Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

30 reviews

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

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

bittennailbooks's review against another edition

 DNF'd at 149 pages - Reading for the #TransRightsReadathon

A bleak, egregious, and dismal imaginging of a post-apocalyptic future where men's final form is foaming-at-the-mouth mutants, XX TERF's become militaristic hunters, and another reality where trans people are hunted to near extinction.

That being said: This is not a bad book by any stretch of the word. In fact, I think its almost too good that this hits way too close to home. Unfortunately, I did not have the stomach to finish it but I hope you do! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Gore, Drug abuse, Hate crime, Medical content, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Murder, Sexual harassment, Transphobia, Drug use, Death, Grief, Rape, Blood, Body shaming, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Alcohol, Gun violence, and Genocide

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

wildeflower's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad 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? No

4.25

I thought this book was really well done and very interesting. It was extremely gory, and there was one part in the end that grossed me out a lot, but overall I thought it was very impactful and seemed to me (a cis woman) to have good trans representation. It also provided a lot of social commentary on not only lgbtq rights but also classism, racism, sexism, and nationalism. Overall was definitely worth the read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Outing, Blood, Body horror, Misogyny, Excrement, Gore, Homophobia, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Transphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Grief, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Rape, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Murder, Vomit, Sexism, Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Drug use, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Outing, Cancer, Child death, Fatphobia, Death of parent, Deadnaming, and Classism

This is a book about a group of transwomen trying to survive an apocalypse where they're being hunted by literal TERFS, and so there is so much trans violence, slurs, hate crimes, etc. towards trans women / trans femmes.

flags's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.5

A brutal take on the zombie genre, body horror and sharp commentary with diverse cast of characters. Uses the conventions of the genre to create a world that takes the hateful contentions of transphobes to their logical conclusions. Every protagonist is wonderfully complex with insecurities and skills and hang ups and something at stake in the narrative. Might be hard to parse if you aren't familiar with the humour, controversies, and cultural touchstones of the lgbt and queer communities, but it's very clear about it's politics as a novel so when it talks about gender and race it's obvious what it's trying to say. There's also a frequent amount of sex scenes for various reasons and they aren't superfluous as they all say something about the characters involved. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Suicide, Sexual violence, Cannibalism, Gore, Violence, Drug use, War, Sexual harassment, Murder, Transphobia, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Gun violence, Deadnaming, Physical abuse, Body horror, Vomit, Outing, Misogyny, Hate crime, Sexism, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Dysphoria, Death, Classism, Body shaming, Medical content, Alcohol, Rape, Racism, and Child death

Moderate: Religious bigotry

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

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

Minor: Pregnancy and Vomit

rhythmreads's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.25

So I had heard quite a bit about this book. And had recently read Hell Followed With Us, and I wanted a horror/gore read for October. So I decided to pick up Manhunt. I wanted gore, I wanted disgust, I wanted the same feelings I got from HFWU. I don’t think this is the book for that, at least it wasn’t for me. 

Let me preface that as a trans person I love reading trans characters and the concept was incredibly interesting. I semi knew what I was getting into. I’d heard about this book from multiple people so I knew there was some heavy stuff in here. I knew it followed 2 trans women, a trans man, and a TERF. I knew there would be a lot of TERF shit and HOLYSHIT was there. I also knew rape was a theme and I’m glad I knew beforehand. 

This is a heavy fucking book. I know it’s a commentary on TERFs and their ideologies and where they could lead in a fucked up world and that didn’t make it less fucked up. But it is a heavy fucking book and I would not recommend this to many or maybe any people if I’m being honest. 

I did enjoy the book. There were funny quips and one liners, the main characters beside Ramona, had flaws but you could obviously tell were fleshed out people who were trying to live in an apocalypse and deal with their own shit along the way.  

The writing was raw in its depictions of trans dysphoria and issues and a lot of trans shit. And it was an interesting look at all of it. And I enjoyed seeing into their thoughts and actions.  

