- Jun 9
- 6 min read
The cover of Manhunt features a pair of severed testicles hanging in a mesh produce bag.
Looking back, Gretchen Felker-Martin is being remarkably honest. Nothing about this novel is subtle. Not the violence, the politics, or the blood. Reading this feels less like reading a novel and more like being trapped inside somebody else's fever dream while they shout questions about gender, identity, power and survival directly into your face.
I couldn't look away. I've read hundreds upon hundreds of books across my lifetime. Literary fiction. Romance. Fantasy. Historical fiction. Crime. Horror. Books that delighted me, books that bored me and books that changed me. Yet I genuinely cannot think of another reading experience quite like this one.
Whether that's a compliment or a warning probably depends on the reader. Set in a post-apocalyptic America, Manhunt imagines a world devastated by a virus that transforms anyone with high testosterone levels into violent, flesh-hungry monsters. The premise sounds outrageous when reduced to a single sentence. In lesser hands, it might even sound ridiculous.
But, Felker-Martin somehow makes it work. Beth and Fran, two transgender women trying to survive along the ruined New England coastline, spend their days hunting infected men and harvesting organs needed to produce estrogen. Around them, civilisation has collapsed into competing forms of brutality. Feral monsters roam the landscape, but they're far from the only threat. Militias, extremists, opportunists and survivors all stake their claims in the wreckage.
The monsters are horrifying, but the people are worse. What surprised me most about Manhunt wasn't the gore. I was expecting that. Anybody picking up a novel marketed as splatterpunk horror should know what they're signing up for.
What surprised me was how much intellectual weight exists beneath the carnage. Because this is a novel obsessed with bodies. Bodies as identity, as battlegrounds, and as things that can be controlled, violated, and weaponised. Every page seems to be asking who gets to define womanhood, who gets to belong, and what happens when society decides certain people no longer qualify as human.
None of these questions are approached gently. Felker-Martin writes with the literary equivalent of a chainsaw. The violence is graphic enough that even seasoned horror readers may find themselves occasionally looking away. There are scenes involving mutilation, cannibalism, and bodily transformation that are likely to remain lodged in my memory for a very long time. A stronger warning for content-sensitive readers would be difficult to imagine.
Yet reducing this book to its shock value feels strangely unfair. Because beneath all the blood is a story about fear. Fear of losing yourself, your community, and living in a world that's already decided what you are before you've had the opportunity to tell your own story.
What gives the novel its power is that even its most monstrous characters are rarely presented as cartoons. The book understands that hatred often grows from fear, and that people are capable of extraordinary cruelty while remaining convinced of their own righteousness. That doesn't make their actions forgivable, but it does make them recognisable.
And the horror works because it never feels entirely fictional. But, that said, not every element landed for me. The novel occasionally sacrifices subtlety in favour of impact, and there were moments when the chaos of the narrative threatened to overwhelm the story itself. Some readers will undoubtedly find the political commentary too heavy-handed, while others may feel the novel doesn't go far enough. This isn't a book interested in pleasing everybody.
Frankly, I suspect the author will consider that a compliment. By the final pages I felt increasingly exhausted, disturbed, and strangely moved. Those aren't emotions I often experience simultaneously.
I admired this novel more than I enjoyed it, and I feel that distinction is important, because enjoyment suggests comfort. Manhunt has no interest in making its readers comfortable. Its goal is confrontation. It wants you unsettled, questioning, and to sit with ideas that would be much easier to avoid.
For readers willing to meet it on those terms, Manhunt delivers one of the most unique horror experiences currently available that I'm aware of.
I highly that I'll ever read it again, but I do know that I'll never forget it.
Rating: ★★★★☆
A brutal, intelligent and utterly uncompromising horror novel that pushes body horror, political commentary and queer fiction into territory I have never encountered before. Not for the faint-hearted, but impossible to ignore.
Book Details
Manhunt — Gretchen Felker-Martin
Paperback ISBN
978-1250794642 (Tor Nightfire trade paperback edition; varies by region)
Hardcover ISBN
978-1250794635 (Tor Nightfire hardcover edition; varies by retailer and region)
eBook ISBN
978-1250794659
Genre
Horror; Post-Apocalyptic Horror; Queer Horror; Speculative Fiction; Adult Fiction
Subgenre
Splatterpunk Horror; Dystopian Horror; Body Horror; Literary Horror; Zombie Horror; Social Horror; Queer Dystopian Fiction
Tropes / Literary Threads
Post-apocalyptic survival; found family; chosen family; trans protagonists; body horror; gender apocalypse; monster outbreak; survival against impossible odds; hostile world; road trip narrative; queer resilience; societal collapse; morally grey characters.
