Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin
Paperback, 304 pages
In the sweet spot for my age, the first movie that I remember being a huge controversy upon release was The Last Temptation of Christ. If you were not witness to the media shit storm then you may not understand what the hell was the big deal? Certainly, as an adult, I understand how it happened, even if the why escapes me. Doesn’t matter the genre every once and a while a book or a movie has this effect, sometimes we see it coming others are surprises. This one was no surprise. From the moment of the cover reveal this was both a novel and a battleline. Right or wrong this novel is more than a sci-fi horror weird apocalypse novel, it is also a middle finger of social justice activism, coming from the unlikely but very welcome voice of an extreme horror author.
Gretchen Felker-Martin is an extreme writer who in the acknowledgment identifies her writing as “Gross Splattercore.” That is why I say unlikely, I don’t think of extreme horror as progressive. Political for sure, but even when Ed Lee (for one example) tries to write feminist points they often make me uncomfortable. It might be a funny thing for me to say as I have been nominated for a Splatterpunk award myself but Extreme Horror is not my favorite subgenre. More on that later.
There was no way I was missing Manhunt, if nothing else I needed the answer to the question of this... could GFM live up to the buzz her novel would generate? Tor NightFire is a pretty fresh horror subdivision of the publisher and this was a bold move for sure. A very bold swing because everyone involved knew that this book would stir up a shitstorm, some positive, some haters. I was probably going to read it anyhow, but it is really too bad that this novel can’t exist on its own with the hatred. Yes, the headlines have started…
“JK Rowling burned alive in trans author’s novel” or something to that effect.
I don’t really want to get involved in that. The headline is generated by one tongue-in-cheek paragraph, and Rowling can wipe away her tears with hundred dollar bills so can we just talk about the novel? The end of the world novel that looks at gender-specific pandemics is such a thing that I am already tired of it. Clumsy attempts at it in the past few years include Owen and Stephen King’s Sleeping Beauties, and Y: The Last Man whose TV series didn’t even get through a season which is impressive in this era. I mean how do you not even finish a season now???
GFM is smartly influenced by the OG, the 1977 classic novella by Alice Sheldon (AKA James Tiptree Jr. or AKA in this case Raccoona Sheldon) The Screwfly Solution. It is clear even with the author mentioning Alice in the end that this novel is an update or tribute. I would say it would not be a bad course to revisit that story before reading this novel.
Manhunt is a brutal extreme horror novel as advertised. The cover certainly should be warning enough. This novel has zero fucks to give for any pearl-clutchers (that even in a few cases) might include me. If you don’t want anything spoiled, let me just say that I really liked this novel, I had a few very minor problems with it. Some I admit might be on me. I think it should be read, and I applaud GFM for pissing off the people she intended to. That in itself is an accomplishment for a horror novel. So yeah, I am pro-Manhunt.
Alright, now we are talking minor spoilers and themes. Manhunt is the story of the world post-T-day, when a pandemic started turning us men into feral maniacs. Not to be a stretch for far too many of my gender but you get the set-up. The problem with The Kings or Brian Vaughn’s takes on this idea is they failed to deal with the spectrum that gender has become. I shouldn’t have to say this next bit but here we go. Trans women are women. Trans men are men. As a person who was roommates with a genderqueer person who came out in 1999, I saw this close-up and tried to be supportive as I could. It is wonderful that progress has been made. I know we have more to go, but let’s not get sidetracked. This kind of novel coming from a major NY publishing house would have seemed impossible even a decade ago. This is not Eraserhead, or Clash publishers that have delighted in middle finger high concepts this is Tor. So impressive, I want to thank everyone at Tor for giving this author and this story a safe space. Because the trolls and haters are attacking it with negative reviews without reading the book.
The world has not ended but it is re-organizing and there is still a bit of chaos. Beth and Fran are traveling and hunting feral men. They eat their testicles, my first minor issue with the novel is I don’t understand why they are eating balls. I mean it is a great cringe-worthy metaphor but I didn’t understand the in-the-universe reason. * ( Note: I asked the author why the hunter were eating the feral men balls and it was for the estrogen they produce) I admit I didn’t know that testicles carry estrogen, I assumed this, I went with it as I read but maybe it could have been more clear, or maybe it is just this reader. It maybe a nitpick or my ignorance but I was confused by this.
The villains are the TERFS, which stands for Trans exclusionary radical feminists. In this novel the Terfs are violently rounding up and killing the members of the trans community who they see as feral timebombs. This is the major conflict of the novel. The trans community desperate to supply estrogen, the TERF hunters resort to hunting and eating the testicles of feral men. The portrayal of TERFs as villains was very responsibly handled. GFM gave them the reasons and voice that all stories deserve, Ramona is the hero of her story. I disagree with the TERF agenda but it is fully developed and I think it is a strength of the novel. We are deeply invested in the Trans characters and their survival would have less weight if the threat of the TERFs didn't feel legit, and as antagonists they are scary.
Fran is a transwoman who was close to transitioning when the shit it the fan, while the novel starts with some intense man-hunting and all that brutal stuff the first most powerful moment for me came here.
“I was so close, she thought miserably, sitting down to a candlelight dining room table where on her plate an eight-inch cock sat crisped up beautifully under a thin drizzle of vinaigrette reduction. I was so close to being a girl.”
This is a moment on page 21 where you are with this novel, or you are not. Can you handle this deeply emotional moment wrapped with a finely cooked penis? This is extreme horror after all and this page in many ways this paragraph serves as a mission statement. Personally, I love the cross-wiring of brutal visceral over-the-top, and very human moments.
Manhunt is filled with these moments. Fran and Beth eventually meet Robbie who is a trans- man, and between these characters, we get many very tender and real human moments that you just never have seen before in a genre novel. Trans visibility and normality are important for their travel and love stories in this world are important. GFM does a few serious magic tricks with the details and the narrative. The plot involves their attempts to start a new community and TERF's attempts to end it.
I was impressed by the prose that was constantly balancing of world-building, theme, visera and emotional honesty. Even if personally, it did a few things that made me a bit uncomfortable. This is a minor thing but I bring it up for a reason. I personally find the words cock and cunt to be ugly. GFM clearly doesn't. Just a personal thing, I don’t find them offensive. There are moments in this novel where GFM uses these words in moments that are meant to be sexy and beautiful. Doesn’t work for me, but here is the point. It doesn’t have to. I think a few moments that might turn you off shouldn't turn you away from this overall experience. That is why I mentioned it.
There is another important aspect to this novel – representing sexuality on a spectrum. The reason I think I was sensitive to those words in this context is I didn’t want anything to detract from those moments. I understand on a certain level how important it is when the spectrum is represented on screen or in books.
This book is not a dark or sour affair, it has some adventure, weirdness, humor, and plenty of sex. It is probably not going to convince any of the haters, but that is by design. This novel is the war cry, it doesn’t need to please a mass-market or change minds, although I think it will do that. No Manhunt is an expression of rage, love, frustration, and joy by a one of kind voice. To combine the Trans experience, genre knowledge, love of gore, talent, and ability into one creator Grethen Felker-Martin has created a novel no other human being could write. There is nothing better to celebrate in a novel. When In the final act the novel tips its hat at the Screwfly Solution I thought to myself. We have a worthy successor.
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