, Death, Slavery, Toxic friendship, and Fatphobia

birbmcbirb's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

This book made me very uncomfortable, and goes at a pace that makes you feel like you can't catch you  breath. The characters were flawed, sometimes to an annoying extent, but in a way that mimicks a found family of traumitized people. I think it's worth sticking through the hard parts, but make sure youre in a good head space before you pick this one up. Especially if youre someone targeted by TERFS & SWERFS.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Murder, Gun violence, Gore, Dysphoria, Death of parent, Death, Blood, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Deadnaming, Bullying, Slavery, Pregnancy, Outing, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexism, Eating disorder, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Homophobia, Fatphobia, Excrement, Body shaming, Body horror, Ableism, War, Transphobia, Gaslighting, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Biphobia, Eating disorder, Incest, Cultural appropriation, Racism, and Stalking

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

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

Minor: Deadnaming

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

larzhagen's review against another edition

- Incredibly violent and graphic sexual scenes back to back that did not seem necessary to the plot/character development.
- Dialogue seems unnatural; Beth's dialogue, for example, carries a humor which doesn't fit the horrific situations she's recently been through. "It's the last man on earth. How's it hangin', pal?" (p.57)
- Excessive use of epithets i.e. "... glancing at the injured girl" (p.55), and "the other woman" in lieu of characters' names. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Fatphobia, Body horror, Sexual content, Transphobia, and Rape

Moderate: Deadnaming, Misogyny, Murder, Torture, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Cursing, Hate crime, Suicidal thoughts, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, and Medical content

I have and will continue to support trans authors. It's unfortunate that I did not enjoy GFM's writing, nor the material in Manhunt.

swalshbuckles's review against another edition

dark

2.0

Too graphic for me

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Torture, War, Violence, Toxic friendship, Gun violence, and Sexual violence

careinthelibrary's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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

3.5

The world is unkind to trans women and this nightmare of the future is even crueller.

The violence is so visceral. Picking this up was like choosing to plunge full-body into a pool full of sparking livewires (in the best way). It's electric. It's harsh, dark, ultraviolent, perverted, fast, tense, and all of this makes it so realistic. Wonderfully horrific.

This is SO trans. Not just transgender but transgressive. They refuse to fit into the ideal box set up by neoliberal society. They don't always pass. They're pre- "the surgery". They're violent. Loud. Not sexless, in fact they're horny. They're T4T. They don't always use the most pc language for themselves. They don't fit into the gender binary that many demand trans women must in order to be respected or acknowledged as women.

I loved Fran and Beth. They are perfectly imperfect. This makes them so interesting, so real, so compelling. I also loved Indi's character so much. Her fatness isn't hidden away but always described with dignity. She is desirable, intelligent, hardworking, badass. Things we don't see fat people depicted as very often.

The middle chunk of the book got a little chaotic for me with too many perspective changes (it's hard to follow on audio) and plot that I wasn't as interested in. But then the ending got me good, leaving me with tears in my eyes. As hard and cruel as this story is, there is also so much love and tenderness. The sense of community between the four main characters is everything.

I don't like explicit sex in books (I usually just skim-read over those scenes) so obviously this part of the book wasn't my favourite. But that's a me thing, nothing I'd knock down the book's rating for. That being said, there's a lot of criticism about the sexual content in this book and most of it seems to be coming from cis women who are offended by it. So I'll iterate my stance on that.

Depictions of misogyny do not make it a misogynist book. Review bombing a woman's book because you don't agree with her politics does make you misogynist.

I won't police women's depictions of rape which is unfortunately such a common experience of womanhood, and especially trans women's experience. It is graphic and disturbing in Manhunt and I believe it's meant to shock to prove a point and elicit a response. Mine was sympathy, anger, disgust, and kinship. Unfortunately others have failed to sympathize with these women protagonists and instead are apathetic or irritated by its provocative violence. I wonder if these readers resonated more with the ideology of the XX TERFs. I didn't feel that the sexually violent scenes were glorifying or romanticizing sexual assault and I won't presume to tell women how they should or shouldn't discuss, depict, and process sexual violence. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Cannibalism, Gun violence, Trafficking, Transphobia, Cursing, Dysphoria, Physical abuse, Gore, Body horror, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Self harm, Death, Blood, Hate crime, Medical content, Sexism, Sexual assault, Outing, Violence, and Misogyny

Moderate: Antisemitism

Minor: Incest

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

Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Medical content

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

ramreadsagain's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

This book has every content warning under the sun but I just wanted to highlight an extreme content warning for violence, sexual content (inc. rape), and transphobia. This left me an emotional wreck and I am usually very thick-skinned.

My rating for this honestly could have gone either way so I have decided to go down the middle with three stars. At its core it's a (not original but in quite an original setting) critique on TERFs and how their transphobia is so overpowering that they pretty much stop caring about anything else. Even the literal zombie-cis-men overrunning the planet. There is a lot of emphasis on their hypocrisy, as they allow some trans women to live as sex workers for their own gratification (in a 'turning a blind eye' kind of way but ultimately killing them too), as well as force-transitioning young men for their army (their solution to the threat of male puberty turning them into monsters). They will allow trans existence and transition under their own terms, as long as they can control the bodies exactly how they want. They consider their castrated/medically transitioned young men to be women, but fake women, because they have the right genitals, highlighting how TERFs' view of womanhood only really extends to external sex characteristics.

Another important point is the critique of TERFs' 'feminism' which never extends beyond simply a society of role reversal. They envision and want to create a world of female supremacy still within the violent, oppressive capitalist system. At several points in the book, characters note how the TERFs are 'no better than men' and 'doing to them what men did to women'.

Overall I rate this positively because of the above, as I do believe this should be an important part of queer literature.

The book has just as many downsides though which do bring my rating down. Violence for violence's sake seems to be just how the author writes but it was a bit much, and at some point you just become a bit numb to it. The characters do also seem to recover very quickly from life-threatening injuries. I really didn't like the constant sexual content, which was usually uncomfortable, graphic, and repulsive. The POVs were often difficult to work out, with characters not having a distinct voice, and it wasn't clear when POVs changed until you saw a different 'narrator name' a few paragraphs in. This meant I often had to reread sections to understand them from someone else's POV to whose I originally thought it was. The characters themselves were unlikeable, which is not an issue in and of itself but they weren't even really distinguishable from each other. The book also had a slump in the middle third that was quite difficult to push through and the book felt much longer than it is. 

The book's treatment of fat people and POC made me uncomfortable. Size and race were often used as the only descriptor for a character, and Indi's extreme self hatred and the constant reference to her size (in quite inventive ways) got old very fast. The TERFs were also constantly referred to as nazis or neo nazis, which was a poor decision in my opinion. They did not demonstrate massive levels of white supremacy (unlike many irl TERFs - I understand the use of neo nazi when referring to actual twitter terfs at times) which made the descriptor just feel like a quip. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Cursing, Dysphoria, Medical content, Self harm, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Vomit, War, Sexism, Gore, Genocide, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, and Transphobia

Moderate: Deadnaming, Child death, Pregnancy, Excrement, Outing, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship