DNF at 20%.

This book was just not for me. I’m new to horror, so, I’m trying new books I wouldn’t usually try. This was incredibly gory and violent and just not for me.

Manhunt was my introduction to gender-based apocalyptic fiction, and oh my god, what an introduction. This book is a messy, unflinching, and raw take on a het- and cis-focussed genre and has blown any and every expectation out of the water.

Gretchen Felker-Martin is an incredible author who pulls no punches, and she really knows where to hit you where you hurt when it comes to creating characters that are real and flawed, that are desperate for and afraid of human connection in equal measure. Fran and Beth, the leads of this story, are two such characters, but Felker-Martin excels at drawing you into the intricacies of the lives of everyone involved. There is no such thing as a two-dimensional space filler in Manhunt - every character is fully realised, and you're exposed to their deepest, darkest secrets in a way that is both incredibly confronting and masterfully done.

I must say this: if you're looking for a fun romp through a post-apocalyptic landscape, Manhunt is... probably not it. This book is full-on, gory and erotic and devastating and terrifying. There were times I had to put it down and walk away because I felt physically ill; more than one occasion where I said holy shit out loud to an empty room. For some people, I think this book will be deeply triggering - there is rape, sexual assault, and forced pregnancy, to name a few, and the rhetoric and actions of the TERFs are laid out in black and white (and are, unsurprisingly, completely ghastly). Other people might find it healing. Just know going in that when I say it's full-on, I mean it is full-fucking-on.

Manhunt is unflinching and gritty, and I would recommend it for anyone who is looking for post- and apocalyptic fiction that does not hesitate to pull out the gory innards of the genre and present it to you on a platter. Reading this book is not just reading this book, it's a full-blown sensory, emotional, and human experience, and not one you're ever going to forget.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Macmillan - Tor/Forge for a copy of this ARC.

Manhunt is a much more difficult read than I had anticipated. From its shocking moments of violence, raw descriptions of sex, and villainous TERF characters, there's a lot that will leave you seething in anger.

These were all aspects of what made this such a tough read for me. Finding a character that didn't straddle the line between good and bad was a challenge. This led to problems in finding someone to connect with. It wasn't hard to detest the villains of the story, but the "heroes" pushed the boundaries as well.

While there are some well done relationships built, they're crafted on unstable foundations that threaten to crumble at even small inconveniences.

It's not a terrible thing to read a book where the immediate reaction is anger or frustration; this isn't an easy tale. The style was a bit of a problem though. Chapters follow multiple characters broken down into paragraph sized chunks. You rarely get to sit with any one character for very long, and I found it harder to focus on the big picture.

This is a novel where you need a deep breath to begin and a pallette cleanser novel afterwards. Reactions will vary wildly and discussion will certainly be spirited after.

My full review will be up at BookPage at some point, but basically: this is an immensely ambitious, messy and visceral novel that seeks to certain those forgotten by the dystopian genre as a whole.

Manhunt starts with a great premise. A virus has infected anyone with testosterone and turns them into murderous, feral zombies. They live in the woods, run in packs, and eat anything they can get their hands on. Fran and Beth, two women who have been friends before their transition, are hunting these men to harvest their adrenal glands and testicles to continue to have the estrogen to keep from turning into one of these monsters themselves. Since all of the men were now animals, women have taken over everything. This includes the TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists), who are organized and ruthlessly killing the transwomen of the world. Fran and Beth’s story starts and ends with them just trying to survive in a world where they do not feel welcomed.

It took me a while to connect with these characters. mostly because the part one is action with very little character development. Beth and Fran are thrown into the middle of a zombie and TERF attack that does not give them time to breathe. This anxiety is passed along to the reader because the danger and action is nonstop. The second part is when we really start to understand the characters. The book switches stories between Beth, Fran, Robbie, a trans man they find in the woods, and some new characters that are introduced as major secondary characters. Even though there is more character building than world building the the second part, the novel does not feel like it slows down at all. There is still plenty of action, gore, and a large amount of sex. By the time part three starts, we are fully invested in the story and the brewing fight between the TERFs, who are trying to be a new government, and the women who will do anything to fight against their anti-trans ideals. By the time the final showdown starts, with even more action than the first part, we are so attached to the story and the characters that we are totally invested. The final part is brutal, gory, and very much worth the effort it takes to get there.