Publisher
Tor Nightfire
(Tor Publishing Group / Macmillan)
Series
Standalone Novel
Series Order
Manhunt
Formats Available
Paperback; Hardcover; eBook; Audiobook
Audiobook Narrators
Theo Solomon, January LaVoy, Renata Friedman, and Danielle Cohen
Release Date
22 February 2022
Page Count
Approximately 416 pages
(varies slightly by edition)
Setting
Post-apocalyptic New England, United States
Primary Setting Details
A devastated American East Coast following a global pandemic that transforms people with high testosterone levels into feral, flesh-eating monsters; abandoned towns; ruined highways; forests; makeshift compounds; survivalist settlements; military strongholds.
Main Characters
Beth
A trans woman and survivor who hunts infected men to harvest organs needed for estrogen production. Fierce, vulnerable, impulsive, and deeply human beneath her hardened exterior.
Fran
Beth's hunting partner and former lover. More conventionally feminine and often able to pass socially, Fran struggles with identity, desire, survival, and self-preservation.
Robbie
A trans man surviving alone in the wilderness after the collapse of society. Resourceful, guarded, and increasingly drawn into the group's fragile community.
Indi
A fertility specialist and scientist who provides medical support, hormone production, and emotional stability for the survivors.
Ramona
A member of the Maryland Womyn's Legion whose perspective provides insight into the ideology, fears, and contradictions of the novel's primary antagonistic force.
The Maryland Womyn's Legion
A militarised TERF organisation that has risen to power following the apocalypse and actively hunts transgender survivors.
Cultural & Literary Influences
Zombie apocalypse fiction; splatterpunk horror traditions; queer horror; transgender literature; feminist dystopian fiction; body horror traditions; George A. Romero zombie narratives; gender apocalypse fiction; The Walking Dead; The Handmaid's Tale.
Major Themes
Identity and selfhood; bodily autonomy; gender and power; trans survival; belonging; community building; chosen family; oppression and resistance; fear and prejudice; dehumanisation; survival ethics; trauma; grief; loneliness; love and intimacy.
Content Warnings
Extreme graphic violence; body horror; gore; cannibalism; torture; rape; sexual violence; dubious consent; assault; transphobia; homophobia; bigotry; dehumanisation; executions; medical experimentation; slavery and indentured servitude; body dysphoria.
Comparable Titles
Tender Is the Flesh — Agustina Bazterrica
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife — Meg Elison
The Power — Naomi Alderman
The Worm and His Kings — Hailey Piper
Hell Followed with Us — Andrew Joseph White
Camp Damascus — Chuck Tingle
Sister, Maiden, Monster — Lucy A. Snyder
Patricia Wants to Cuddle — Samantha Allen
Ideal Readers
Readers who enjoy extreme horror, splatterpunk fiction, queer horror, post-apocalyptic survival stories, body horror, political horror, social commentary through speculative fiction, morally complex characters, trans-centred narratives, dystopian fiction, found family dynamics, and horror that prioritises ideas as much as shock value.
Rating
★★★★☆ (4 Stars)
Spice Level
🌶️🌶️ / 5
Sexual content is present and often explicit, but the novel is not romance-focused. Sexuality is explored through the lenses of identity, trauma, intimacy, survival, power dynamics, and bodily autonomy rather than traditional romantic or erotic storytelling.
Where to Buy Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin
Australia
Paperback, eBook and audiobook editions are frequently available.
Often offers Australian warehouse stock and local shipping.
Paperback and eBook editions.
Available for online ordering and in-store collection where stocked.
Paperback edition available through online ordering.
Australian loyalty program and regular promotions.
International
Paperback
Hardcover
Kindle eBook
Audible audiobook
Paperback
Hardcover
Kindle Edition
Audible Audiobook
Paperback
Hardcover
Nook eBook
Audiobook options
Paperback and hardcover editions.
Paperback edition.
Supports independent bookstores through purchases.
eBook
eBook ISBN: 978-1250794659
EPUB edition available in most regions.
Digital edition available for Apple devices.
Audiobook
Narrated by Theo Solomon, January LaVoy, Renata Friedman and Danielle Cohen.
Supports independent bookstores with audiobook purchases.
Publisher
Publisher information, edition details and author resources.
As an Amazon Associate and participant in other affiliate programs, I may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases made through these links at no additional cost to you.
Danielle Robinson is a literary critic and writer whose work explores literature through the lens of atmosphere, memory, culture, and emotional experience. Holding a double degree in philosophy and theology, she combines academic insight with a deeply refined aesthetic sensibility shaped by more than three decades working across the creative industries as an internationally published, multi-award-winning makeup artist, fashion stylist, and interior stager.
She reads widely and rigorously, reading and reviewing more than 200 books each year as both an ARC reader and commissioned critic. Through Silk & Sentences, Danielle approaches literature as something immersive and lived with — not simply stories to consume, but works that shape the way we think, feel, and move through the world.
She writes from her rural Queensland home, where she lives with Alex, her husband of 33 years, their dogs Oscar and Paige, and an ever-growing library of books.
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