Gender-based dystopias have proved to be, ahem, very controversial in recent years, not to mention downright disappointing. But then there is Gretchen Felker-Martin’s Manhunt, shining like a blood-covered beacon. The odyssey of two trans women trying to survive in a world where a plague has turned anyone with high levels of testosterone into heinous monsters, Manhunt zeroed in on the people and problems lesser dystopias ignore. Her sophomore novel, Cuckoo, will demand a similarly tricky balance of genre thrills and sensitive character work. Set at a conversion camp, Cuckoo follows a group of former campers who reunite to face down the evil entity that they survived as teenagers.
Original and unabashed, Manhunt is unafraid to be messy as it highlights the people that gender-based dystopias generally gloss over.
Original and unabashed, Manhunt is unafraid to be messy as it highlights the people that gender-based dystopias generally gloss over.
