As someone who still considers herself new to horror, I was excited to delve into Manhunt and experience something different. I have a thing for found families, I don’t mind a little body horror, and I’m always interested in queer stories. Plus that cover really caught my eye.

While the idea of a virus-infested world isn’t exactly novel (or unrealistic), this one specifically targeted people with higher levels of testosterone. Not only that, but Manhunt would put a focus on the people typically ignored in situations like this—trans people.

Manhunt is a scathing look at the collapse of society, and it pulls no punches. If you can stomach the carnage (and there’s no shame if not), Manhunt offers an opportunity for real discourse when it comes to intersectionality related to feminism, sexuality, and gender identity, in addition to racism and fatphobia. It doesn’t sugarcoat these experiences, and there’s something truly refreshing about that.

However, it should be noted that this book is full of slurs and sexual violence, as well as self-hatred and graphic death scenes. If you’re interested in marginalized voices, especially within the horror genre, then I encourage you to pick this one up. If nothing else, it will stay with you long after you finish the final page.

This is stunning, and an utter feat in the midst of what is usually a terrible sub-genre: a "gender" apocalypse that's not gender essentialist, a hormone-centered dystopia that, rather than being TERFy, casts the TERFs as some of the ultimate big bads. Felker-Martin's work is amazing here, from the superbly well-developed main characters (who are, once again vehemently breaking with tradition in this genre, all trans folks) to the gleeful splatter horror and gore-soaked world. It's nuanced, it's aggressive, it's gross, it's angry, and it's wonderful.

I apologize that I cannot give a proper review of this book other than to say Yes it is horrific and dark. It is also well written. However, I would have appreciated a Trigger Warning before requesting.
There is graphic on page depiction of rape and I just can't read it or beyond that. Thank you for letting me access this book all the same.

*eArc provided by NetGalley & Tor Nightfire in exchange for an honest review*

Brutal, hopeful, and honest, Manhunt is more than just a horror book for the moment (though it certainly is that). It's a novel that aims to give a large, more complicated, scope to queer existence. Gretchen Felker-Martin has written a modern, queer classic which has depressing, active roots in a world before the apocalypse (but teetering on the edge).

I’m going to borrow Carmen Maria Machado’s words on my experience reading Manhunt: “like tonguing a live wire.” I picked this book up and finished it in the space of a day because I couldn’t put it down. Visceral, horrifying, gore-splattered, erotic, deeply trans and queer, and as monstrous as it is human, Manhunt has easily earned its place as a favourite of the year, if not all time.

Thank you to Nightfire and NetGalley for an advance reader copy. All opinions are my own.

*manhunt* is a story of a world where anyone with enough testosterone turns into a feral beast, rape-crazy and wild. beth & fran, two trans women, spend their days hunting feral men and harvesting their testicles for estrogen production, eating the raw balls while traveling on the hunt or in some medicinal form extracted and purified by their friend indi, so they can prevent the transformation from happening to themselves. robbie, a trans man unable to foreseeably ever take testosterone again and burned before by letting others close to him, travels alone hunting men with his gun. by happenstance and a terrible accident, the three find themselves entangled in each others lives, fighting both roving packs of men and TERFs, who will gladly see all trans women dead.

i could not put this book down. i read it all through my work day, covertly on my phone in front of my computer, staying up far past a responsible bed time to finish it. the characters are extremely well written, the community dynamics relatable, despite the whole fucked up dystopia bit. i particularly adored indi and her relationship with beth. i am also, admittedly, a sucker for books that take place in new england, which is where i grew up, and the familiar setting was a fun little bonus for me.

*manhunt* is a masterpiece of tension, gore, sex, and TERFs taking well-deserved shit. felker-martin knows how to fucking *write*. i laughed, cried, i had knots in my stomach reading some of the nastier gory parts. *manhunt* is sexy and gross, heartbreaking and incredible. an incredible debut novel that i would absolutely recommend. unsurprisingly: i rate this five stars

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

>trans twitter users surviving 2018’s zombie apocalypse inherently comic for such a gross novel. will this book age strangely? love and light.

>everyone has such a perfect name for their characters. Beth. Fran. Robbie. Sophie. Indi. Ramona. It’s perfect it’s not too much and it’s not too little.

