A gory, touching, and unapologetic look at survival in a hostile world. I utterly devoured this book!

Welp, that was darker than I expected 😬

What a weird, horrific, and fucking wild rollercoaster ride Manhunt was. This was not at all what I expected, and I loved every fucked up moment of it.

I had a hard time with this one. Not because it's bad, it really isn't. But because I had a weak stomach and it's fully of a lot of gory imagery. I mean, that makes sense.

Manhunt is a post-apocalyptic story that follows two trans women as they move through the world, harvesting the organs of feral men. There's a virus involved and damn, this story is wild y'all.

The character arcs are great, growth is there but I just had a hard time getting through it because the style really isn't for me. Although the fact TERFS suffer the consequences of their own actions is great.

I did have a little bit of an issue with the writing style, again it isn't bad just not a favorite.

I don't really want to give anything away by accidentally saying to much.

I would recommend it but I'm not sure to who since no one I know is big on really gory stuff but it's still a fantastic read.

I give it four (4) stars. I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Sorry it's one of the shorter ones.

This book had a relentless hold on me for the entire time I spent reading it, from my first glance at the provocative cover to its final, riveting pages. It is grim and dark without being, well, grimdark. The world Felker-Martin builds is a bleak and cruel one, but it is fully-realized and close enough to ours to speak to us about how society treats those it deems "dangerous" to social and political order. The main characters-- Fran, Beth, and Robbie-- are complex and relatable even as they struggle with themselves, each other, and the world they are forced to live in. Think Y: The Last Man with more complex politics and much, much more body horror. Manhunt will stay with me for a long while.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Nightfire for supplying this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The premise was so unique and honestly insanely exciting. Visceral, creative, horrifying. I love the representation and I love that we get a new book entering the conversation of queer horror. However, I found this wasn't really for me. It had a stream of consciousness quality to it that I normally like, but it ended up being jarring and repetitive in some ways. I think this is an amazingly dark and bloody book that doesn't shy away from what it is, and I love that. But I also think it's a niche read that won't appeal to everyone. It definitely deserves a place at the table and I'd recommend it for fans of fast paced, gory reads, it's just not my cup of tea.

An absolute blast to read, super hot, extremely gory, full of weird shit, what more could you want??

Manhunt has never ending violence and sex. It would make a good action movie. For my tastes, I'd like a few calming interludes, maybe a witty sidekick, but for nonstop movement and the kind of gore one gets from man/monster/flesh-eating/walking-on-all-fours creatures, it's well written. Most of the characters besides the doctor, Indi, are heartless, even love-making was brutal and inhumane (lots of spitting at lovers) but eventually the main characters' humanity shows through. This may seem like wimping out, but until they show that they can care about someone else, it was difficult to like anybody but the doctor. The villains are suitably evil,

Lots goes on, from hunting diseased, vicious men to working in a spoiled and ruthless billionaire's bunker to a final showdown with the brutal Legion. Yes, Manhunt is grim, but most horror readers aren't looking for cuddles. Except for me--I like cuddly horror. In the book I dealt okay with the shooting, the arrows, the stabbings, the explosions, the flesh-eating, but every time someone spit or drooled I was all gag, gag, gag. I'm funny that way.

Hollywood should come calling for this one. It's action and adventure all the way. They can leave out the drooling, though.

Thanks to Netgalley and Nightfire for allowing me to read an eARC in return for an honest review.

This book was so dark and wild and in-your-face that I found myself smiling in shock and delight. It's been a while since I've thought to myself "Holy crap, is this ALLOWED?" and it was very pleasant being brought back to that sense of childlike excitement at reading a story I didn't know could be published. But don't get me wrong, the book wasn't just titillation for its own sake. It has some serious heart as well, and Felker-Martin absolutely refuses to pull any punches. Overall this was just a phenomenal read, and I'm eager to read more of her work in the future.

I requested a digital copy in order to sample the prose on my phone (since I don't have a eReader) before requesting a physical copy for review. I will update Netgalley once I read & review a physical copy.

Deliciously dark, evocative, and gory without being overkill. MANHUNT may be a dystopia but its characters are living the truth of many trans women today. Fran and Beth are easy to connect with, fully realized and complex, yet you'll root for them both even when you want to grab them by the shoulders and shake them. The world Felker-Martin has created is harsh and unforgiven and feels all too real. The author is a master at her craft.

The ending felt rushed to the point where I didn't feel I was given a proper resolution, but maybe that is the point. The pain transgender people go through extends beyond these pages after all.

Thank you to Tor and Felker-Martin for allowing me to read this book.

