Reviews with content warning for Xenophobia - Manhunt

Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

8 reviews

comradeluffy's review against another edition

challenging tense fast-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

1.5

I genuinely was 20 pages away from finishing this book, but couldn't get myself to do it. I should have DNF-ed it halfway through, but hate doing that.

The idea for the book is good and the premise of it is good, but it is not executed well, at all. The characters were impossible to connect with beyond sharing similar labels as a queer person myself. The descriptions of characters and settings were confusing and lackluster and I couldn't keep up with the constant switching of POV's.

Also, what exactly was the point of all those random sex scenes? I love smut, but come on now.

Unfortunately, an exhausting read.

Content Warnings

sapphicshark's review against another edition

Go to review page

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? It's complicated

3.75

Content Warnings

babybasil's review against another edition

Go to review page

tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

To say the book as a whole was bad would be incorrect. The premise was cool. It could have been so amazing if the writing wasn’t so flat. I nearly DNFd this book, but I hate quiting, so I slogged on to my detriment.

Firstly, if the book goes more than 3 pages without mentioning sex or someone’s genitals, it was a lucky 3 pages. Like, it’s constant. Everyone is fucking each other all the time. Everyone is thinking of sex all the time. And if they’re not thinking of sex, they’re thinking about how they or the men they’re hunting have genitals. Seriously, it was alright for the first few chapters, but by the middle of the book, I was pretty fed up. We’re introduced to half the cast via sex and, sometimes, it was just flat out weird. I believe it was Fran who just straight out asked the doctor if they could fuck and I nearly threw the book across the room.

Another issue was the story. There was no real storyline. It was just the plot of “men are monsters now and TERFs want to kill trans people” and that was it. It never felt like there was an actual story happening, just a bunch of people fucking and killing. Even the “romance” in the book felt crazy forced. Robbie saying he loved Fran in 3 days? Crazy unbelievable since we never got the two even sharing a moment besides fucking next to an unconscious Beth the same day they met. There was a point at the book where one of the main characters was working as a prostitute essentially. She seemed to have the attention of the head hancho of a bunker, but then a chapter later, her boyfriend was told she was apparently doing a bad job??? Since when?? The characterization was never pointed out and it was just such lazy writing to move the plot on. The whole book is littered with lazy writing.

Next, I hate terfs as much as any self respecting person does, but the way the book sought to victimize the characters constantly was a bit boring. It felt like making a terf army was the easy way out, ESPECIALLY when they later just straight up accepted trans people/men if they did grunt work and got bottom surgery. It took away all the danger of their army and was just dull.

Then there was the perspective jumping. I love books that have multiple character perspectives, especially when we get to see how their stories over lap. But when your perspective shifts 3-6 times (usually just 2-3 paragraphs per section) a CHAPTER? It gets so fucking confusing, especially when some of the sections just start “she”. One was so bad I never really figured out who it was supposed to be. Like, who am I meant to root for? What is even going on? We went from a tense moment to yet another character fucking. It was awful! Just pick a character per chapter and stick with them. Or if you do switch, at least make it make sense.

Another thing was the nazi imagery. I get that Gretchen was trying to make an end of the world “the terfs are killing all trans women” narrative, but using the holocaust and nazi imagery made me, a Jewish women, incrediably uncomfortable. I hate when people compare things to nazis and the literal extermination of my ancestors. It’s not a necessary allegory and she pushed it SO HARD I was rolling my eyes. At nazis. Like, enough is enough.

Not even that but Indi’s fatphobia is so unnecessary. Like, as a fat person, I don’t think about it as horribly or awfully as she does. She’s constantly going on about her rolls or how other characters are touching her “deeply buried collarbones”. It’s so bad. It nearly tipped into racism half the time with how the book treated Indi.

Overall, I did not like this book at all. It was such a waste of a story idea because the virus was such a cool idea. I really don’t recommend it.

Content Warnings

samwescott's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional funny sad tense fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

That was intense.

I will say first and quickly that this book does have an on-screen rape scene, which normally is a deal-breaker for me. In general, it's an intense book with a lot violence and hate speech, so you're gonna want to check the trigger warnings for it. I think it's worth it, but you don't wanna go in blind.

This book was just electrifying from the word go. It wrests the gender-plague concept away from mainstream cis authors and places it squarely in the hands of a cast of trans characters and allows them to roll around in what that concept could actually mean. Depending on how your gender plague works, it might affect pre-op and post-op people differently. How will it affect prepubescent children? Can hormones be synthesized and what sources can you harvest the hormones from? (spoiler alert: the answer is gross!) By not assuming a world of two biological sexes with corresponding gender presentation, it actually takes a worn-out concept and fills it with new life and complications.

The actual mood of the book is not a sterile thought exercise though - it is a filthy, raw examination of the inner lives of people living in this world. There are multiple POV characters, but most of them are trans and it really grabs the opportunity to wrestle with self-hatred and regular hatred, with desire and disgust, and how often those things are deeply intertwined. It was often pretty hard to read, with characters spewing hate speech and committing horrible acts of violence. But it also gives characters the opportunity to act on desire and lust and love and intimacy in some really beautiful ways. The whole outside world is very on the nose and over the top, but the inner lives are nuanced and complex.

The one complaint I did have is that the pacing was occasionally a little weird. I'm not actually sure how long of a time span the books takes place in? It could have been weeks and it could have been months or years, I'm honestly not sure. There were some scene jumps that I kinda lost track of and I wasn't always sure where specific characters were and how they got there. I do listen exclusively to audiobooks (the narrator was amazing btw), so it's made a little harder by not being about to flip back a page and double check without losing your place, but I think it might just be that this author isn't really driven by exposition. Not a huge deal, but it did disrupt my reading experience a bit.

So, yeah. Raunchy, gross, filthy, painful, exhilarating, funny, biting, and hot. It's a book dialed up to 11 on pretty much every front, so know that going in and enjoy the ride. It also feels very honest and sympathetic with no sugar-coating on a single page. I do recommend it with the caveat that you take care of yourself first, especially trans readers who may not want to engage with that much hate speech in their recreational reading time.

Terfs are the explicit villains, also, so expect some review-bombing on this one.

Content Warnings

shirtypantser's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

mistawenis's review

Go to review page

challenging dark 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? It's complicated

4.0

Content Warnings

cristina_margarita's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

I had super complicated feelings about this book that I’m still unpacking

Content Warnings

machinations's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark tense medium-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

Hell yes. Cried at the end. Much smarter people than will have more interesting words to say about Manhunt, but I think one of the biggest things that stood out to me was that this is one of the few books I’ve ever read where each sentence is beautifully, horrifically crafted; whole stories within sentences.

Content Warnings

More...