THE LEGENDS OF GREEMULAX

This “debut” blends satire and allegory as well as TV characters and literature.

The horror of masculinity in the violently gender-segregated world of Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking trilogy meets the early feminist-separatist vision of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland (1915). Set that strange fan fiction in a Candyland-scape, and you’ve got the branded television content that is this title. It opens with 12-year-old Penn (black, according to the cover illustration) wondering when he will turn into a Grabagorn, “enormous and strong, with icy blue skin and a set of horns.” Penn lives in a desolate land without women, who apparently were all killed by dragons. But then he discovers three girls caught in a trap and learns that the girls and women haven’t been killed but in fact escaped. Penn and his new friend Kristy (white on the cover) go on an adventure to restore gender equality through mindfulness and communication. Credited ghostwriter Mlynowski tries to deliver a very specific message about feminism while reinforcing all sorts of unhelpful stereotypes. Apparently men left to their own devices are flatulence-obsessed brutes incapable of asking for directions, and women are naturally cooperative, anger-averse nurturers prone to uptalking. A cameo referencing a gay character from the TV series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt implies that gay men are a kind of third sex who prefer the company of women.

A perky marketing ploy—but not a piece of literature.