Holy sheeeet. This is beyond deep, dark and gruesome. The emotional Rollercoaster I just rode was killer. I was not expecting to be so drawn into this book as I was. Read this boom if you can stomach some deep shit. 5⭐

To be honest, between holiday prep at the bookstore and breaking my old phone, I only had time to read through Part 1 before my download expired. But I am obsessed with this book! Bloody, revolting, and messy, yet tender and careful, humorous and erotic, I cannot wait to buy a physical copy and finish the story. While I expect this to be a tough sell to customers because of the gore, (a mistake to read on my lunch break, in a good way!) I feel that anybody who had a passing interest about post-apocalyptic trans horror would definitely be into this. Personally I found the interpersonal drama between the protagonists a bit too frustrating in contrast with the riveting action and horror, but with only having the read the first part, I am still captivated to see how it unfolds.

Honestly, what's not to love about Manhunt?

The cover is excellent, the plot is insane and yet plausible, the trans rep is everything and the author's writing is great!

You've got two bffs who are just trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world where all men are infected by a virus that turns them into wild rabid animals that just want to fight and fuck.

Beth and Fran are doing the best they can to live and hunt the feral men in order to harvest their balls for hormones. They also have to try to avoid the many hordes of TERFs(you know, those JK types who don't believe trans women are women) that roam the region and would love to kill them. An accident brings them into contact with lone wolf Robbie, who doesn't trust anyone, but falls hard for Fran and they all start traveling together. Their journey leads them to a variety of interesting places like a bunker full of wealthy"feminists" who really want to live as if nothing has changed, a military group of TERFs with some Mad Max fantasies, and a dyke compound where drama abounds, but no one cares about what's in your pants.

I laughed, I cried, I cringed. This book truly has it all! Be wary of the extreme body horror if that's not your thing, but there's plenty of sex to go along with the death and gore, so the fluid count is high.

I'm going to be recommending this one for a long time! READ THIS BOOK and get ready to get hot and bloody.

I thought I was getting a trashy escapism into the hunt of wild men. Instead I got an emotional roller coaster, an education on what it means to be trans and another reminder than at the end of the world always beware humans more than any monster.

Fran and Beth are friends and then some. They are both trans women which helped them escape the virus that turned anyone with high enough levels of testosterone into crazed beasts that only live to ravage and eat any living thing.

They work with their friend Indi, a doctor who formerly specialized in fertility treatment, to keep a supply of estrogen going for women with PCOS, menopause and those who transitioned, lest they to fall victim to the virus.

In the midst of this fight to survive they're also dealing with the threat of TERFs (trans exclusionary radical feminists) who see all trans women as freaks at best and at worst a danger.

Nothing about this story is black and white. The characters, the choices all of it is gray gray gray.

There will be loss, fighting against who you really are, fighting for survival, fighting for peace.

Can anyone in this world find it?

There's no polite way to put this. Manhunt fucked me up. This is a deep, dark, daring look at gender that somehow manages to be completely monstrous without ever descending into mockery. Gretchen Felker-Martin is bloody brilliant. She stunned me, amazed me, aggravated me, and excited me in equal measure. She raised me to such heights of hope and dragged me to such depths of despair that I found it hard to trust anyone or anything.

The concept of a plague that only infects those with high levels of testosterone is as brilliant as it is terrifying. It turns the infected into ravenous monsters who exist only to rape their victims and devour their corpses. Before you think this a simple man-versus-women tale, though, Manhunt explores the full depth and breadth of gender, looking at the impact of the virus on the full testosterone spectrum. Cisgender men who cannot escape their testosterone, and cisgender boys who face the threat of mandatory castration. Transmen who have to quit the hormones that fuel their transition, and transwomen who need estrogen more than ever to keep their hormones in balance. And the story doesn't stop there. It also considers the fate of cisgender women with either too much testosterone or not enough estrogen, whether they have conditions like PCOS or are menopausal.

In an apocalyptic future where so many are just one hormone imbalance away from becoming murderous monsters, you'd think (hope) we could all work together, look to preserve our friends and loved ones, but fear is a great motivator, and that's what makes the inevitable rise of militant TERFs as plausible as it is loathsome. As one character says in a moment of self-revelation, <I>"What we're doing to them . . . It's just the same shit men did to use before,"</I> and that's where the heart of the conflict lies. Ultimately, the TERFs come to reflect everything they claim to be rallying against, embracing the very same masculine cruelties and injustices that their own memories have distorted out of fear and hate. They're not just the same, I'd argue they're far worse because they use, abuse, torture, and murder transwomen with a deliberate agenda of intentional cruelty, no matter how they justify it.