>very gross very nasty will be haunting me not just for fried testicles but for questions about community and violence and how to not be a coward.

>strengthened a lot of my core beliefs, this is going to be a book i think about for a long time. also "what if the manhunt apocalypse happens tomorrow" will be a recurring stress fantasy for me i can tell.

(more+spoiler talk on my storygraph account linked below)

This is a DNF for me. I really was interested and excited for this book after seeing the cover and hearing the synopsis. However, this book is really not for me, not least because after getting 20% into it and trying to push through it, I finally put two and two together about my vehement disagreement and disgust with the author's violent beliefs expressed on Twitter. I did fully go into this book with an open mind, and I'm glad that publishing has taken a chance on something different in the content and also expanding what it is supporting trans authors to write. But the world is burning and I do not think this is the kind of writing I personally want to get behind.

CW (for 20% I read): rape, violence, gore, transphobia

Manhunt is an own voices post-apocalyptic horror novel led Fran and Beth, two trans women, and Robbie, a trans man. The concept of those with high levels of T getting zombified is terrifying but, as per usual with post-apocalypse themes, what draws us in are the survivors. In the now XX world, the internal struggle to pass as a woman is front and center for both Fran and Beth, while also evading the TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) hunting down anyone that doesn't physically conform to their XX worldviews. In order for some to have enough estrogen, including trans women, those with PCOS and menopausal women, there are manhunters who, as their name states, hunt the zombified men for their balls.

While interested in the characters and their outcome, I didn't find myself truly caring for any that graced the pages. I think I was missing some of the deeper connections between the characters perhaps in dialogue since a lot of the novel is internal monologue and thoughts. Some of the fallout after traumatic events didn't feel wrapped up in how the characters managed future situations.

Gretchen Felker-Martin's prose is stunning, visceral, erotic and personal, while also providing space for self-reflection for myself as the reader, a cisgender woman. The struggle to survive, love and maintain truths is evident from page one. Manhunt is not for the weak but speaks out for human rights and the importance of love, in all forms.

CW: transphobia, execution, gore, pregnancy, trauma, rape, violence (basically all the things)

3.5 stars rounded up.

This is an important book for a niche audience. While the imagery and grotesque worldbuilding is compelling, the themes coalesce into a fairly exclusionary worldview that will put off many readers.

3.5 stars

**Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.**

Pros
+ story mainly centered on 2 trans women, written by a trans woman
+ post-apocalyptic setting where men are literal monsters (was reminiscent of Star Eater by Kerstin Hall and Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark)
+ queer rep: trans women, trans men, enby, queer not specified, lesbian, bi/pan
+ Beth (my fav): a trans woman who wants so badly to be seen beyond her brickness (inability to "pass" due to body/face features)
+ Fran: Beth's trans best friend, who is slender and passes as a woman easily
+ Indi: friend of both Fran and Beth, who is a doctor with limited mobility due to her weight
+ Robbie: a trans man who is really good with weapons who helps Beth and Fran
+ the writing was really immediate, immersing me into the scene immediately every time I picked this book up
+ the man-as-monster, manhunting, and whole ball thing was brilliant, imo
+ the bunker brat/boyfriend/pregnancy storyline was equally fascinating and horrifying
+ I loved Beth so much and wanted to protect her, especially when I could just see shit was going to hit the fan in the bunker. I was so nervous for her I took a week off from reading this!
+ the fight scenes were awesome!
+ blood, gore, guts galore

