What a wild, fresh, feminist take on the end of the world. I loved this thrilling account of a few survivors struggling to exist a few years after a horrible 'estrophage' virus turned all humans with high testosterone levels into feral, mutated beasts. The novel primarily focuses on two trans women, Fran and Beth, who survive by killing 'New Men' and harvesting their testicles and kidney lobes for the small bits of estrogen that will keep them and other trans women from a fate worse than death, and one trans man, Robbie, who has isolated himself completely from a world that seems to have no place for him. Add to that roving bands of TERF militias, packs of feral men on the prowl, and a separatist bunker run by a sociopathic heiress, and you've got the makings of a truly tense, wildly funny horror novel. MANHUNT isn't for the faint of heart--the violence is brutal, the descriptions often grotesque--and it certainly isn't for anyone harboring anti-trans sentiment. (Or maybe TERFs are exactly who needs to read this novel for a much-needed reality check on their revolting politics.) I laughed out loud as often as I winced, cried, and gagged -- a marker, I think, that the novel achieves all of its goals. Felker-Martin is certainly an author to watch! I anxiously await her next novel.

Manhunt is notable within the post-apocalyptic genre. The broken world Felker-Martin presents is a product of our current culture. The effects of the vitriolic conversation and rhetoric that pervade modern discourse lingers after the end of the state. Manhunt—more thoroughly than most—emphasizes how ideologies and thought patterns don’t die when the infrastructure that sustains them disappears.

Felker-Martin is not interested in describing the logistics of this world in chaos. Most of the communities we see function according to strict regiment, with enough down time for characters to smoke blunts and hornily discuss their predicaments. While this allows the symbolic, thematic aspects of the text to shine forth, the world is rendered a little thin.

The sense of threat in the novel comes from Martin’s visceral, sexually violent depictions of zombified men. Filthcore, the writer’s self-professed aesthetic/artistic movement, shines in the pulpiness of Manhunt. Having first been introduced to her work through the gorgeous prose of historical novels such as Ego Homini Lupus and No End Will Be Found, I was at first put off by the pulp prose in which Manhunt is told. Regardless of the style, Martin’s prose is at its best amidst the filth. The jarring, darkly poetic brutality of her historical novels carries over brilliantly in describing the bodies and violence of men infected with the t-virus. “Beth wondered if they were lonely, those things that had been men. If they missed their wives, their mothers, their daughters and girlfriends and dominatrixes. Or maybe they were happy now, free to rape and kill and eat whomever, free to shit and piss and jerk off in the street. Maybe this world was the one they’d always wanted.”

The story is a perfect backdrop for an analysis of terfism as fascism. Teach, an ex-psychological consultant at Guantanamo Bay who leads the terf militia, is sparingly seen below her severe demeanor. When it breaks, Martin’s writing is at its sharpest, providing a keen portrayal of the complex emotions and traumas that bring people to terfism.

The book could have benefited from narrowing the cast. Fran, Indi, and Robbie aren’t as developed as Beth and Ramona. I loved the dynamic between Fran and Beth at the start of the novel, but as they are pulled apart their significance to each other starts to feel arbitrary. It became difficult to grasp an emotional center.

The gendered, viscerally physical conflicts these characters face—having to hunt down zombies and eat their balls for estrogen in order to survive, being restricted from transitioning due to the virus, loving and lusting over someone with a body that is dehumanized by their community—are brilliantly depicted through Martin’s signature filthcore prose style. Although admittedly not as depraved a book as I was hoping for, there are scenes that stopped me in my tracks. The image of Teach’s face, ruined by Beth’s stomping, bloody and laughing and croaking Beth’s deadname amidst the throes of death, is seared into my memory.

Thanks to Nightfire for the copy, and for publishing work like this. In the wake of more anti-trans bullshit on the state level, this book is unfortunately, alarmingly timely.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3729501136

Wow.

I mean.

Where do you start a review for a book like Manhunt? I’m going to have to say it starts like this, because I’ve literally never read a book like Manhunt before.