Perhaps the most frightening aspect of Manhunt, though, is how Gretchen messes with our emotions. There are so many layers of guilty affections, traitorous feelings, and gut-wrenching betrayals that it had me spinning. It hits us with one horror after another, each worse than the first, only to slip in a lesser horror, one that we should be sickened by, but which almost sounds reasonable by comparison. A memorable example is the <I>"Cisterhood forcing little boys into their little crossdresser Hitler Youth and finding reasons to accuse each other of masculine-coded behavior."</I> When we hear the speech to the boys, when we see the propaganda, what's being demanded of them almost seems like a reasonable alternative to dying like monsters. It's only on reflection that we realize that's a really shitty choice they're being offered, and once we come to see beneath the lies and understand the truth of their fate of castrated slavery, fate, the inhumanity of it all is that much more sickening because of that moment of doubt.

It's like a novel of psychological warfare, and if it can twist our loyalties and test our sympathies, then you can understand how the TERFs can corrupt even the most decent, innocent, well-meaning of women.

At the heart of all the politics and social commentary, Manhunt is both a romance and a family drama. Fran and Beth have such a wonderful dynamic, two transwomen who are friends, partners, and (when emotions run high) guilty sort of loves. The introduction of Robbie, a transman loner/hermit, into the mix challenges their dynamic, but they ultimately become a tragic, dysfunctional family under Indi, a cisgender woman who manufacturers their hormones. There's another romance to the novel, one between a transwoman sexworker and a cisgender soldier in the TERF army, but if I start talking about that I'm going to start screaming and crying all over again.

This is a dark, violent book. It's full of rape and murder, and the quest/mission behind it all involves the harvesting (and sometimes eating) of testicles from the monstrous men. It's not for the squeamish. There's also a significant plot that centers around pregnancy, and that is full of horrors you can't begin to contemplate until you see what that pursuit can do to women. As the story proceeds, civil unrest gives way to war (and war crimes), and the body count becomes almost too much to bear.

There's not much lightness or joy to Manhunt, although there is some very dark humor, but I have to give Gretchen props for the campfire tale about the death of JK Rowling (that was a very nice touch), and a nod-and-a-wink for naming the TERF's ultimate weapon the Galbraith.

Manhunt is a brilliant piece of apocalyptic horror and social justice that's deliberately exaggerated and over-the-top. It's designed to make you think and feel, to open your eyes to the gender injustices of today, and where all those prejudices and hatreds could so easily lead. It's also a character-driven story of love and sacrifice, though, and that's what kept me reading, even through scenes that had me raging or crying. I had high hopes for this, grand expectations, and it surpassed all of them. It's brave and it's fucking brilliant.

FROM GOODREADS

3.5

Manhunt isn't for everybody- and hell, it's probably not for me. Please note that my rating should not affect you picking this book up if it speaks to you. At the end of the day I just wasn't super engaged with the plot or characters, but I do want to make a case for picking this up.

Gretchen Felker-Martin is a skilled splatterpunk author and a trans woman. Manhunt is a post-apocalyptic nightmare fever dream loosely skinned as a metaphor for how trans women are treated by radical feminists. This book is personal and cuts deep. There were times I felt very invasive reading it. Though it is a scifi/speculative story, so much of the author's personal rage and feelings bleed through these pages.

In some ways, you need to accept how over the top Manhunt is it to get it. The scenarios and behaviors of the characters are pretty beyond "realistic", but again, they are mirroring the trans experience as a whole, largely online. If the apocalypse happened, would massive gangs of TERFs enslave and murder trans women and build a society where there is almost a single-minded goal of hating them? Probably not....but just look online. Look at the way radfems behave towards trans women. The emotional and verbal violence inflicted on trans women online is presented as physical here.

This book is gory. There's sex and death. There are scenes of shock. There is a lot of transphobia depicted. There are trans people fighting for their lives.

The characters didn't really do it for me, but I do think that they were interested in that they were nearly all trans and nearly all morally grey. These characters experience a LOT of dysphoria and pain. They aren't always behaving perfectly. They aren't always charitable to each other.

More important than the characters, however, are the antagonists. All died hair, piercing clad women that talk a LOT about women's liberation. White feminism is lampooned in a huge, cathartic way Gretchen Felker-Martin spares no punches when laying into this particular brand of feminism.

I think the characters failed to interest me a little outside of what they meant to the message, and I did not particularly care about their adventure or relationships. All that said, there are going to be some people. particularly trans women, who NEED this book. This is the angry rage monster that every trans girl deserves. I strongly recommend picking this one up.

This is the first book that I haven’t finished, but at 60% I have to call it quits. I requested this book because the premise intrigued me. It’s a horror novel set in a post apocalyptic world that includes trans individuals, who I do not read about in a lot of post apocalyptic novels.