Cons
- I only really connected to Beth (LOVE HER) and to a lesser extent Indi and Robbie. I wanted to be with them more, instead of flitting around other POVs so much.
- I really didn't like one of the main POVs. I really hated Fran. She was a terrible person, both as a friend and as a romantic partner. It was hard to root for her when I really disliked her so much. Your best friend falls off a roof into a horde of monster-men and you DON'T try to save her? You just watch something horrible happen to her?? Okay... I hate you.
- There is an explicit on-page rape scene (monster on trans woman) which I LOATHED. I really don't think that was necessary AT ALL. It would have been so easy to have it *almost happen* but not, to still illustrate the severity of the world. I seriously considered DNFing it at that point because I was just disgusted. I get that the world sucks, and that rapes happen, and many are mentioned throughout the book... but an explicit in-her-head-as-it-is-happening POV? Too much for me.
- The end battle aftermath was such a fizzle. People I wanted dead weren't. People I wanted to see live happily didn't. I get that the end is ~realistic for this world~ but it majorly let me down.
- There was a lot of cheating by one certain character we are supposed to root for. And I hated that.
- The Teach/TERF storyline was so black/white villain that it read a bit unrealistic to me. Why was Teach so determined? (We find out at the very end but... was that really worth killing thousands of people over?) Also, I feel like Ramona's POV was put in solely to give ambivalence to their cause, some sort of grey, but it also fell flat because she was a POS at almost every opportunity. I would have instead loved a few POVs from spies hidden in the TERF ranks.
- Also, you can't just take apart and then rebuild an entire warship in what? a few months? There's no way that they happen to have that many naval engineers in their ranks...

TW: homophobia, transphobia, internalized misogyny, TERF, death, murder, gore, body mutation, rape, monster rape scene ON PAGE, torture, hanging, live vivisection, burning, death during childbirth, fatphobia, public execution, cheating, scars, burns, deipnophobia (fear of eating in front of others)

2.5 stars

This book is sure to piss a LOT of people off, but I am so here for it! This book is a difficult read, and difficult to review.

We are in post-Apocalyptic New England, following a few trans main characters, Fran, Beth and Robbie. They are fighting against the TERF’s who are waging war on trans female individuals in a world where a virus referred to as T.Rex turns men (or even women with PCOS/menopausal/hormone issues) into feral monsters.

I came into this book expecting to love it (I mean LOOK at the freaking cover!) just from the first few pages where one of our MC’s kills a feral man and eats his raw testicles. This book is so raw and brutal, becoming ultraviolet and overly sexual, but I really struggled with the writing style as well as the pacing. This is more of a relationship centered book (with LOTS of sex and sexual thoughts for all characters) and the plot was left lacking a bit. Especially for a dystopian novel, I think the plot and day-to-day worldbuilding should have been stronger.

I was definitely confused by the world a lot - the feral men would come if there was too much noise, etc. but yet they get to have bars playing loud music with the women laughing and dancing and whooping? How are these TERF’s communicating up and down the Eastern coast?

I also never really rooted or connected with any of the characters - I loved that we had a lot of trans characters who showed us how it feels to live as trans, and all of the trauma they have faced as well as continue to face. They are also morally grey, which I usually love, but I just didn’t connect with anyone. I’m not sure if it’s because everyone was f**king each other, but their POV’s would blend together. I didn’t care about their interpersonal relationships with one another and I think that’s something you need to care about to love this book.

I think that if you are trans, you can really take a lot out of this. The author said in an interview that she wrote this for trans people! This does feel more like the author’s commentary on her trans experience and her experience in sex work more than a novel sometimes, but I think a lot of people will love that. I just wish it had a bit less rage and more of a light at the end of the tunnel; especially for an apocalyptic novel, a little bit of hope goes a long way!

Overall, I really did not enjoy the writing style, pacing, or the sexy fever dream bits of this, but I hope you give it a try and get something out of such a provocative novel.

*Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for an eARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review!*

Many readers have never read anything like Gretchen Felker-Martin’s “Manhunt” before — and they should. They really absolutely should. Felker-Martin takes a metaphor and runs with it across the continental US where a virus has turned the half of the population with higher testosterone into grotesque, slobbering, deviant monsters. Those left behind scavenge for food, weaponry, and any traces of estrogen they can get. I never knew where this story was going to take me next, I only knew I never wanted Felker-Martin’s gleefully lurid descriptions of bodily fluids and sliced flesh to end.

Our three trans main characters are slowly being squeezed out of a society rebuilding around them. One that doesn’t want them. One that doesn’t trust that they aren’t hiding a monster within. Fran, Beth, and Robbie are all delightfully flawed, and the villains that swirl around them are too close to real life: whether slobbering man-beasts, ‘woke’ rich kids, or screeching TERFs.