The world has ended, at least for cis men. A virulent plague has torn through humanity, attacking people with higher levels of testosterone and turning them into violent, feral monsters. The survivors do what they can to get by, rebuilding where they can. Beth and Fran navigate through the New England wilderness, tracking and killing the men and harvesting their testicles and kidneys to bring back to their friend Indi. She processes hormones for the two trans women so that they can prevent the disease from transforming them into mindless beasts as well. Together, they might be able to hold on.

However, the wild men aren’t the only threat to Beth and Fran in this remade world. Militant TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) are sweeping the eastern seaboard, killing anyone who isn’t a cis woman. Their leader, Teach, is out to leave her own mark, and she’ll destroy anything or anyone who might even consider helping trans folks.

Gretchen Felker-Martin has crafted a horrifying, violent apocalypse that skillfully wraps its way around gender and sexuality. She blends beautifully erotic scenes with the grotesque, and leaves you terrified, but somehow still wanting more. Manhunt showcases the power of found family, even in the face of utter destruction. “Community is when you never let go of each other. Not even after you’re gone.”

This book is definitely not for the faint of heart or the delicate of stomach, but it was an absolute blast. It’s out now. My thanks to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for an eARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 rated up to 4 stars. Manhunt is a brilliant post apocalyptic and dystopian horror novel where a virus takes over and makes anyone with higher testosterone levels turn rabid and feral. In this book we follow two transgender women who are “manhunters” killing feral zombie like men. This book is definitely going to be a hit or miss for everyone as it’s A LOT. I was not expecting the level of craziness, gore, and sex in this book lol. If that sounds up your alley I definitely recommend! I appreciate the societal commentary and deeper meaning behind this novel.

If you gave this book one star without reading it because you read what this book is about, grow up.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing me this ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

First of all, this may be one of my favorite covers of all time! I mean, just look at it!! Second, this is the first time in a VERRRRRRY long time that I read other reviews before writing mine. In all honesty, I probably would've given this book 3-3.5 stars. But I'm rating it higher because (1) fuck you to the haters who auto-rate it without even reading it because of their transphobia and (2) because I love that this is unlike anything I've ever read before and gave me some insight that I didn't know prior to reading this. I read other reviews, which don't influence mine, but to see how some own voiced reviewers felt about this book and to further educate myself. This book may not be for everyone, but what book is? And it's good to see these types of books coming out rather than the usual, same old regurgitated storylines that we've seen over and over again.

Our main characters are trans men and women who are facing their own safety, self worth, demons and more all the while fighting off men who have become feral... legit wild nonhumans that well, I may have met a man or two like that. *wink* ha. Not only do they have to journey while avoiding these creatures, they're also on the run from the TERFS - it's a full on TERF war out there and it's scary AF. While this book may be at the extreme, I think it very well highlights what the trans community has to go through on the daily. I honestly don't know why people don't just let people live their lives the way that they want to. It boggles the mind.

There's so much that I want to say but I think it's best for everyone to read this book. It's gory, full of fluidity (in gender, sexuality AND actual fluids), some of it is a bit over the top but hell, it's nice to see trans representation as everyone deserves to see themselves in the pages that they read.

Amazing. This story is one of the most unique I've ever read: a cross between horror and dystopian, but reaches far beyond the genre standard of both. The world has succumbed to an apocalypse where high testosterone individuals have become rabid zombies who are reduced to rapist animals. Manhunt tells the story of the gender war from the perspective of trans women, which to my knowledge hasn't been done before in this genre.

This book provides such insightful studies into gender identity and how that interacts with a transphobic world. This scenario is rooted in fantasy, but the commentary very much applicable to todays ideas of feminism and the safety of trans women in our world.

Such great writing; I was viscerally gripped and even considered DNFing at one point because the imagery was so upsettingly graphic. This is a must for any horror lover.