Ramona’s POV always pissed me off which it was supposed to I’m sure. She was the odd one out. The one obviously in the wrong and knowing it, and still making all those wrong decisions. She said she was in love and let that lover die just because. There were so many times she could have stood up, times so many people could have stood up and ended it, but they didn’t. From their safety they ignored the cries and pain of those that weren’t them and it screams of a privilege to not have to think. To be able to step away and live quietly while letting things happen because “I can’t do anything anyway.” It’s definitely a commentary on activism and it was really interesting to read, but I still didn’t sympathize. 

There was a good amount in this book that was nice to read and interesting, but there was also a lot we probably could have done without. Authors can write what they want and if this is the story you want to write that’s fine, I will say though, that for a book that was only 293 pages, it didn’t need so many smut scenes. There were FIFTEEN. I annotated my book and let me tell you I love t4t smut scenes, it’s a great thing and I love to read smut in my books, but it was just SO much. By the end I was annoyed whenever a new one came up. And I wanted to be happy for the characters but it’s an apocalypse and they were so goddamn horny. It was exhausting by the end of the book. I get trying to showcase trans people and how normal it is for them to exist outside of surgeries but still, it was a lot. 

And arguably I don’t think the rape scene needed to happen. It didn’t add much to the plot other than trauma to Beth and very little would have changed other than the disgust at it happening. I don’t feel it was necessary but again, traumatize your characters how you want it just felt really unnecessary to me. As we’d already been told about the horrible things the men were doing, we didn’t need front row seats, but if that was important to Beth’s character, it’s fine I just didn’t feel like it was there for anything but horror and gore. But I digress. 

Teach was the head TERF and her beliefs and ideologies were horrendous. A lot of the TERFs in this book had realized after the virus had spread and men were now monsters that someone else could take over that monster slot and have the power to hurt others. I hated every time Teach would say something or monologue because it was always about how disgusting men were and the horrible things they were apparently programmed to do, while the TERFs were doing the exact same things to the trans people of the book. The horrible things they did were a power trip for most of the TERFs and it really stuck it that this is where these women wanted to be. They loved having a power they had craved before the men had turned and they just used it to hurt others because they could. 

I won’t say this is a horrible book or story. There were parts I enjoyed and parts I absolutely hated. Parts that made me disgusted and parts that made me happy, but I don’t know if I’d recommend this book to anyone. It’s an interesting commentary and I won’t knock people from reading it, and I know most people who would want to, would even pick up this book, would be ready for all the shit in it. 

It’s just a lot in so few pages and I’m not sure how else I’m supposed to feel about it. I wanted to love it, I wanted something different from this and it wasn’t the worst book I’ve ever read and I actually finished it. It’s a horror book, and it fits its genre. It just wasn’t what I wanted it to be and there was just so much that was probably there to pad the page number, and I really wished people would have talked about their feelings and relationships instead of just having sex. There’s so much more to a relationship, even in an apocalypse then sex. 

This wasn’t a fave of mine and I don’t know if I’d ever reread it, I don’t regret giving it a chance but I’d definitely not recommend unless someone really liked horror novels. If you want to pick this book up, go ahead, and try and enjoy and connect with the characters but do be mindful of the content warnings and if you don’t think you could stomach it or that it would be worth it, definitely pass this one up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Sexual content, Genocide, Violence, Sexual assault, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Gore, Rape, Sexism, Medical content, Death, Body horror, Drug use, Transphobia, Torture, Outing, Injury/Injury detail, and Gun violence

Moderate: Classism, Alcohol, Fatphobia, Medical content, and Excrement

upperjackpain's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Transphobia, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Body horror, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Mental illness, Self harm, Pregnancy, Cannibalism, and Outing

Minor: Racism, Slavery, and Alcohol

abigailkokitus's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Gore, Sexual content, Death, Transphobia, and Cursing

Moderate: Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, and Rape

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Deadnaming, Alcohol, and Drug use