Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

22 reviews

acbrummitt's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infertility, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

veeples's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

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

3.75

I ended up reading this book alongside a friend, which has made it more delightful. We’re both trans/nonbinary and laughed about the viscerally honest glimpse into queer and trans drama you only get when you’ve lived the experience. So if you are queer or trans, I think parts of this will be deeply relatable, which is lovely. I love the complexities of the five main POV characters, especially

Ramona, a trans chaser, who is just as complex and yet still unforgiveable, which the author does not shy away from at all. I appreciate that: the people we hate the most have complex inner lives and that does nothing to abate their part in the violence they partake in and allow to happen.

My main gripes with this story is plotting falls in part 2 of the book. Lots of things happen, and I wish it were written in a fashion that grounds the reader more than it did. I also found myself wishing for more insight to personal relationships between the characters to better appreciate the tragedy of events that happens. Because it was not developed as well, the back half of this book lost a bit of emotional potency.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Deadnaming, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

chetsky's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.5

This book is disgusting, violent, horrifying, and campy. It also has a lot of heart. I loved it. My only criticism is that the gratuitous sex scenes got a little tedious. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Deadnaming, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, and War

orireading's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was the goriest book I’ve ever read and I almost hit my limit a few times. HOWEVER! I kept going because I also found it to be an achingly beautiful reflection on kinship and systems of care 🥲💔 Major major content warnings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

meaghanelizabook's review

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Deadnaming, Mental illness, Self harm, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Vomit and Pregnancy

babybasil's review against another edition

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Deadnaming, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Incest

hazmatz'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

3.0

review to come 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Cannibalism, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Deadnaming, Torture, Medical content, Trafficking, and Medical trauma

Minor: Antisemitism and Fire/Fire injury

This is a splatterpunk horror novel. There is very little feel good moments in this book, if any. Absolutely not for everyone and even if it IS for you make sure you're in the right headspace.

emmague89's review

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Biphobia, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

lycheejelly's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Incest, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Excrement, Abortion, and Pregnancy

kshertz's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.75

This is a hard book to review so take mine with all the salt grains. It’s horror and I don’t typically do that. It’s gory. It’s pithy. It’s snarky. It’s in your face. I love the one liners and I love the TERF tell offs. But the world created just makes me all sorts of sad and depressed. It was too much for me! But maybe that’s what makes it amazing? I think if you like really really dark horror that is very unique and different from anything you’ve read before and you support trans people, you will love this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Infertility, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Antisemitism