Ever heard of Y: The Last Man? The gender-based post-apocalyptic comic by Brian K. Vaughan (now also a dreadfully boring and rightfully cancelled TV show on FX). One of the comic's (many) problems was the virtually nonexistent depiction of transgender people wherein the t-slur was thrown around a bit and that was that. Now, you might say that 2002 was a different time. And I'd agree. It was also a shit time and I'm glad we don't live in it anymore. I'm glad we live in the time of Gretchen Felker-Martin.

GFM's horror novel Manhunt is the answer for all of us wondering: "How come there are no gender-based post-apocalyptic stories with trans people in them?!" This book is not just inclusive of trans people, it's actually told from their perspectives. In the world of Manhunt, all people with high levels of testosterone (so mostly cis men) have succumbed to the virus t.rex and turned into raging, raping, cannibalistic zombies. The people with low levels of testosterone, mostly cis women, trans women taking hormones and trans men not taking hormones, are trying to navigate this new world and not to kill each other in the fight for survival.

What's extra interesting about this story is the fact that the crazy, disgusting zombies aren't the only menace in the world. The other menace are the TERFs. Just like real-life trans-exclusionary radical feminists, these ones have a massive problem with the trans women, labeling them as dangerous ticking time bombs. The way book-TERFs deal with trans women (but also nonbinary people) is by murdering them in cold blood, and not even feeling bad about it because, hey, they're actually men, right? But not even the TERFs are one-dimensional in this story.

One of the things I enjoyed the most about Manhunt was definitely not the zombie stuff. The true horror in the book didn't actually come from the anxiety about the main characters getting attacked, raped and eaten by these nightmarish monsters; it came from other people and the main characters themselves. While reading Manhunt, I remembered something I once heard a trans YouTuber say - that some trans women emotionally torture themselves and each other worse than other people might. There is a whole slang out there that most of us have never even heard of (for example, bricks and masonry) and entire forums dedicated to trashing other trans women's "clockability". But many trans women seek out such comments about themselves and indulge in some sort of psychological self-mutilation.

As a cis woman I can't speak on this particular phenomenon, but GFM's formidable and intimate way of telling this story made me viscerally experience the pain of characters like Beth who felt like she'd never be good enough, pretty or soft enough, feminine enough to be accepted and loved as the person that she is. The nasty, hurtful things that the characters in Manhunt said to themselves and each other, the thoughts that they had about themselves and each other, the pain they inflicted on themselves and each other makes this novel more existential horror than a zombie flick. And for that reason, I predict and I hope that Manhunt will become a true classic of the horror genre and one of the most important books dealing with the existence of transgender people.

Manhunt comes out on February 22. Huge thank you to NetGalley, Gretchen Felker-Martin and Macmillan-Tor/Forge (Tor Nightfire) for the advanced reader copy.

Wow, this was everything I hoped it would be and more. It feels like game changer of a book -- visceral horror, genuine thrills, shattering emotion. and written so openly from perspectives so rare in contemporary fiction. I absolutely loved that the author presented actions and inner thoughts of the main characters so honestly, so specifically, and so realistically. Despite the futuristic plot, the commentary here feels of the moment. The author does a great job in breaking down the inanities of prejudice and the destructive isolation felt by those considered on the outer. She also does a phenomenal job of exploring and breaking down queer culture and queer resistance. I loved it, even though I had to stop reading at times because of all the body horror. Good stuff.

Holy heck. As you can see from the litany of "trigger warnings" appended to this review (on Storygraph, if viewing on another platform), this book is a minefield of topics. Felker-Martin is most definitely not aiming for inclusion in your local right-wing library.

If you read last year's bestselling and highly lauded Detransition Baby, then you have already been in conversation with many of the ideas presented here. In fact, Felker-Martin both quotes and credits the author, Torrey Peters, within the work. Like Detransition, Baby, Manhunt is actively wrestling with both how trans people, specifically trans women, are socialized amongst each other and among the broader (specifically female-identifying) population.

