Synopsis:
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.
Edition:
Paperback
Trigger Warnings:
Hover for Trigger WarningsAwards/Nominations:
My Thoughts:
I really love this book. And I love that Gretchen Felker-Martin is absolutely not afraid to make her characters deeply flawed people. I know there are dissenting opinions on whether or not all representation is equally good (in this specific case whether or not writers should tread carefully in respect to queer, and especially trans rep), but from where I (admittedly, a cis female) sit, it seems to me like vast representation is the best representation. I mean, we should want to capture the whole breadth and scope and humanity of all different types of people, including trans people (gasp! why do we have to keep going over this🙄).
And Manhunt definitely showcases a lot of different lived experience. And none of it is sunshine and rainbows. For anyone. Not before the apocalypse, and not after. Just FYI.
You should probably go into this one knowing you’re in for splatterpunk. It is GORY. And wonderful. Just wait until you find out what makes the infected continue to be useful! Glorious.
“It’s the fucking chromosome crusaders.”
Also, this book is not kind to TERFs (as no one and nothing should be). They are front and center Big Bad Number One Villains. Which I love, because those people suck big ones. But be prepared to have a bunch of shitty women getting offed for being shit-brained garbage bags.
I’ve seen a lot of complaining about how this book “hates women” and whatever, but tbh, the people who think that are also, clearly TERFs. Cuz, uh, this book very obviously does not hate women. I think it is plain as fucking day that it loves women (as much as a book can love anything. Whatever. Shut up.) – it just doesn’t love the type of women who try to gatekeep who gets to be a member of the Woman Club. And those people can fuck off right to the sun and die mad.
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
My Rating:
I think you should read it. It’s a hell of a lot of fun!
Manhunt By Gretchen Felker-Martin Tor Nightfire Published: February 22, 2022 ISBN: 9781250794642 Paperback, E-book, Audio 304 Pages
