Reviewing the latest Supernatural novel, Fresh Meat

Fresh Meat, written by Alice Henderson for Titan Books, reads like three different Supernatural adventures in one. While tracking a cannibalistic monster within the wintry Sierra Nevada mountains — the area that trapped the Donner Party — the Winchester brothers meet a threat greater than they expected — nature.

Throughout the over-355-page novel, I particularly enjoyed Henderson’s portrayal of the Brothers’ supernatural dangers while reflecting the hazards nature can wreak on mankind, despite today’s technological advances.

Henderson did a good job portraying Sam and Dean’s idiosyncratic hunter difficulties, consistently faced on a weekly televised basis. I didn’t start obsessively watching the series until the sixth season; but, even I couldn’t miss the pervading isolation surrounding the brothers in their loss of Bobby, their lovers, their friends, and themselves. However, despite the iterative peril of facing demons, Lucifer, and former Olympians, I always felt confident that at the episode or season’s end, Sam and Dean would physically accomplish their goal (despite mental repercussions). However, the novel brings home the continuous futility and danger of all-too-human vessels fighting inhumanly powerful demons, week after week. Through her narrative, Henderson reveals Sam and Dean can only go for so long without food, water, or rest and that, in-between killing demons, the Winchester brothers face no relief. They have no future save killing what kills. They have no life outside the current job or the future job. While they can’t go it alone, they can’t depend on those around them, and, sometimes, that includes each other. Even when they aren’t in danger, they accept the life; but, what about their allies or their allies’ families who didn’t? It’s a sucky way to exist; because, that isn’t living, it’s surviving.

When I watch the show from the comfort of my afghan-covered couch, I typically feel for Sam and Dean, but I never felt they entirely lacked hope, regardless of Dean’s season eight outlook. However, Henderson’s novel helped me realize otherwise. Between episodes, Sam and Dean aren’t visiting the world’s largest burger or America’s funeral museums, there’s just the job and the death catalyzed by the job. Yea, it’s depressing; kudos to Henderson for capturing that perspective.

Even when not battling cannibalistic demons, Sam and Dean are fighting something — a supernatural predator their father trained them to handle or a natural landscape they can’t account for. Henderson’s textured prologue beautifully detailed how a stranded nineteenth-century group could fall to deliberate cannibalism. Even today, the Sierra Nevada area is no joke. A former professor of mine detailed the eeriness of driving past that vast mountain range expanse in graduate school. Henderson’s naturalistic text perfectly captured the environment’s detriments.

Admittedly, the novel wasn’t wholly perfect. The clumsier parts occurred in the initial two chapters where Henderson fell into passive voice, overused conjunctions connecting independent sentences and went on tangents unrelated to the direct story. Chapter two seemingly existed to firmly ground the novel in the seventh season. But it felt unnecessary.

While this text lacks the warm fuzzy feeling I prefer in my novels, Henderson is an amazing writer. I enjoyed her dense forest details, her evocative action scenes and her survival emphasis. The best part of a season seven novel surrounded a living Bobby. I’ve only just accepted his death. So, if you want a novel that packs three adventures into one, that brings home the hunter conundrum and takes place in season seven, check out Fresh Meat at Barnes & Noble or Amazon (in both book and e-book form) for around $5-8. For more on the novel, check out Titan Books’ site.

Also, for the true Supernatural lovers, check out the Supernatural Harlem Shake. I am seriously crushing on Jensen Ackles’ pretty fly dance moves. Thanks, Chuck!