ARC Review: MANHUNT | Gretchen Felker-Martin

★☆

PUBLICATION DATE: 22 FEBRUARY 2022

SYNOPSIS:

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 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.