By mutating all peoples producing high, masculine-assigning levels of testosterone, Felker-Martin is able to grapple almost exclusively with how trans women, and their allies to a lesser extent, are treated by the femme-assigned-and-identifying by allowing the latter group to have reason to make their discomfort and disdain explicit. As these trans women could be biologically betrayed into regressing to masc-presentation levels of testosterone, which would force them to succumb to the novel's male-mutating pandemic. With this excuse, femme-assigned-and-identifying women seeking gender purity and previously denied power structures are able to finally dissociate from tacit allyship in favor of a sex-based caste system.

This book is shamelessly targeted. Felker-Martin repeatedly calls out known TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) J.K. Rowling, who has on multiple occasions sought to delineate trans women from biological women, like herself. Because of this pointed critique, this book will face its share of intense backlash and vitriol from those who claim themselves allies (or those who purposefully do not) yet want to exclusively own their biological title as "woman" in an attempt to win the "oppression olympics."

Consider this my Surgeon General's book stamp: Approach with caution, but approach.

Holy Splatterpunk, this was good!!
Caution: Don't read whilst eating...

Honestly, I don't even know how to begin going about reviewing this book. While it technically fits into genres that I have read, it's like nothing else. Manhunt is like being punched in the face repeatedly and enjoying it. Maybe even asking for more...

This is like an unrated version of The Walking Dead, but with trans and other queer main characters. Basically this story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where a virus has turned the entire male population into horrifying creatures; like walkers.

We follow two best friends, Beth and Fran, trans women, trying to survive in New England. They are manhunters. For reasons I won't go into here, they kill the infected men and harvest certain parts of them. Any time they are out hunting they are in terrible danger. This entire setting is incredibly risky. There are not just the infected men they have to deal with, but also bands of TERFs scouting certain areas, as well as other general apocalypse survivors.

Everything and everyone poses a risk.

Over the course of the first part of the story, Fran and Beth join up with a trans man named, Robbie, and their long-time friend, a fertility doctor named, Indi.

Basically, as you can imagine, living situations in this world are highly unstable. We follow our quad as they move from one place to another, trying to find a safe situation for themselves. It ain't easy and a lot of blood, guts and various other bodily fluids get shed along the way.

Y'all, wow. I haven't read something this bloody, gorey, toe-curling, gag-inducing, addicting, erotic and uncomfortable, well...ever. I love how Felker-Martin never lets up. It's not a super gore-filled scene followed by 50-pages of nonsense. It is balls to the wall, pardon the pun, the entire way through.

The post-apocalyptic setting was so well done. I loved the idea behind the virus, how it struck men and how society tried to rearrange itself after. That was very creative. Additionally, the characters were well done. I wish I had gotten to know each of them a little bit more, but I understand you can only make stories so long. The important bits were all here.

Towards the end, it did get chaotic for me. The perspectives were shifting so rapidly, it was sometimes hard to follow. In particular, as the final showdown approached, a few times I lost track of whose perspective I was reading from.

Overall, this was such an addicting story. Holy smokes. I feel like I need to take a recovery day to get over it. It's violent, erotic, thought-provoking, visceral...did I mention erotic? Proceed with caution, but also, don't. It's a ride worth being a little uncomfortable for. You can eat again once it's over.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Tor Nightfire, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I cannot wait to see what Gretchen Felker-Martin dishes up next!!

This book is more than a little thought-provoking. It’s an absolute mind screw. That’s not a bad thing at all. Books should make us think every once and a while. I’m all for escapism in my books, but every once and a while we need books to come along that make us think in a different way and to make us look at things through a different lens. Books that make us tilt our heads slightly and question how we see each other and the world. This book is one of those books, but it’s not going to be for everyone, and it’s not the easiest book to read. I’m going to dare you to try, though.

