Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Manhunt

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

45 reviews

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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meaghanelizabook's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

0.25

No.

Content Warnings

bookish_ann's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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

One of the most upsetting and horrific books I’ve read. I went into this pretty cold, only knowing that it was a gender apocalypse novel that finally took into account the trans experience (and intersex, and hyperandrogenism, etc). I was NOT PREPARED for how hard this book hits and how deep it goes. The characters are complex and mostly unlikable, but they are vivid and real. The horror… well. It’s effective.
It starts with what I expected… some seriously gross and gnarly world-building involving the transformed testosterone-heavy monsters. But very very quickly the real monsters of the book are revealed. And it just never lets up, and the worst part is how much is based in reality.
This is a difficult, but very worthwhile book.

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bites_of_books's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

An apocalypse book where a virus is triggered in people who have higher levels of testosterone, causing them to become feral beasts.

This is a book where the author has zero sympathy for the reader, they describe everything in raw and gory detail and hold back nothing. The atmosphere is rich in the toxic nature of the characters and also the general anxiety that it is to live in a world where various groups of people are trying to survive. We follow Fran and Beth, two trans women who are trying to survive in a world where they hunt men who have turned feral in order to harvest their organs for selling and also to acquire the hormones they need to avoid turning into these feral beasts. To top that, they also need to be wary of a group of TERFs who are building an army, trying to be the new law of the land.

I highly encourage you to read and listen to trans reviewers since a lot of the book is from that perspective. Trans experiences are not represented in literature enough and even less in horror so this book is highly valuable because it does put those experiences front and center.

The overall plot of the book jumped around a bit too much for my liking, it seemed like the first half of the book was about one thing while the second half focused on something completely different. While our main characters arcs do take precedence, there were a couple of other characters that came in and out of the story never fully solidifying their connection to the main characters.

I'd highly recommend checking all the content warnings, if you do want to venture into this book. I'd say that if you like apocalypse stories with a completely different perspective, full of gore that doesn't hold back, this might be the book for you.

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sarah_bookshelf's review

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challenging dark emotional 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

This was a fantastic journey - exactly the body horror, genre-bending, societal commentary I was looking for. No holds barred, as you can see by the trigger warnings, and the rawness of all the characters just blew me away. This is a trans book for trans (horror) readers, and nothing I could say could top this review by trans author Lee Mandelo: https://www.tor.com/2022/02/24/book-reviews-manhunt-by-gretchen-felker-martin/

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shirtypantser's review against another edition

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dark 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? No

3.75

Overall, a decently written, gory, post-apocalypse romp in the woods. The writing was proficient though I think it could have been a bit longer. Parts felt rushed. Organization was rocky: lots of jumping around between characters, to the point where it was difficult to keep track of who was who. Due to writing style, sometimes it was difficult to figure out where we were or who we were with until a few paragraphs in. This is fine if you aren't jumping back and forth between three groups and eight people. It gets confusing. This is pretty gory in general, some sex, and the author most definitely has a spitting fetish. (No shame, just observation.) One of the main characters is alright at first but fast becomes very unlikely. Her only redeeming quality is that good people love her, but I could never figure out WHY they did. She was beautiful and such an ugly little shit.

She dies. Everyone is sad and will miss her dismissiveness and people-using ways so, so much.

There are some very poignant observations amidst the violence and gore. I look forward to reading more from this author.

Content Warnings