Outside of Catriona Ward’s new releases, I feel like I am always playing catch-up when it comes to horror. I have been recommended a bunch of stories, and I just like science fiction too much to really dive as deep as I’d like into horror specifically. October feels like the perfect remedy to the situation, though, as I have a reason to dig into the gore, and folks, this next one is a real ooey-gooey one. Manhunt, by Gretchen Felker-Martin, is a gory post-apocalyptic nightmare that leaks, bleeds, vomits, and cums dread.
The world is over, kind of. A virus has swept the world, turning men and anyone whose testosterone was too high into feral raping and killing machines. Fran and Beth are two trans women who wander the wilds of New England, hunting feral men for their testicles, which helps to stop them from turning as well. Robbie, a trans man, has been on his own since the beginning and has learned to trust no one. So when a pack of wild men brings the three of them together, they have to learn how to navigate a new world full of TERFs(Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists), their relationships with each other, and those around them.
If you did not pick up on it from the introductory paragraph, this book is fucking messy. Felker-Martin has described it as splatterpunk, and that really captures the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the descriptions you will witness. There is blood, sweat, cum, fluids in general, amputations, body dysmorphia, sex of many kinds, and so much more in this book, so those are my content warnings. I say this upfront because, well, some folks are squeamish, and you should know what you’re getting into. I, however, have only had one instance of having to not eat through a horror film, so thanks, Slither (yeah, I know, a pretty fucked up metric, but an easy one). I also am going to qualify this again upfront; I am a white cis man, so I hope I don’t fuck up here.
Felker-Martin has an eye for detail that is as delicious as it is stomach-turning. She leaves no stone unturned, whether it’s describing the intimate ways lovers grasp at each other’s flesh, the different types of screams one might hear in this new world, or the amputation of body parts, medical or violent. It will make you uncomfortable and force you to think about your own skin and mortality in new ways. Felker-Martin’s writing feels specifically designed to make you question the assumptions you have about your own body and just how aware those who don’t fit the cis-hetero gender dynamics are about every ounce of them that is different. Errant hairs, age-related aches, old wounds, and musculature are all featured in various lights, creating a background anxiety about the trans self in a world bent on destroying such “aberrances.”
The future of Manhunt is bleak and mean. The characters within it are survivors. Survivors of the roving packs of men before and after the plague. They have survived toxic relationships and still carry the toxic baggage of their own personalities into this world. Desire still exists to a degree. Desire to be loved, to be seen for who you are, to be treated as a human being. Beth and Fran have a tension between them that is rocked by the arrival of Robbie. It’s not long before they become part of a community of folks who “accept” them as they are, and a social hierarchy worms its way amongst the trio based on skills and their ability to pass as women. Others have desires too, and since they’re in power, those desires will run roughshod over the marginalized. Beth and Fran’s relationship, in the various capacities it exists in, is disrupted entirely through their relationship to gender. One flourishes while the other is tossed away.
The uncomfortability lies not in just the gore and guts Felker-Martin tosses the reader’s way, but in her examination of people who have been “just surviving” for too long. Characters are mean to each other, have messy dynamics, and let negligence take control when it’s convenient. Friendships are all but forgotten at the promise of self-actualization and self-preservation. Felker-Martin’s writing sells it all, as readers are subject to the internal thoughts of her characters. Their contradictions, rationalizations, and anxieties all form beautifully deranged psyches that make a mess of everything, even when they know how to fight for each other. And she doesn’t just focus on the two trans women either, as Robbie, and a couple of others, including a lieutenant in the TERF army, all try to handle their shit in this terrifying world. I think the story would succeed with pride with just the trans points of view, but the depth of Manhunt is excavating the degree to which the patriarchal norms still taint everyone’s ability to relate to themselves and each other.
All of that comes with a truly engrossing story and plot that will make the horror geeks shudder with delight and terror. Beth and Fran’s journey is one of survival and fighting for every inch of space they occupy. There are fights with roving packs of men, chases involving TERFs with crossbows through the woods of New England, embassies between towns and an expanding empire, and several battles that end in a cacophony of destruction and pain. It’s amazing that Felker-Martin is able to intertwine all of her ideas into such a gruesome but tight 300 pages. No word feels wasted, and all her ideas fall within her themes. It’s truly one for the ages.
Manhunt is easily one of my favorite books I’ve read this year. It captures the horrors that lie within relationships and societal gender dynamics. It is unflinching and wholly it’s own beast that refuses to be tamed. Felker-Martin writes fully fleshed-out characters that are at the edge of civilization, forced to spend every waking moment trying to survive. She delivers on everything the word Splatterpunk entails. If you have a stomach for the gore, you have to dig into this one.
Rating: Manhunt – Sink Your Teeth In, and Fight Like Hell.
-Alex
