Compelling and propulsive read that tackles the future in all its trans glory. It's graphic, intense, and glorious.

Manhunt by Gretchn Felker-Martin is powerful. So powerful. I mumbled DAMN to myself more than once under my breathe. The world building is dropped in wonderfully within the narrative, and the writing here is exquisite, the action immediate,. I'm all in. As a father of a transgender son, it smacked me in the face immediately with the troll epigraph. Fiction should be dangerous or nothing at all, and Tor is bringing us some amazing voices.

This was a wild read. From an eye opening look into the treatment and fear that trans men and women can and do live in to the “what if” story of what could happen if they were targeted in the aftermath of a virus that took out most of the world to an entertaining and very well done dystopian novel. I was alternating between feeling the agony for these women/men/people being targeted by TERFs and laughing at the camaraderie and one liners and just loving the relationships between Beth, Fran, Indi and Robbie. The story is so inclusive in showing every kind of person in it, whether they turn out to be good or evil. And while it’s ultimately a story about cismen being the enemy when the t.rex virus turns them into actual monsters, it’s also a cautionary tale to non-inclusive feminists. So while you’re completely entertained by the literal hunt of men, it’s also a little symbolic of what could happen if we don’t all get a little nicer as humans with another “men” rising up to control the rest. I don’t usually go this deep with my reviews but this one just struck me as so educational while being totally entertaining as well. I’m excited to see the movie because, well, read it and you’ll think it needs one too!

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.