I am not really the target audience for Manhunt. In fact if I was a character in the novel, I would be one of the feral men eating raw meat and killing any woman or animal that I see. This is okay. I keep thinking about how there are some horror-loving trans kids who need representation, and having two trans women and a trans man as the heroes of a story will honestly make this a LGBTQ+ horror classic. There is a movement in horror to “Make Horror Gay AF” and I fully support stories like these to show that horror is a genre that can be inclusive and for everyone. This is another reason to love Manhunt, just as much as the greatness of the story. The world Gretchen Felker-Martin builds is strong, dangerous, and very unique. I cannot wait to read what Felker-Martin has in store for us next.

I received this as an ARC from Tor Nightfire and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

When a virus turns anyone with enough testosterone in their system into a monster intent on raping and murdering everything else, women inherit the world, albeit a violent post-apocalyptic one. As time passes, TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) seek to rid the world of transgender women, rising up to take over more and more cities. Beth and Fran, two transgender women are among the manhunters who harvest the genitalia of the world's men to create enough drugs to keep themselves and other transgender women from having enough testosterone to turn. As alliances form, a battle is coming between the TERFs and everyone else that will decide the fate of the world. This novel uses body horror and post-apocalyptic plague tropes to cleverly allow readers a glimpse into the gender dysmorphia, discrimination and brutality transgender people must struggle against to stay alive. An important example of what the horror genre can accomplish, but also an enthusiastic tribute to the post-apocalyptic horror sub-genre.

This was SO interesting! This was horrific, stunning, and incredibly good. I wasn't expecting this book to be so tender, but at times the characters' love and friendship were so poignant that it made the horror of the novel that much more devastating. This book will stick with me for a while and will absolutely be in my top reads of 2022.

I read a lot of horror but this book surprised me in so many ways. We follow Beth and Fran and their friends and lovers while they hunt men-turned-monsters in a post virus world. The concept and execution of this world and what it means for these women was incredible.
This story was thoughtful, funny, terrifying, sad, and uplifting.
My only gripe, though small, is that the final act felt a little rushed. Regardless, I loved the story and will recommend to many. I can’t wait to see what’s next from Gretchen Felker-Martin!

Wow. This book is horrifying on so many levels and I loved every second of it even while I cringed at all the gore. It really hits you over and over. As soon as you think there is an interlude to the horror, it strikes again. Not only that, this book emotionally bulldozed me.

I really appreciated how queer and messy this book is. I don’t think I’ve read a post-apocalyptic or dystopian novel that fully actualizes the trans experience in that version of the world. There are so many terrifying parallels to modern day that make the book that much more difficult to stomach.

A part of me wants everyone to read this because it’s just that good, but I also feel like I will be scarred for life by some of the gruesome images created… so please go in with caution. This book is not for the faint of heart.

I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Manhunt is a brutally important response to books like Alderman's The Power and every fantasy series that arbitrarily genders its magic systems. It's also a beautiful evisceration of TERFs and other strains of white cis 'feminism'. Be aware you may need to take breaks reading it - basically every content warning applies here, especially body horror/gore and sexual assault. However, the topics aren't treated in an exploitative way or glorified, and at the heart of this book is a love for trans and queer people and a celebration of community and friendship. I'm going to be thinking about this book for a long time.

I really wanted to like this book! I heard of it from author David Demchuk who wrote Red X and was really excited for a trans Mad Max experience but I couldn't get invested in the characters. As someone who reads a lot of apocalyptic fiction I found it to be similar to Y The Last Man and it just wasn't for me. I do think it will be the perfect book for a certain reader though. It also was plaguing me while reading... What about non-binary people? What about trans men? Ultimately, the book left me with more questions than answers.

I laughed, I cried, I raged. I was horrified. I felt endless wells of hope and heart and humanity. The emotional impact of this will leave you vulnerable in all the best ways.

In Felker-Martin’s dystopia, a virus has taken over anyone with enough testosterone in their system to “put out a decent crop of back hair”, filling its victims full of wriggling, barbed tumors and transforming them into lizard brained zombie-like creatures hellbent on destruction. Manhunt follows a small group of survivors, with Beth and Fran leading the front. Beth and Fran are trans, and in order to keep their testosterone in check they hunt these virus ridden, feral men and harvest their organs, aka the best source of estrogen in this new, hellish world. You’d think between the feral men and organ harvesting, that would be the worst of it, but of course it isn’t. Murderous TERFS (if you aren’t familiar with the term, think radical feminists who exclude and vilify trans women, aka assholes, aka JK Rowling) are hellbent on wiping people like Beth and Fran from this bright, new, female filled earth.

