This genre has been having a moment off and on for 50 years. I don't think that it could really exist without the context of The Screwfly Solution and Y: The Last Man, and the gynocratic utopian novels from the second wave of feminism, none of which are particularly good. Earlier this week I got to speak with Felker-Martin about writing Manhunt, the public’s reaction, and creating deeper meaning through maximalism. In reality, Felker-Martin's book is a glorious slurry of human carnage and richly-earned hope as nuanced as the current moment demands. The Harry Potter author became a godhead in TERF circles after writing that pro-trans movements “ to erode ‘woman’ as a political and biological class and offering cover to predators like few before it.” Rowling’s death in Manhunt – killed by an accidental fire at her mansion in Scotland – was either incorrectly reported or wildly decontextualized to paint Felker-Martin as bloodthirsty or bitter in service of a growing anti-trans agenda gripping the United States and beyond. It escalated last week when numerous right-wing media outlets discovered Manhunt and its mention of J.K. For years she’s been the subject of vicious attacks from real-life TERFs - mostly online, she tells me, though she has experienced violence in person. Still, the culture war has arrived at Felker-Martin’s door. I just think that sex is really important.” So I think just by including it at all, I'm de facto pushing back against that, even though that's not my primary goal. “People are very afraid of sex in modern art. “Me expressing through erotica my feelings about those bodies is inherently political there's so little fat and trans and disabled sex in any medium,” she says. Trans, fat, and disabled bodies convene together in a celebration of the lesser-seen flesh’s pleasures, depictions that Felker-Martin is aware will chafe even if it isn’t her primary intention. A stark contrast to popular modern fiction’s anodyne approach, Manhunt’s fornication is as charged, filthy, complicated, and as multitudinous as the real thing. The vividness of Manhunt is encapsulated in its sex scenes.

Their biggest threats are not the feral creatures, but other women: gangs of militant TERFs (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists) that have seized cities and send death squads to execute trans people in the streets.

Their task: harvest organs from the roving packs of zombie-men to manufacture the hormones they and the surviving women need.

Set in the near future, where a plague has turned all biological males into bloodthirsty monsters, Manhunt follows two trans women, Beth and Fran, who scavenge through the dregs of society. In both quality and content, Manhunt offers remarkable, terrifying, and deeply human new visions.

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