Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

126 reviews

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Violence, Vomit, Police brutality, and Medical content

jrosenstein's review against another edition

challenging 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

3.5

Violent, gory and disturbing in the best possible way. Felker-Martin does not shy away from the darkness in all of us. All of the characters eventually have to face the lies they tell themselves. There is a note of hope but it's slender and fragile. Not a book for the faint-hearted or weak-stomached.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Deadnaming, Fatphobia, Gore, Infertility, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Transphobia, Violence, Medical content, Cannibalism, Pregnancy, and Dysphoria

ghcstbats's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

2.0

Splatterpunk meets Wattpad. Parts of the book were good but i really had to slog my way through most of it. The pacing felt uneven and off for most of the book, whipping between scene after scene of high-action without much of a reprieve to really sit with it/the characters. The horniness and sex scenes through the plot felt oddly placed and I didn't care for how it was written/incorporated. It also felt like there was a very weird dichotomy between cis men & trans men through the entire book. I also didn't like that white people were rarely explicitly said as white (usually just "pale"), but POC are explicitly listed according to whatever the narrator thought (I really did not care for how Beth first described Robbie when meeting him). I'd like to think I'll come back in a few months and give it another try but it doesn't look like it'll be likely.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Rape, Transphobia, Medical content, and Cannibalism

peachylite's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Cursing, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Sexual content, Transphobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Dysphoria, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Child abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Rape, Vomit, and Trafficking

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Self harm, Terminal illness, and Cultural appropriation

promisesatsundown's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

It’s like The Last of Us meets 28 Days Later but if 28 Days Later only effected cis men and then all the remaining cis women completely lost their minds and became rabid J.K. Rowling TERFS but were really bad at executing their plans for post-apocalyptic world domination and wind up getting themselves killed. Overall a wonderful, gory queer horror book with great social commentary on the hardships of being a trans woman. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Sexual content, Transphobia, and Violence

Moderate: Fatphobia, Hate crime, Homophobia, Medical content, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

rachaelwho's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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? Yes

3.75

Good! Weird! A LOT more graphic sex and less horror than I expected. Could've done with like 1 or 2 fewer plotlines to make more sense of the remaining ones; I thought it was just about over when I was roughly 65% of the way through, and maybe it should've been two books. The biggest mark against this one for me was the ways in which nonwhite characters' race was an afterthought in a way that it was obvious to me that the author was not aware of. There was a lot of mentioning that someone was Black but never mentioning that someone was white that is like, okay, so you are trying to tell me that this book is for white people? Got it. It really stuck out and rubbed me wrong in a story that was really reaching for diversity and coming up white. I wonder if they had sensitivity readers, maybe publishers don't want to spend time & money on that for debut authors. Anyway, it's a good read if you can get past that, and alllll the trigger warnings for women & queer people of all genders. Very cinematic, some interesting perspectives.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Medical content, Trafficking, Cannibalism, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Slavery

Minor: Child death

frank_the_they's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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

4.5

An excellent concept and exploration of TERF culture in an “apocolyptic” future. Was slow to get into, but then took me for a ride.  Writing good enough to enjoy and not take away. Mostly lots of starts for content

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Transphobia, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Dysphoria

corsetedfeminist's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The best word I can think of to describe this book is primal. 
It details the aftermath of an apocalypse that targets testosterone, focusing on the struggle of trans women to survive in a world even more cruel to them.
This book comes with actually all of the trigger warnings, but hidden beneath the violence and gore is a surprisingly powerful discussion of feminism, trans love, found family, and the need for marginalized groups to stay together instead of going to war amongst ourselves. 
Everyone in this book is at best morally grey, and the romantic relationships are dysfunctional at best, but the treasure of this book is the queer community that gathers despite the conflicts and horrible decisions. Despite this, the main characters are incredibly multifaceted and lovable, even when they make the worst decisions and have to face the consequences thereof. The entire book is a struggle between protecting yourself and keeping each other safe in a heartbreaking way.  
This book is horror at its best- violent, bloody, profound

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Deadnaming, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Rape, Transphobia, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Outing, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

plumpeony's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Medical content, Cannibalism, Murder, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Deadnaming, Fatphobia, Death of parent, and Classism

carleneb's review

This very dark and very graphic. Often unnecessarilly explicitly sexual seemingly at random. 

The writing is amazing and it is very well written but the content was too dark for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Cannibalism, Murder, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic