paperback, 288 pages

Published Feb. 22, 2022 by Tor Nightfire.

ISBN:
978-1-250-79464-2
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4 stars (24 reviews)

Y: The Last Man meets The Girl With All the Gifts in Gretchen Felker-Martin's Manhunt, an explosive post-apocalyptic novel that follows trans women and men on a grotesque journey of survival.

Beth and Fran spend their days traveling the ravaged New England coast, hunting feral men and harvesting their organs in a gruesome effort to ensure they'll never face the same fate.

Robbie lives by his gun and one hard-learned motto: other people aren't safe.

After a brutal accident entwines the three of them, this found family of survivors must navigate murderous TERFs, a sociopathic billionaire bunker brat, and awkward relationship dynamics―all while outrunning packs of feral men, and their own demons.

Manhunt is a timely, powerful response to every gender-based apocalypse story that failed to consider the existence of transgender and non-binary people, from a powerful new voice in horror.

2 editions

Thrilling action with a satisfying ending

5 stars

The book features a world where people with testosterone get an incurable disease that makes them kill & eat all estrogen-having people. Meanwhile trans people are being persecuted for either having testosterone or wanting testosterone by the TERFs. I am not surprised at all that the Wachowiski sisters decided to make this into a movie. This is gonna be an AMAZING one.

It also ends in a very satisfying manner (with a cameo featuring the most famous TERF alive). I really enjoyed reading it especially the day after the 2024 elections. I am squeamish about reading sex scenes in books and this one has a LOT of them.

Review of 'Manhunt' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

If you're a queer person scared of sex, and the harsh realities of being queer in a world that hates you, you shouldn't read this book. If you think all queer rep needs to be "good rep" (whatever that means), this book is not for you. If rape and gore scares you, the splatterpunk GENRE is not for you (this has no more graphic rape/gore than any other splatterpunk novel I've read, y'all are just sensitive to trans characters being raped-- and you should sit with that for a while, because even if it scares you, it happens and it's worth discussing the complex feelings around it).

Fran is stupid, Beth is self-loathing, and Robbie is avoidant. All of these traits are just normal human traits, shown on transgender characters. They are not the ONLY traits these characters possess-- many are just being hypercritical because of the nature of the …

So good

5 stars

Let me be clear, it's brutal both in the sense of blood and gore but also that you're gonna watch a lot of people who could be good chose to do fucked up shit instead.

That said this is one of the most gripping amazing books I've read in a while, and it feels entirely too close to home with the amount of cruel anti-trans laws flying around, but it's 100% worth the read.

Review of 'Manhunt' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

Grotesque queer horror of the most beautiful and trashy variety. It is so rare to find something that so bluntly captures the trans experience, trans survival, love and gore wrapped in a scrapnel coated blanket. It is uncompromising, at times bordering on cruel, the accumulation of a thousand daily tragedies spilling out over a ceaseless apocalypse.

Within that pain are the pockets of hope that sustain us. The relationships and messy connections and bitter loyalty of communities continually rebuilding themselves because nobody else is going to save them. It is an uncertain future, but a future all the same.

Review of 'Manhunt' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Book itself is a close 4 stars. An interesting take on the zombie dystopia where the virus hooked to testosterone and men turned into savage animals (so basically a slow afternoon at FOX). The book though focuses on meaningful development and interactions between transfolx trying to survive, and the big baddie are TERFs turning into actual transcidial maniacs. Some issues are a bit of a too inconsistent storyline that is a bit jumpy too follow sometimes. Also, whenever two people meet they immediately start having sex, or at least thinkling about it, which quickly becomes gratuitous and then irritating.
One star added to balance out a bit the hordes of actual TERFs (Trans-Exclusionary Retro-Fascists, there is nothing radical or feminist about these scumfucks) having a sad seeing themselves represented appropriately as murderous Nazis in the book and rating-bombing Goodreads. And of course, fuck you, Goodreads, for not protecting people on …

Review of 'Manhunt' on 'Goodreads'

1 star

Read 5 chapters.
Enough to know that the writing is not skilled.
Enough to know that continuity is a problem for both author and editor.
Enough to know that there is more violence in this book than I can stand.
Enough to know that the author clearly has some very serious personal issues.

Review of 'Manhunt' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I'll write this up properly soon, but figured I should add some words to my review, given its being hate-bombed by bigots who haven't read it.

This book is amazing. It's incredibly uncomfortable to read, obviously, as it is full of visceral horror and the protagonists are, like real human, horny and messy af. But Manhunt is an exceptional, beautifully-crafted view of a dystopia in which transphobes' talking points are extrapolated to their logical democidal conclusion.

I will buy every book this wonderful woman writes.

Review of 'Manhunt' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Perfect perfect perfect.

I had a whole thing I was going to self-consciously write here, but honestly I feel like I already put all my thoughts down in the notes section. Basically: I want more of this, and less self-congradulatory pastelcore YA nonsense. This book is a gift.

EDIT: Actually, no, a thing I want to say real quick.

I have been waiting a long time to read a book that tells me I am capable of harm. Not because I want to cause harm, but because the ability to cause harm is the hallmark of a thinking, fully-realized person interacting with any meaningful social environment. I am a person, therefore I am capable of harming other people. I do not want my representation to exist just to educate or comfort cis people, or exist only to educate or comfort in general; I don't want to be told I'm naturally …

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