This book is in no way pretty. It’s unapologetic in its filth, gore, and violence. If you go into this book expecting sunshine and roses, at any point, you’ll be sorry. This is, overwhelmingly, a horror story. It’s also dystopic and splattergore. The violence is extreme and no one is spared from either being the perpetrator or the victim. No matter the sex or gender, violence touches everyone on both sides. That’s part of the story, though. I cannot and will not spoil any part of this story. It’s best to go into this story knowing only what the blurb provided by booksellers or the back of the book. Knowing anything else will ruin all the fun.

There is fun to be had. I know what I’ve described so far paints a bleak picture, but there is a lot of sharp, satirical humor to be found in this book. It’s a dark, morbid humor. Maybe even gallows humor, at times, but it’s there, and it will allow you to snicker and giggle at times in a book that would be too sad and heavy otherwise. There are also razor-sharp barbs of wit that add levity at just the right moments in time to keep scenes from getting too heavy.

This is bound to be a controversial book. People will hate it. It will be divisive. It will be banned in places. But it’s brilliant work. And it needed to be written. And it needs to be read.

this is a difficult one to review, I think I went into this with the completely wrong expectations. not sure if it’s a case of mismarketing or if i just misunderstood what i was getting into from the summary.
I fully expected this to be a 5-star new favorite book because on paper it sounded like everything I love…but in execution it wasn’t quite what I had in mind. this is much more character/relationship focused than plot driven or action packed. and, look, I swear I am no prude whatsoever but there was just SO much sex in this book I started skimming over the sex scenes.
it actually reminded me a lot of another recent book focusing on trans characters, Detransition Baby, so if you enjoyed that book (another one that I found overly unnecessarily sexual) give this one a try.

Gretchen Felker-Martin's upcoming dystopian, science fiction novel, Manhunt is quite literally the most weird, but in the end satisfying adventure i've ever considering a book. with out giving an excessive amount of away, the tale makes a speciality of a international in which men are turned feral. Beth and Fran are the 2 primary characters and they work together to hunt feral guys and harvest their organs. In doing so, this helps the duo survive. on this international, no longer most effective are feral men a threat to those who have survived this apocalypse so far, however there's additionally a group of murderous TERFs coming after them. Beth and Fran have a lot of hope, however they will want to arrange and establish approaches wherein they can defeat the growing range of adversaries.

Manhunt isn't always sci-fi lite, aka the science fiction novels i like. It touches at the ridiculousness at times with a number of the arena constructing, however at the same time, does not maximum dystopian/apocalyptic novels do this? This book; however, touches on many styles of societal issues that trans males and females face in state-of-the-art modern political and social climate through symbolism and metaphorical writing. even as reading this book, although we are not going through an apocalyptic global, I could understand and respect how the author changed into conveying this story. if you choose up this tale, i urge you to also be aware that on Goodreads, many transphobic readers are giving this book 1-megastar with zero review. i urge you to all hold that during consideration whilst reviewing to combat hate.

Think back on popular, post-apocalyptic horror novels. The viral outbreak of Captain Trips in Stephen King’s, The Stand. The environmental and human destruction left after nuclear warfare in Swan Song by Robert McCammon. The ambiguous but devastating world event causes humanity to unravel in Cormac McCarty’s The Road.

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-MartinVery important markers of the genre; identifiably unique and remarkably special but very much told by the same voice.

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin is a post-apocalyptic horror novel telling a new tale, from a new voice, in a familiar setting, for a spot on the shelf next to the classics.

Felker-Martin devises a plague that attacks humans with high levels of testosterone leaving the host in a ravaged physical state; reduced down to basic, primal instincts: Sex, Eat, Kill, Repeat. Humans not infected with the plague have splintered into various groups based on differing philosophies of survival. Adhering to post-apocalyptic blueprints, the reading experience is enjoyed through multiple POVs. The reader navigates a twisted new reality through varying perspectives following different main characters and their trusted allies.

Because of the nature of the plague, this story imagines new gender roles and sexual dynamics. All stereotypes based on sexuality and gender are smashed into oblivion and reformed in order to smash them again. Everything about this universe is fresh and exciting because the lens of the narrators through which we view the world is so new.

