Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

62 reviews

sbauer2894's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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

An wild and INCREDIBLE RIDE. Unlike anything I've read before - I was gripped by the story and the characters and although the book is only 250 or so pages, SO MUCH HAPPENS?! It's a hard read but god is it worth it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Torture, Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Body horror, Sexual content, Violence, and Transphobia

Moderate: Sexual assault and Rape

Minor: Toxic friendship

kingsamong's review

adventurous 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Dysphoria, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Transphobia, Rape, and Torture

Moderate: Sexual content and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Toxic friendship

jemmers's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

cw// sexual assault, forced sex work, coercive sex, gore, violence, transphobia, hate crimes, body dysphoria

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Sexual content, Dysphoria, Grief, Gore, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Hate crime, Death, Transphobia, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: War, Vomit, Death of parent, Sexism, Deadnaming, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Torture, Self harm, Outing, and Medical content

audrilou's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

I adore this book. The ending had me heaving big heavy sobs for minutes. Its a dark dark read, especially if you are trans. Because of that closeness, I felt so much more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, War, Sexual violence, Rape, Death, Toxic friendship, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Deadnaming, Body shaming, Blood, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexism, Pregnancy, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Murder, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Medical content, Lesbophobia, Infertility, Homophobia, Hate crime, Gun violence, Grief, Gore, Genocide, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Dysphoria, Drug use, Cursing, Body horror, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Ableism, and Abortion

bdlin101's review

I could tell almost immediately that this book and I weren’t going to get along, but a friend suggested it, so I pushed passed chapter two.

The MC, Fran, is insufferable, acting like a damn teenager in the face of her enemy, treating her “best friend” like shit, and allowing herself to think far, far too highly of herself. The fact that the author thought it was a good idea to compare real life transphobia with cis women (and trans men) fearing all people with testosterone in a world where testosterone having people have a disease that makes them brutally rape and rip apart and kill those with vaginas. Those are not the same kinds of fears. So I’m not sure this book hits the way she wants it to. 

The rest of the book is just trauma porn for queer folks and women alike. Graphic depictions of rape and killings. Forcing trans women to dress and fuck like straight men. Trans men having to go off testosterone in order to survive and not get the disease. And TERFs. 

Finally, the writing style. Terrible. It read like fanfic they wrote as a huge Harry Potter fan after finding out JK Rowling is transphobic, and she wanted to find a creative way to kill her off. It’s pretty bold, and tasteless, to name a real person and burn them alive in your book, but my dude, Gretchen, did.

TL;DR: Unless you enjoy poorly written, traumatic, and downright problematic zombie with plenty of sexual assault thrown in just cuz, I suggest skipping Manhunt. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Transphobia, Homophobia, and Toxic friendship

kys_chai_and_books's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Body horror, Cannibalism, Deadnaming, Fatphobia, Medical content, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Blood, Violence, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Domestic abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Gun violence, Racism, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Death, Murder, Rape, Misogyny, Dysphoria, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Pregnancy

danimacuk's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Murder, Dysphoria, Cursing, Sexual assault, Body shaming, Deadnaming, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Body horror, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Torture, Transphobia, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Chronic illness, Classism, Trafficking, Cannibalism, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Infertility, Medical content, Body shaming, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

Minor: Cancer, Suicide, Slavery, Chronic illness, Drug use, Infertility, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Confinement, and Lesbophobia

swalshbuckles's review against another edition

dark

2.0

Too graphic for me

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Torture, War, Violence, Toxic friendship, Gun violence, and Sexual violence

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

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

erikathered's review

dark sad tense 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

4.5

This novel may not appeal to everyone as it's written from a very particular perspective and for a very particular audience. But if you're within that audience, if you're interested in dark, tense fiction that explores trans experience through a new lens, you'll love this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Trafficking, Gore, Outing, Body horror, Transphobia, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Rape, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Grief, Blood, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Violence, Death, Cursing, Dysphoria, and War

Moderate: Suicide, Slavery, Fatphobia, Deadnaming, Toxic friendship, and Eating disorder

Minor: Self harm, Ableism, Colonisation, Cancer, Racism, Death of parent, and Terminal illness