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Manhunt

Gretchen Felker-Martin

Start date: May 13, 2022

Finish date: June 13, 2022

Discussion: Buddy Reads 2022

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What Members Thought

May 19, 2022 Elle rated it liked it

Manhunt is a very mixed bag of a dystopian horror. Based around the idea of a virus resulting in feral genetic males and told via a diverse cast of characters including several trans individuals, the concept is interesting and the social commentary is strong. The writing is decent and the primary character construction is fairly well executed.

However, the good things about this novel get overshadowed by a heavily angry undertone to the writing. Bitterness and frustration come through in a way th Manhunt is a very mixed bag of a dystopian horror. Based around the idea of a virus resulting in feral genetic males and told via a diverse cast of characters including several trans individuals, the concept is interesting and the social commentary is strong. The writing is decent and the primary character construction is fairly well executed.

However, the good things about this novel get overshadowed by a heavily angry undertone to the writing. Bitterness and frustration come through in a way that dulled out the story and made it hard to enjoy. It is clear that this book was likely written from a place of trauma and acted as a way for the author to vent in some capacity. That is perfectly fine and can sometimes result in the best kind of stories, but I think it would have been more effective following a breather and some editing to give the story a bit more balance. Instead, the entire story is very intense without any escalation or deescalation in the tension. This consistent wrenching made it feel overwhelming to begin with and then resulted in a kind of numbness, desensitizing me to the plot because so much awful had already happened. I just lost the ability to care what was going to happen to the characters because there was so little light.

The book started off with an excellent cover, a fantastic premise, and some good potential. Instead, it became a constant rant about the evils of humanity with regard to sexual orientation. There is merit to this discussion, but it wasn't handled well. Instead, it was just too heavy handed. The dialogue is filled with rampant misogyny and there are very few redeeming qualities to the characters. A little more balance would have been highly appreciated and would have made the storyline a bit more realistic as well as palatable.

There are decent things about the story and it does have some good underlying messages and considerations, but a heavier edit would have been very helpful. The good things existed enough to squeak Manhunt into a 3-star rating (3.04) for me, but I'm not sure what audience I would recommend it to. You will need a strong stomach and some good resilience toward an incredibly vicious plot.

If you consider a read, be forewarned: there is a LOT of graphic violence. It is raw and visceral and is intended to shock.

* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. * ...more

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Jan 21, 2022 Teddie marked it as to-read

Between the cover and this review blurb, I'm gonna have to check this one out :D
"A viral plague turns all men into violent zombie-like cannibals, creating a world where women hunt them for survival. For trans women like Beth and Fran, there’s only one way to survive — they must harvest the testicles of men to stave off the disease." ...more

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