The characters were compelling and the author did a great job with their character development. I think it could be a great novel and other readers may enjoy it, I just found it really difficult to get into the novel and was feeling like I was forcing myself to read it which made it less enjoyable. I’m not sure if it was the writing style or the long chapters that made it difficult for me to get into the book.

I still want to thank Netgalley and Gretchen Felker-Martin for the opportunity to read the novel in exchange for my honest review. I am sorry that I did not enjoy it more.

This is the second of two arc books I read this weekend at the same time, and when you see the content of this book, that's why I wanted a palate cleanser romance novel to accompany this book. That is absolutely not to say that this book wasn't good though- in fact I think it's grotesquely and brutally brilliant.

I want to discuss some context to why this book exists before I get into the meat of the review. A lot of post-apocalyptic literature doesn't take trans people into account when they write and build their worlds- which isn't great but not the worst crime either. But also recently there have been a string of gender based post-apocalypse novels that are explicitly written with transphobic dogwhistles at best, and being outright transphobic at worst. Several of those books I requested arc copies to read so I could fairly explain my thoughts on them without giving financial backing to their authors, but each time I was rejected. So I knew I had to jump at this book when I saw the blurb. Horror is not at all my usual genre of fiction, but I felt like this book is going to be important.

Manhunt follows Grace and Fran, two transwomen and Robbie, a transman, as well as some other characters as they all try to survive in a post apocalyptic world in which an ailment affects all people with high amounts of testosterone in their system causing them to go feral. In response to the outbreak a lot of the centralized power becomes openly transphobic and run by terf organizations and seek to root out all transwomen from the cities leaving Grace, Fran, and Robbie in a lurch for survival.

As I mentioned, this is far from my usual genre of books- but if I was going to read a horror book at any time October seemed fitting.

I really was intrigued by literally all the characters in this book. Grace and Fran had a really interesting relational dynamic of trusting and relying on each other but with hurt feelings and damaged souls tracing back even before the outbreak. I also found the internal torment of characters like Indi and Ramona really compelling. The character work is great in this book.

One thing I found really interesting about this novel is how society has adapted to the apocalypse. Electricity still exists, hell whole cities still exist. Everything has changed but much is also continuing on despite a lifechanging event for literally everyone involved. Many post-apocalyptic stories I've read while still have clusters of people don't quite depict it in this manner and I found that engaging.

The metaphors and messaging of this book are absolutely not subtle. It's going to be hard to read this book and not see explicitly what is happening and how it parallels to current day trans politics and the people trying to destroy our lives. It's often really intense and brutal imagery that can be difficult to read and imagine- but it also felt so real. Felker-Martin did a really great job at showing the translation from this horror story to how discourse is handled today

One thing I was torn about that both took my out of the book emersion at some points, but I totally understand why it exists in the book was the use of modern day language regarding trans politics and terfism. Part of me thinks in a post apocalyptic world such as this one the terminology would have changed. It seemed a little weird to me that the groups were still calling themselves "trans exclusionary radical feminists" in a society with literally no cis men. How much would "feminism" still be a thing in that scenario? But at the same time I feel that using modern day terms really slams the metaphors down and the messages of the book become all the more clear. So I see both sides of it.

This book is brutal and holds back no punches, it's not for everyone- it might not even be for me. But it is an important book and definitely has carved a place for itself. I was super into it. 5/5

Thank you so much Tor Nightfire for being so damn awesome!
And giving me the chance to read this outstanding novel!

Felker-Martin is the real deal!
I have never read a book like this! And I need more of it!

This dark, breathtaking, stunning novel is a horrific but wonderfully written story!
An exquisite book I could not put away.
This author grabs you from the very beginning and takes us on one hell of an amazing ride.
This is probably one of the most prominent dystopian read, full of mayhem and an outstanding group of characters I've ever read about!

Manhunt... brilliant and scary at the same time, it shows some dark realities of our world that we like to think are gone but that are still lurking.
But yet its an emotional, complex story that is honestly going to stick with me for a awhile.
A new modern post-apocalyptic novel.

⭐⭐⭐ ⭐⭐

I want to thank again the publisher, Methane Author for the opportunity to read this ebook form!
I will post to my platforms closer to pub date!

Manhunt is a post-apocalyptic novel that follows several characters who are trying their absolute best at surviving in a world filled with ravenous men and shit-eating TERFs. We get to meet Fran, Beth, Robbie and Indi, as well as several other characters who, and I promise you, will make you want to throw your book at a wall, either due to how much you love them, or how much you utterly despise them.

Its unapologetically queer, it's filthy, it's grotesque, and is filled with love, pain and devastation.
You won't be prepared for this book, and nothing will prepare you for the roller-coaster that is this novel.