I ended up marking this as DNF (do not finish) the themes of the book were not for me. I felt it was a bit counter productive of feminist movements. I think it’s wonderful that this book offered representation, especially for the trans community but pinning straight, cisgender women against trans women doesn’t sit right with me. I also don’t like a lot of romance tied in with my horror and some of the sex scenes are a bit graphic for my taste. However, don’t let my opinions stop you from reading this novel as I’m sure it’s excellent for people who enjoy reads such as this one.

Maybe I’ll attempt to read it again at a later date but as of now I’m all set with this one.

I have to preface any review with HUGE TRIGGER WARNINGS for anti-trans violence and also very real trans trauma

but

This is one of the most touching, heartbreaking, brutal books I've ever read. I was so in love these characters, and even sickly attached to the villain narrator. Every chapter held a gut-punch, whether it was a horrible death, or act of violence, or a transphobic microaggression, or just the horrible things that the characters said to themselves while surviving the actual end of the civilized world.

And while this book is PACKED with blood and guts, bullets and knives, and breathtaking fights to the death, the world is so smartly built and the premise is SO wrought with symbolism. The entire conceit establishes a Binary sex problem and then immediately starts dismantling it and showing a dozen gaps in that easy essentialism. It asks us horrifying questions about identity and community, it leaves no population unscrutinized, it reminds us of how much there is to fear from our fellow humans, and it also gives us such remarkable tenderness.

I wept. I usually hate series, but I'm honestly being the author to extend this universe and give us more.

I tried to find some official content warning for this but could not, so I'll just give you my own: It contains a lot of stuff that would be upsetting if you had certain sensitivities, including, but definitely not limited to, rape and sexual assault, murder, trauma of pretty much any kind you can imagine, consumption of human organs, transphobia of course... the list could go on, but the point is, this is not for the faint of heart, yeah? Great. Let's move on!

I really loved a lot of things about this one! Though I will also say that I did have a couple of issues that kept it from being a complete home run for me. So I wanted to break it down, as I tend to do!

What I Loved:

►I mean, the whole concept and world-building! I am always here for an apocalypse, and messed up apocalypses are even better, because they feel more honest. And an apocalypse in which the survivors are literally fighting each other? Yeah, that is the most realistic of all, let's be real. Of course hate will be our downfall as a species. Hasn't it been so far? And it made me so angry that instead of just, Idk, helping Beth and Fran and anyone else who is left of the human race, the fact that the TERFs decided to declare war is... yeah, it tracks, sadly. The world was so horrifically plausible- nay, probable- that it made an already compelling story even more so.

►The characters were just going through so much, they were very well developed even as they fought for their lives. I mean, honestly my heart was breaking from the start, and I knew it wasn't going to stop breaking until long after the end, and I was right about that. Pre-apocalypse, the world did not treat Beth or Fran kindly, not by a long shot. They both had gone through a lot of trauma before the world ever even started to end, nevermind what they were having to deal with now. It felt an extra level of unfair that these women had gone through so much in the pre-apocalypse just to face an even greater torment in the apocalypse.

►Tons of awful choices and gray morality. Oh look, it's my fave! There were, quite simply, no good choices here. Do Beth and Fran have to eat severed testicles for estrogen to survive? Sure! Can you blame them? Nope, not even almost. Look, it's a dark, dark world and sometimes, you have to do some terrible things. Interestingly, even the TERFs seemed to have some moral dilemma at certain times (out of their own selfish attachments, not because they weren't terrible people, but still) when it came to harming trans and nonbinary folks, which painted them in a bit of a more complex light. I still hated them, but it made them far more interesting and multifaceted villains.

►The Demise of J.K. Rowling was both hilariously fabulous, and a great commentary. Look, it added a tiny bit of levity in a very dark book, yes, and I think that was important. But, even more important, I love how it showed why someone like her is so dangerous. Someone with a little bit of influence in a time where people are looking for leader comes along preaching hate and it's a recipe for disaster. An entire group of TERFs are born from her rhetoric. And yes, many would have felt the same anyway, but giving said hate a platform and a method of organization makes it that much more deadly, as we see in this novel.