Felker-Martin gives everyone a voice and an experience. This does make the scope of Manhunt feel a bit daunting in size with its huge cast of characters to keep track of, but that’s something many readers come prepared to do for this genre given all the door-stopper, epic novels that have come before.

The most difficult thing about investing in the characters of Manhunt is all the fucking emotional wreckage. These are not two-dimensional, cardboard cutouts of fictional people running around playing apocalyptic warfare, these are complex, flesh and blood individuals with strong, dynamic character traits, big personalities, and raw emotions. They run full-on into one another with all their psychological trauma and form these complicated relationships based on attraction, survival, and need. It is unabashedly queer, explicit, greasy, violent, and sensual. *flailing hands and gesturing* all of these things, all at the same time.

It’s tough to go through some of the things these characters end up doing to one another but there are some shining moments of feel-good hope and humanity, softened by humor; sprinkled with sarcasm. It’s a lot of fun and it’s also very dark.

Gretchen Felker-Martin clearly has a lot to say. There seems to be a countless cast of colorful characters just waiting to make their mark on our horror-fiction-loving hearts with more strange and wonderful stories to tell.

This is a debut that literally throws open the door and announces its arrival by making sure the room knows its intentions to stay. Manhunt is what the future of this genre looks like. Take note.

READ MANHUNT BY GRETCHEN FELKER-MARTIN

This book was less gory than I expected (somehow?), but more physical. At its core, it's an apocalypse story with heart. It also has, you know, a lot of mutated men, queer people having sex, TERFs killing and dying...

A hellish world

I'm still not sure if I was the right audience for this tale. It was written well but there was definitely a disconnect for me even though I'm usually a big fan of post-apocalyptic and/or horror stories. The trans aspect was totally foreign to me and quite an education on top of that.

In this future world men have turned feral from a deadly pandemic, causing them to rape and eat all forms of women, animals, etc.

This is a brutal, bloody story and not for everyone. Be forewarned.

I received this book from Tor NightFire through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.

The end of the world from a trans perspective. This book is terrifying and thrilling, grisly and tender and beautifully written. It's a condemnation of how things are and a call to action; it's also an incredible horror story. It's about survival and found family and belonging and the lengths we'll go to to be true to ourselves. Every lover of horror should read it. It was such an emotional journey.

First things first: this is a gruesome book. It is an aggressive and angry manifesto. It’s not for everyone. And that’s ok. As a cisgender woman I have zero idea what it’s like to be trans. But I’m sure trans people will recognize at least some of the behavior & feelings depicted here (even with the extremes shown). The progression of events was paced very well and, frankly, terrifying to read. Word of advice: don’t read this before bedtime (your dreams will thank you).

Thank you to NetGalley & Macmillan-Tor/Forge for this advanced reader copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

3.5/5!

I love post-apocalyptic stories and when I heard about MANHUNT I knew I wanted to check out Felker-Martin’s take on a world ravaged by a virus targeting those with testosterone flowing through their bodies. From the start Felker-Martin throws the reader straight into this new world and doesn’t spare a second of hiding anyone from the violent aspects of the journeys we find our main characters on. This story is incredibly visceral and it hits on emotions throughout. Our main characters feel incredibly real and I loved the way we got to know them through their own eyes as well as from the perspectives of others. In addition to fantastic characters, the descriptions of the world and locations are so detailed that visualizing the story and immersing yourself in the experience are easy.

At times MANHUNT felt like the pacing was slowing down and then suddenly you’re thrown into a dramatic and intense situation. This book was a bit hard to read at times because of the intensity of the story, but I never wanted to look away. I look forward to checking out more of Felker-Martin’s work in the future!

A huge thank you to Tor Nightfire for my gifted copy!

Unlike any survival horror you'll ever read, but worthy of inclusion as the best of the sub-genre, this merciless tale of bodies, burdens, and belonging is a must-read.