Scan barcode
A review by nikorico
Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin
2.0
I would like to preface, that I am happy this book exists. Queer and trans horror is a category that deeply deserves more love and projects. Gretchen Felker-Martin clearly has some skill writing action, gore, and intimacy. She's clearly going for a new spin on a grind house or a splatter punk style, which I absolutely appreciate. If the majority of the book was as tight and focused as the first and last thirty pages, my impressions would be much stronger.
Unfortunately, I think the biggest problem here is a sense of scope. There's both too little time in the book to dedicate to all the topics the author wants to cover, yet too much space in between actual plot events without enough meaningful character beats fill it. With the frequent time jumps and perspective shifts, it feels more like a collection of short stories that were assembled after the fact to create a whole novel. New characters and settings are introduced, built up, and torn down so quickly that it can honestly be hard to understand or care about what's at stake. Any surprises or twists feel more like arbitrarily determined beats, rather than something that feels natural in the flow of the story. The book is also deeply horny in a way that, while refreshingly honest at times, often feels more distracting than purposeful.
I think the characters themselves disappointed me the most. While I appreciate the nuance brought to characters like Beth and Fran, most of the others are troublingly one note at best. As a genderqueer, mixed race person, I do like seeing diverse representation in my media. But when it feels more like you're marking off items in a diversity checklist, that representation feels artificial and forced. Worse off are the villains who are frequently depicted as viscous sociopaths, but without any of the interiority that makes them feel realistically scary. They're boogie man depictions of real life issues propped up on stereotypes to make their eventual downfall satisfying. There's also an undercurrent of internalized misogyny that pops up into depictions of more femme characters that frankly feels lazy and cruel.
I'm not upset that I read this book. I'm very intrigued to see what this author accomplishes in their next, which does sound a bit more focused and smaller scale. However, I think it is a deeply flawed text and it deserves to be read with a more critical eye. It's okay to admit that something so proudly trans can also be pretty mid.
Unfortunately, I think the biggest problem here is a sense of scope. There's both too little time in the book to dedicate to all the topics the author wants to cover, yet too much space in between actual plot events without enough meaningful character beats fill it. With the frequent time jumps and perspective shifts, it feels more like a collection of short stories that were assembled after the fact to create a whole novel. New characters and settings are introduced, built up, and torn down so quickly that it can honestly be hard to understand or care about what's at stake. Any surprises or twists feel more like arbitrarily determined beats, rather than something that feels natural in the flow of the story. The book is also deeply horny in a way that, while refreshingly honest at times, often feels more distracting than purposeful.
I think the characters themselves disappointed me the most. While I appreciate the nuance brought to characters like Beth and Fran, most of the others are troublingly one note at best. As a genderqueer, mixed race person, I do like seeing diverse representation in my media. But when it feels more like you're marking off items in a diversity checklist, that representation feels artificial and forced. Worse off are the villains who are frequently depicted as viscous sociopaths, but without any of the interiority that makes them feel realistically scary. They're boogie man depictions of real life issues propped up on stereotypes to make their eventual downfall satisfying. There's also an undercurrent of internalized misogyny that pops up into depictions of more femme characters that frankly feels lazy and cruel.
I'm not upset that I read this book. I'm very intrigued to see what this author accomplishes in their next, which does sound a bit more focused and smaller scale. However, I think it is a deeply flawed text and it deserves to be read with a more critical eye. It's okay to admit that something so proudly trans can also be pretty mid.