Full disclosure this is a book rant more than a review. Also, I didn’t finish Manhunt I just couldn’t get far. Wading through the lazy writing, cliches, misogyny, buzzwords, and overall lackluster characters make it impossible. To anyone who finished it, good on you.
I kid you not, this is published by Macmillan who seems to be trying to cash in on the 'woke' book trend/rainbow capitalism, yet failing miserably. This has to be the case of an inexperienced, over-educated editor paying for a book meant to cater to a very niche audience. Who that audience is I’m not sure considering some of the most loathing reviews come from Splatterpunk fans and those in the LGBTQ+ crowd. I feel like this book is made for incels, those with autogynephilia, and general haters of biological women/ "cis" people big and small.
A little background on the author Gretchen Felker-Martin who has been mentioned in articles as not only a supporter of violence against women (wanting to ‘cut J.K Rowling's throat’) hating on who (s)he deems “TERFS” but also for supporting Osama Bin Laden (a rich asshole who didn’t think women should even be allowed to be waitresses let alone authors) and thinking he was really onto something with the whole 9/11 killing of thousands of people, which included one little girl who simply wanted to go to Disneyland but ended up dying when her plane was hijacked and flown into the first tower that morning. The author looks to be about my age so (s)he should be old enough to have their facts straight: Terrorism. Bad. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was also a supporter of the Holocaust. Oh, and the author also loves the idea of rape. Apparently, there can never be enough rape. And it's okay for him(her) to say that because apparently they are a 'sexual abuse survivor' and we all know how braggy sexual abuse survivors can be.
I don't know about you but it seems an actual trans woman wouldn't call every single female who doesn’t bow before them a TERF. That sounds more like something a guy would do. All gender dysmorphic trans women I know of want to assimilate into society, pass, and are kind people.
Right off expect to be drowning in adjectives. Not to mention gems like “quietly, smirking” and “hissed back” and “smile widened”. WTF is up with authors overly describing facial features and body movements? Good job editors. It's like I'm reading a fucking screenplay.
The author seems to go out of (s)his way to be crude. I’ve read plenty of gross stuff and it's easy to tell when the story calls for it and when it’s put in to try and ‘shock’ the readers. In this case, it’s the latter.
There is also a great scene involving TERFS (that’s a trans-exclusionary radical feminist/ basically anyone who is grounded in reality). The scene focuses on thin white women with mostly long hair (everything the author is not). It also takes a weak swipe at a Michigan all-women’s (mostly lesbian) festival that received bad press for asking a trans woman to leave once back in 1991 because it was a festival for WOMEN. Boo-hoo get over it.
Anyway, it goes on and on and on using TikTok far left- buzz words, slang, and bull shit that regular people don’t have time to care about because there are real problems in the world like war and global warming. This is a book that is a sign of the times and will be forgotten once this trend gives way to another. It’ll be one of those ‘I can’t believe they published this shit’ books like The Desecration of Susan Browning or Go Ask Alice
In conclusion, this book is bitter, hateful, misogynistic, poorly written, and a great example of why women don’t want men (cool Trans chicks like Blaire White are totally fine though) hanging around in the female bathrooms.
This book isn't even clever enough to be a satire of any sort. It's simply an example of an ideology that, while it prides itself on love, peace, understanding, and acceptance, is now mostly white guys power-tripping all over the place It's just hate with zombies.
Good job Macmillan what next? A reissue of The Turner Diaries? Instead of the 'Day of the Rope', we could have a 'Day of the Uterus' where men who are more women than women can hunt down actual females, and those who sympathize with them and rip out their uteruses. That sounds super progressive.
What is going on society?!?