What I Didn't:

►Okay, this might just be a "me" issue, but some things seemed a bit outlandish, and maybe like the purpose felt more there for shock value than to actually move the story forward. In fact, there were a few instances that took me out of the story because they felt jarring in a way that didn't fit for me. There's a whole bit about characters feeling... frisky (that is not at all the terms used, it was way more graphic, but for our purposes, let's go with it) at a funeral and I just was so completely lost. Like maybe I am a prude but I have quite literally never felt anything but sadness at a funeral? This is just one example, but it illustrates what I mean- sort of an outlandish response that made me forget all about the event that was taking place and made me question what it even had to do with the story, other than to perhaps shock or appall the reader.

►It started to drag a little for me at parts. I think this is, in part, because there is so much misery, so much pain and horror, that I think maybe my brain was rejecting it or something? I don't know but I found myself having a bit of a hard time for some reason, even though I obviously wanted to keep reading, and to find out what would happen to the characters and the world.

Bottom Line: If you can handle the gore and violence, it is absolutely worth taking this journey with Beth and Fran, for both the characters, and the horrific plausibility of this apocalyptic hellscape.

Some horror looks to subtlety to disturb you, hinting at what’s around the corner to leave you unsettled and watching over your shoulder. This is the other kind.

Manhunt, by Gretchen Felker-Martin, takes place in a world where anyone with high testosterone levels finds themselves turned into feral monstrosities by a plague dubbed t. rex. Following Fran and Beth, two trans women on the hunt for the sources of the precious estrogen that keeps them from meeting the same dark fate, this horror novel takes its readers on a gruesome and visceral tour of a world where the war of the genders has turned darkly literal. From survival in the woods, to a bunker run a trust-fund brat turned despot, to a desperate last stand against a tyrannical TERF militia, the author gives familiar post-apocalyptic notes a whole new tune.

I should stress, firstly, that Gretchen Felker-Martin is an excellent writer, with a distressingly talented ability for writing both physically and emotionally disturbing scenes. If it happens in the story, it happens on-page rather than being hinted at – including scenes of violence, sex, and sexual violence. Not since Stephen King have I read scenes where the description of injuries made me physically turn away from the page – until now. That ability to create such a vivid picture in the readers imagination is paired with the authors excellent characters – I found myself getting attached to awfully quickly; a dangerous idea in a novel where no-one is safe. They were complex, and human, and frequently did terrible things for reasons ranging from understandable to deplorable. There were some truly heart-wrenching scenes with absolutely no gore, no violence – just an emotional impact that hit as hard as a brick.

It may not be for everyone, but readers who like their horror truly horrifying will find themselves in for a terrifying treat at the hands of an author with a dark imagination and the skill to use it to best effect. Manhunt has worked its way under my skin, and is a novel to remember.

This novel is exactly the fun that horror out to be. Out and out splatterpunk with gorgeous queer representation, Manhunt is clearly written for people who will understand it and will revel in seeing themselves as big damn heroes. It doesn't exist to ease cis people into the lives of delicate trans ladies who behave as society dictates, our heroines are hunters and will do what must be done to survive the brutal new world they find themselves living in. Four stars because there were some awkwardly structured passages and some bizarre stylistic choices, but all in all this was a great read.

DNF @chapter 8

As much as I tried to get into this story I just couldn’t do it. Too much gore and violence for me to continue on with the plot.

Ok, here it goes. This book was truly unlike anything I've ever read. I mean, the cover gives you a pretty good idea about how this is gonna go. I've always been a fan of apocalyptic stories and this one had an unusual twist by it's characters being trans.
Trigger warning: This book involves rape, cannibalism, gore, and trans violence.
The plot in itself was interesting. Five years after the testosterone in men causes them to become basically wild, raping, cannibalizing creatures; the only survivors are women and trans men and women who have been on hormones to help them transition. They survive by hunting down the feral men and "harvest" their testicles and livers to process estrogen. They also simply eat the items if there is no time to refine it. Or, as one scene described, how to tilt the pan so the balls were evenly coated with butter while sautéing them. (Just no.)
So, the cis-women are the "bad guys" in this story, they hunt down trans people and crucify them as examples of traitors to their genders. It's really just crazy.
All in all, a good plot, interesting ideas, but it was really hard to find a person to root for, they all had serious flaws which made them very hard to relate to.