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A review by smbd_the_reader
Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin
adventurous
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? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Some words upfront.
This book is very much over-the-top, spatterpunk-esque and horny and the author is well known to be a drama queen with more vile takes than one person should reasonably be capable of having.
As such, I cannot recommend reading this book to everyone and cannot really recommend buying it to, well, anyone.
If you want to read it and have any triggers whatsoever I'd recommend looking up a list (or several) first. This review contains mentions of rape and TERf rhetoric but nothing overly detailed.
That being said, I genuinely enjoyed this book.
I loved the complexity of the characters, the varying responses to trauma, the way different trans people were treated by their surroundings, the inner thoughts of the characters, internalized transphobia and all.
Gretchen-Felker is also absolutely amazing at writing gripping storylines and visceral imagery that completely entrance you, rarely has a book had this much of an emotional impact on me while reading.
The TERFs were very close to real life, minus the force of a society that would not approve of their more extreme antics. There’s a hint of exaggeration at times, though a lot of it is taken fairly directly from actual TERF talking points.
Which may seem unrealistic and over the top to some but really, that’s just TERFs, baby.
One thing that had me sort of taken aback was TERFs willingly adding boys into their militia, so long as they rejected their identities, let themselves be sterilized and so on. It fits with the hypocrisy and the need for violent domination of others, but generally TERFs are very bioessentialist about sex and gender and can get extremely violent about their disdain for anyone who’s AMAB so that was a little odd.
What was not odd to me in the slightest is the attempted rape of Fran with the TERF in question then freaking out when she realized Fran has a penis and trying to paint herself as a victim. It’s so extremely on-brand that I almost had to laugh, in that “god they sure would, wouldn’t they?” way.
Overall the one thing that I'm not sure how to feel about is the ending. A lot of things were building up to, at best, a Pyrrhic victory at that point and while I am glad that so many survived there seemed to be some degree of plot armor involved which makes it at least somewhat less satisfying.
This book is very much over-the-top, spatterpunk-esque and horny and the author is well known to be a drama queen with more vile takes than one person should reasonably be capable of having.
As such, I cannot recommend reading this book to everyone and cannot really recommend buying it to, well, anyone.
If you want to read it and have any triggers whatsoever I'd recommend looking up a list (or several) first. This review contains mentions of rape and TERf rhetoric but nothing overly detailed.
That being said, I genuinely enjoyed this book.
I loved the complexity of the characters, the varying responses to trauma, the way different trans people were treated by their surroundings, the inner thoughts of the characters, internalized transphobia and all.
Gretchen-Felker is also absolutely amazing at writing gripping storylines and visceral imagery that completely entrance you, rarely has a book had this much of an emotional impact on me while reading.
The TERFs were very close to real life, minus the force of a society that would not approve of their more extreme antics. There’s a hint of exaggeration at times, though a lot of it is taken fairly directly from actual TERF talking points.
Which may seem unrealistic and over the top to some but really, that’s just TERFs, baby.
One thing that had me sort of taken aback was
What was not odd to me in the slightest is the attempted rape of Fran with the TERF in question then freaking out when she realized Fran has a penis and trying to paint herself as a victim. It’s so extremely on-brand that I almost had to laugh, in that “god they sure would, wouldn’t they?” way.
Overall the one thing that I'm not sure how to feel about is the ending. A lot of things were building up to, at best, a Pyrrhic victory at that point and while I am glad that so many survived there seemed to be some degree of plot armor involved which makes it at least somewhat less satisfying.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Hate crime, Sexism, Transphobia, Violence, Medical content, Religious bigotry, and Dysphoria