released Feb 22nd, 2022
this book was reviewed by my roommate, provided at no cost to us by NetGalley.
i’d been looking forward to the release of manhunt since i first heard about the book, and i was delighted when my dear friend and roommate latitude let me read their ARC through netgalley!
manhunt is a story of a world where anyone with enough testosterone turns into a feral beast, rape-crazy and wild. beth & fran, two trans women, spend their days hunting feral men and harvesting their testicles for estrogen production, eating the raw balls while traveling on the hunt or in some medicinal form extracted and purified by their friend indi, so they can prevent the transformation from happening to themselves. robbie, a trans man unable to foreseeably ever take testosterone again and burned before by letting others close to him, travels alone hunting men with his gun. by happenstance and a terrible accident, the three find themselves entangled in each others lives, fighting both roving packs of men and TERFs, who will gladly see all trans women dead.
i could not put this book down. i read it all through my work day, covertly on my phone in front of my computer, staying up far past a responsible bed time to finish it. the characters are extremely well written, the community dynamics relatable, despite the whole fucked up dystopia bit. i particularly adored indi and her relationship with beth. i am also, admittedly, a sucker for books that take place in new england, which is where i grew up, and the familiar setting was a fun little bonus for me.
manhunt is a masterpiece of tension, gore, sex, and TERFs taking well-deserved shit. felker-martin knows how to fucking write. i laughed, cried, i had knots in my stomach reading some of the nastier gory parts. manhunt is sexy and gross, heartbreaking and incredible. an incredible debut novel that i would absolutely recommend. unsurprisingly: i rate this five stars.
thanks, Jude. Bookshop link here. Storygraph link here. Find Jude’s Twitter here.
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