Manhunt

Absolutely magnificent and one of the most expressive things I've read in my life. I've read it several times, and have thought about it every day for nearly a year. Even now, if I pick it up to check something in it, I often find myself continuing to read from there.It's extremely character- and theme-driven, and rich in both respects. The characters I adore, to an extent even the villains, and I missed them when the story came to a close. Even the setting feels like a character unto itself. Thematically, it's like looking at the real world in a funhouse mirror that magnifies things we don't see or don't want to see, and very real pain, fears, and experiences. It's almost totally non-fantastical as the zombie-plague and gender-plague subgenres go: it has its one big diversion from the real world, the t. rex virus, and that's it. The rest is just what do you mean this isn't real life, to the point that a great deal of what's in it has direct real-world inspiration. It uses the tools of the horror genre not in service of the genre itself, but as means of expression.As far as being horror goes, it does a lot of interesting things with it. The t. rex virus is a powerful metaphor that does a great deal of heavy lifting in expression of the story's themes, and it actually sells its fate-worse-than-death for what it is, though I may be biased. It evokes dread not only in the sense of fear of death, but of fear of what you will live through. And oh can it evoke fear of death. Even in those occasions where the perspective character is a villain that you'd think you shouldn't empathize with, it makes you feel their fear.I do feel a need to note that the premise of the book is not killing cis women, as some comments have claimed. That's bull. The premise is the protagonists trying to survive in a world that doesn't want them in it. It does feature truly extreme violence that I might compare to DOOM or Mortal Kombat, but that violence is directed at everyone in it, and it has no interest in glorifying violence against cis women as a demographic nor against noncombatants. Even in its portrayal of TERF villains, it gives them a fairer shake and is more humanizing than it was obligated to be.It does make a serious break with a certain orthodoxy in feminist literature, however: it does not portray a world ostensibly run by women as necessarily being a utopia or even with women coming together in unity. It instead portrays a world where the worst women in it seized control in the power vacuum after T-day, and that to a large extent has the same old violent and exploitative hierarchies, just under new management. Some consider portraying women behaving as badly as men to be offensive or even somehow misogynistic. I don't. It's actually very interesting.so yeah read this book it rules

came in good condition, love the little red strip of color that pops out

Reading this book is like having your brain put in a blender. It's wild, gross, horny, disgusting, tragic, and hilarious all whipped together into an extreme horror smoothie. In other words I LOVED it. There's just something extremely satisfying about trans women shooting TERFs, and while it's absolutely not something I'd advocate in real life it's fun in fiction.In this post-apocalyptic world the T-Virus (love the Resident Evil shout out) transforms anyone with testosterone into a wild, zombie-like beast interested only in eating and mating. So cis men, trans women not on HRT, cis women with PCOS and trans men on HRT all mutate into monsters. Two trans women, Fran and Beth who hunt feral men try to survive while avoiding both militant TERFs who are out to kill any trans woman they see, and spoiled bunker brats, once wealthy capitalists who have created their own serfdoms outside their high-tech bunkers. Unluckily for them they run into both with alarming frequency and have to fight their way out.Everyone in this story is super horny, sometimes at wildly inappropriate times like when their lives are being threatened by TERFs, and there’s a lot of sex. The sex is hot, and sometimes gross, and other times both hot and gross, much like real sex. It was nice to have sex scenes that were centered around trans pleasure rather than the cis-male gaze. Of course, the graphic description of genitalia might be triggering for some people who experience gender dysphoria. Another trigger warning, transphobic and homophobic slurs are used frequently, so be prepared for that.

It feels like we’re thrown in to the middle of a late season of a show. So many characters are introduced and it’s not necessarily hard to follow but you don’t breathe with the characters often. Since the world is also gruesome and hyper sexual, you end up not really caring for most of this world. Our main characters Fran, Beth, Robbie, and even villain Ramona are fleshed out but overall the structure of the book fails them. It’s divided by chapters but then further divided with mini character shifts within the chapters separated by ♀. It gets confusing. It started to pick up towards the later half because of the nonstop action. The story is like Walking Dead meets Mad Max vibes thrown into a blender with gender ideals and transphobia. It’s a bleak sad world. The book contains lots of ⚠️ body horror, rape, sex, and killings of trans folks ⚠️ 🛑 I found it to be a tough read but did enjoy the action, grotesque scenes, and off the walls dystopian narrative. I wouldn’t recommend to everyone though. Only if you enjoy the niche genre.

O. M. G. This book was great. It was beautifully written and painted an intense picture. The characters were deeply flawed but still endearing (well not Ramona but still). I adore the diversity, the world building. The only issue I have is that I want everyone to read this book, to take this journey, to cry with me over certain parts, but I can't recommend it to everyone. Why? Because of the large amount of sex in the book. Don't get me wrong, it's well written sex, but there's a lot of it. A lot of people who would not blink at the violence and body horror in the book, would baulk at the smut and a lot of people who would enjoy the smut would hate the horror. It's a conundrum but I still want to encourage any fans of splatterpunk, body horror, post apocalyptic settings, queer characters, lyrical prose and wonderfully structured chapters to give this book a read. Or if you want one of the best audiobook readings you will ever hear, listen to the audiobook narrated by Katherine Pucciariello. The subtle differences in their voice for each character were perfection, you always knew which character was speaking. It was sublime! It was originally going to be a 4.5/5 star book for me but I realised that the narration pushed it over to a 5.

I've been reading this with my book club and it has been So Hard not to read ahead. Incredibly compelling, hard to put down.The characters feel so real, they are written with such raw honesty. I have never seen trans characters written in such a way. Often I've seen writers avoid the messier, "unacceptable" aspects of trans characters for fear of being misunderstood or distorted by unfair critics who judge first and look for reasons after. Felker-Martin does not shy away from this, and in fact seems to lean into it. The characters are laid bare, their most problematic traits exposed, making them seem deeply real and human. The constant scrutiny of trans women is explored and spat at.The subject matter is gruesome and exposed in an impressive level of disgusting detail. Not for the faint of heart. The initial chapters outline most of the horrors that are later explored in detail, however the Felker-Martin constantly finds ways to surprise and terrify, while balancing horror upon horror out nicely with dark humour, and some honest, messy sex scenes.Every paragraph of this book is beautifully crafted. I cannot stop talking about it to everyone in my life, even after talking about it for hours once a week with my book club.I finally finished it, bawled my eyes out, then almost immediately flipped back to the first page to reread it.

This book is truly amazing. I’ve just finished it now, and honestly I feel so incredibly moved. The writing is incredible; gory, dark and realistic.The characters are complex like real people, and I felt myself truly caring for Beth, Fran and Robbie (as well as many of the other characters).

This book (and the bad reviews) showcase how hard it is to survive as a trans girl in a world full of discrimination.

I gave this book 4 stars for the follow reasons:Plot: the author does a fantastic job taking a current hot topic and shedding light on it in a relatable and engaging way. The metaphors and themes throughout this book are perfect. The author truly gives trans people a platform and an amazing starting point in modern literature.Writing: the author wrote in a way that you couldn't put the book down. It's fast paced but not without strong writing and clever jokes and symbolism throughout.The Characters: Its impossible for your heart not to break after reading and feeling the pain that each of those characters go through in their unique but all too similar hardships.This book should be at the top of a lot of charts.

If you can read this and ignore all the controversey then you're in for one hell of a ride. I doubt I'll ever have the stomach to read it again, but I'm glad I got through it once. Really horrific book, unlike anything I've ever read before. I'm giving it 4* for the feeling and the experience it gave.