manhunt gretchen felker martin book review

As you were writing this book, how did you cultivate that intimacy within yourself? What comforts besides the book-if writing the book was a comfort-did you have?

Zefyr Lisowski: First of all, your novel is so brilliant! One of the things I think it’s most effective at is juxtaposing these intimacies between intense horror and trauma and the intimacy required to navigate in horror’s wake-even as that intimacy may in turn traumatize, too. Ultimately, our conversation kept circling around the importance of survival and care-within the world of the book, and even more, without. I talked to Felker-Martin recently over Zoom about this love, community, queer lineages within Manhunt, and more, the early afternoon light dappling across the computer screen. However, as a trans woman myself, what I responded to the most-and what I’ve seen the least in coverage of so far-was the shared love between queer people Felker-Martin emphasizes, the shared, complicated love between trans women. Through this positive reception, many of the reviews around the book have focused on its handling of TERFs and the violence endemic in the book. Rowling dying in her castle, and queer sex as tender, fraught, and intimate as it is in real life- has already made a splash with readers and critics it’s now in its sixth printing and has been widely lauded.

Highly recommended for those looking for particularly upsetting or disturbing horror fiction.Felker-Martin’s novel-which features estrogen synthesized from harvested testicles, J.K. Felker-Martin’s self-described filthcore prose easily conjures the grotesque horrors both internal and external that these beleaguered trans survivors pass through on their desperate search for some brief moment of security. The three of them, along with Indi, have to figure out a new safe haven for themselves as the TERFs take over Boston, passing through the bunkers of the wealthy and the enclaves of trans survivors alike. Fran and Beth’s precarious existence dodging packs of men and trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) gangs is transformed when they encounter Robbie, a lone trans man who has been living in almost complete isolation with only his rifle for company. Fran and Beth are two trans women eking out an existence as “manhunters,” harvesting the testes of feral men for their friend Indi to render into estrogen and other hormones for wealthy bunker clients. After “T-day,” any human with too high a level of testosterone is transformed into a vicious, feral monster that attempts to kill anyone in sight. Felker-Martin’s latest novel serves as a corrective to the various gender-based plague dystopias that never take into account the existence of trans people.

Manhunt gretchen felker martin book review