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fanglyfish's review
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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Transphobia, and Violence
Moderate: Fatphobia
Minor: Slavery
alex_paget's review against another edition
I really wanted to like this book, but 50 pages in with no breaks in gore and no plot, I was done.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Rape, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Self harm
airheadphilosopher's review
dark
emotional
tense
slow-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? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Transphobia, Violence, Trafficking, and War
cloelia79's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
This book has clung to me - a moving, entrancing horrific metaphor for transness and the trans experience in the 21st century. I have some issues over some scenes and content, but I know it's just my personal preferences for books. If you enjoy horror and social commentary on transness - and you have a high TW threshold, it's worth a quick read!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Transphobia, and Violence
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Violence, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic
w0lfyfr3n's review against another edition
I was intrigued by the blurb, and the idea of three trans main characters seemed so exciting, but the way these characters thought and interacted with each other felt a bit too toxic to me. Furthermore, all the characters are distractingly horny at very inappropriate moments. I wanted to go further but this style of writing was just not for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Mental illness, Rape, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, and Toxic friendship
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Transphobia, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual violence
queer horror, transgender author, queer authorhakaysha's review
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Transphobia, Violence, and Cannibalism
jocelynmwagner's review against another edition
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Dysphoria
zephyrlestrange's review
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
As a trans person, this book just absolutely missed the mark for me in so many ways.
Obvious criticisms (ham fisted self loathing, gender criticism, various -phobias and absolutely bizarre reduction of what could have been very interesting characters) aside, I found the pace and narration jarring, perplexing and glacial. The language was convoluted, writing paragraphs of how the scene looks but absolutely zero context with the people within it, I found myself having to double back a number of times to remember whose perspective it was because other than random name drops, you have no clue.
I don’t know what it is about “it’s an apocalypse” that turns every character into a self loathing mope, juxtaposed with the one dimensional personalities. I thought the depiction of the women came across as Gooner level sex obsessed losers, and the single trans man in the book was petulant, whiny and self obsessed.
I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to explore intersexuality but the author was much too busy writing some of the most depressingly fatphobic drivel, I finished this book out of pure spite to be able to make a well informed “this fucking sucked” review.
Obvious criticisms (ham fisted self loathing, gender criticism, various -phobias and absolutely bizarre reduction of what could have been very interesting characters) aside, I found the pace and narration jarring, perplexing and glacial. The language was convoluted, writing paragraphs of how the scene looks but absolutely zero context with the people within it, I found myself having to double back a number of times to remember whose perspective it was because other than random name drops, you have no clue.
I don’t know what it is about “it’s an apocalypse” that turns every character into a self loathing mope, juxtaposed with the one dimensional personalities. I thought the depiction of the women came across as Gooner level sex obsessed losers, and the single trans man in the book was petulant, whiny and self obsessed.
I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to explore intersexuality but the author was much too busy writing some of the most depressingly fatphobic drivel, I finished this book out of pure spite to be able to make a well informed “this fucking sucked” review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Violence, Vomit, Police brutality, and Medical content