I could go on and on and on here, but the most horrifying part of Manhunt isn’t even the monsters. It’s the people. The way they so easily erase, discount, and cut down others until there’s nothing left. The feral zombie men are mindless. They can’t help themselves. But the people? The seething hate, the disgust, the erasure of another’s humanity. These are the everyday horrors that terrorize Manhunt’s pages. The kind of horror only people are capable of.

Wow. This was a brutal and original take on the zombie genre. It's good, but all the content warnings.

3.5 rounded up to four, but don’t let that dissuade you as I definitely was not the primary target audience for this book as a cis/het woman

A horror novel on so many levels: body horror, a postpandemic wasteland, monsters out to get you, and war between two factions brewing.

This book has a lot of representation of queer and non white folks- you have to have at least the former when a virus knocks out all the men in the world and turns them into monsters wanting to rape and cannibalize. But that, worthy of a novel in and of itself, just acts as a backdrop to the social conflicts in this story. The plot line mainly focuses on a war between TERFs (trans exclusionary radical feminists) and the non TERFs/trans folks who are just trying to survive in a world that is not built for them.

This is a DARK novel, all of the characters are morally gray at best and there are very graphic scenes throughout.

That being said, when I wasn’t staring in horror, I did really enjoy it! I just spent….a lot of time staring in horror

I received this book in exchange for review

This book is WOW! Horrifically stunning. I have to agree with other reviewers - I feel that nothing I say can really do this book justice. It is just that good. Its been hard to find words for this book so I will keep it short and simple!

I finished this book a couple weeks ago and I am still thinking about it. I must have told everyone that I have spoken to recently about this book; it just really moved me! I cried at the end and not only because of the ending itself, but I was genuinely sad be done with it! I just didn't want it to be over!

The story was so raw, so compelling, extremely difficult to read, at times, disturbing, and so powerful! It also managed to make me feel like a prude, which I thought was impossible, but here we are, haha.
I typically do not read books with a lot of romance or explicit sexual scenes mainly because my preferred genres are horror/thriller books - but in this case, it all just worked!
Will this book be for everyone? No. But what book is?
This book IS important, though. It's uncomfortable, very graphic, and completely original. I believe that its a book that is needed and necessary in todays world. Whether the book is 'for you' or not, there is something you can (and should) take away from it.

Gretchen Felker-Martin's writing was, simply put, just amazing. I have never read anything like this and I am so grateful for it! The best book of 2022, hands down!

MANY many thanks to the Author, Macmillan Tor/Forge and Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my review. .

What a wildly imaginative and well thought out story. I love post apoc fiction, and I think I can throw MANHUNT up there with my favorites. Endearing, flawed characters, lots of grody, oozy stuff, a world where there has been a total restructuring of life as we know it... Everything you could ever ask for in a novel where men are literal feral beasts.

I'm always down for a good post-apocalyptic tale, and a gender-based apocalypse from a trans-perspective was definitely intriguing and gave lots of room to explore the character's sense of self in a world where their hormone levels are literally a life-and-death situation. I really enjoyed this book, and it's inclusion of they many wild characters you might encounter in this landscape. It's worth noting, though, that these characters are SUPER horny, and the sex scenes are more frequent and graphic than most romance novels I've read. However, I do think these scenes are warranted, given the characters' fraught feelings about their bodies. Absolutely worth a read.

What if I was to tell you that in its deep stinking heart the book about trans women eating balls for the estrogen is ultimately a touching story about love and friendship?

I reveled in every action-packed minute of this gory, horny, reeking plague novel.

In a parallel timeline to ours, a plague has turned testosterone producers into slavering zombie-like creatures that hunger for human flesh.

Friends and sometimes lovers, Beth and Fran are manhunters who harvest these creatures to protect themselves, and others, from turning. Gruesome work on its face, but necessary for survival.

But danger isn’t solely these pus weeping goons. They also need to avoid packs of roving TERF’s who are also aiming to kill them, under the guise of protecting women.

After a brutal encounter leaves them wounded, bloody, and traumatized they team up with sharpshooter Robbie. With all of his friends dead he’s happy to join a community striving for inclusion and survival.

What follows are pages of battle and espionage. A bizarre billionaires bunker, and so many smells. Seriously. Every single smell you can imagine.

Horrifying and harrowing, this book is hard to put down. Are you planning on reading Manhunt?

Thank you to Netgalley and TorNightfire for an ARC of this title.

I can't even begin to describe how amazing this book was. I'm done with the post-apocalypse genre now because nothing can top this. The visceral language and unflinching characterization of every single character was just.....unmatched. Please read this book!!!!!

Truly excellent, top-notch horror. Gretchen Felker-Martin is a goddess of horror in the written medium.