Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

49 reviews

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

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

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

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

bestofsons's review against another edition

dark 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Deadnaming, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Outing, Sexual harassment, and War

readerofdafuk's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

2.5

Ok so I lost everything that I wrote in this since it didn't save so I'm just gonna blast through it stream on consciousness style

I'm not sure how to feel about this book

Things I like:
 1) gore was good. Horror zombie virus that only affects men, good. The gorely disgust details of how the men act and feed very interesting to have
2) I like the world building of how this new society acts and is rebuilding into factions and kingdoms and different roles that works well
3) I like the individual characters. I might now understand them completely, but they have their own wants and desires and are fully people that made me like or dislike them as people

But those are good points, cause then it gets complicated 

Things I don't like:
1) I don't understand how the main cast relates to each other. We don't see them interact as a group. Like seeing Fran and Beth together in the beginning, that was good. But then when Robbie appeared it just went so fast with introducing new characters that we don't have time to breath. We don't see the 4 friends (Beth, Fran, Robbie, Indi) actually talk with one another as a group. We don't see them learn about the other people. Like Robbie is brand new to this group you would think there were questions. But that doesn't matter because we move instantly to the second arc and see their individual dilemm s and problems. But they never talk about it together at all. Most i see is 2 characters and thats it. Not a lot of strong ties as a group

like it really does seem that Robbie only joined just for the sex. And Beth and indi only confess their love in the final act even tho I had not read ANY HINTS surrounding that

2) all the intimate relationships are sexual. I get that sexuality and sex can be a big part of identity, and you can see what the characters thing of their gender and sexuality through sex. Thats a good conversation. But like, every relationship is sexual, has sex, and only shows intamicy through sex. Like no other quiet moments or feelings, just sex. I get this isnt a romance book, but it ties back to the first point of How do they relate to one another, why are they together, do they only see each other for sex? 

Also, the author is putting her kinks in there there is a lot of spitting and drooling in these sex scenes

3) there is a lot of pointed commentary in this book and also a lot of references with no purpose. For the references they will say things like "I put away books like new moon with the angst teenage romance." Which doesnt serve anything. They said a thing, and I know the thing, but where does it go with it?  For the pointed commentary the narration or flow will stop just to give like a sum up of a person or thing they see or remember. Like there will be a paragraph about the type of white woman that you would see in a small town church. They are good descriptions, but there's a lot of them. And with these little scenes being at most 2 pages it it very noticeable.  that have them going o. Their own individual assignments and paths 

Case in point the bad guy fascist group is called TERFs. Which yeah they would be but like, not gonna be subtle about it. As villains they are decent since they are like fascist soldiers so they are terrible people but are using this to basically be transphobic and stay in power. Also they showed Teachs poverty at the end of the book when things are going to shit instead of the beginning or middle of the book where it can be used to explain her motivation for past and future actions.

Their hypocrisy is intriguing tho. They are trying to convince boys to take hormones and begin treatment to transition into women so they can be saved from the virus. Even have a person Kilroy be their mascot example for it, the perfect female body vs being a caged zombie monster. But they only like Trans women when it is in their image of being a woman and who they deemed valid and safe. So I really like that.

5) there are also some ideas and plot points that seem to just disappear like I don't know where or how they came up it just is

like where did the baby girl go to? You would think if a zombie carrier gave birth to a girl then it would be a main focus but she just got wicked away even tho that's a miracle baby right there. 
No idea how Teach knew Beth's dead name. Like how? Why? Also, why the FUCK was Kilroy a sleeper agent this entire time? Damn I want to know his story, how to live he was forced to transition but basically sabatoged the shit out of the terf ship. Again no hint or lead up to it, it just happens

So yeah, it was ok to read. I was intrigued but not interested

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Transphobia, Blood, Cannibalism, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Body shaming, Misogyny, Sexism, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Deadnaming, Slavery, and Suicide

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

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

britttobegorey94's review against another edition

dark 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Deadnaming, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Sexual harassment, and War

uhm_kai's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

1.0

While the concept on which this book is based is interesting, and should be cool, the execution here is horrifying. The book contains body horror after body horror, written in mediocre prose, and honestly presents a really poor image of trans women. The characters are constantly sexualised, and constantly sexualise other characters at inappropriate and unrealistic moments. The concept could have been great, but unfortunately this book is just not it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and War

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

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: 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