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River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey
May. 20th, 2021 10:13 pmI think I'm giving up on writing a truly in-depth review, so I'm just sharing a quicker bit:
River of Teeth was a ton of fun to read! The thing that I keep saying about it is that they was absolute brain candy, and that that is not a complaint!
The writing style was very fast-paced and cinematic, so the whole thing really felt like watching a movie in my head. It has a bit of an action-movie vibe, but with a lot of the typical action/adventure archetypes and tropes skewed into tropes that appeal specifically to me, haha. It reminded me a little bit of reading id-fic: the kind of fic where someone just crams all of their favorite tropes and character types into one work, because why not? It certainly hits on a lot of my faves: characters with grey morality, interesting alternate history setting, ~revenge~, the big bad is a corrupt businessman, and Almost Everyone is Queer. (Heck, there’s even a very specific “there was only one bed” scene.)
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The basic plot of River of Teeth:
The story is set in an alternate 1890s United States in which hippos were previously imported into the American south to be a farmed meat source. The Mississippi River has been dammed to control the flow of water into The Harriet – a specific area set aside for the hippos from the dam to The Gate, which keeps them from going into the Gulf of Mexico.
Unfortunately, some things went wrong. There was an economic crash (The Hippo Bust of 1859), and since, many hippos have roamed wild on the Harriet. These dangerous ferals will eat just about anything, including people, which has made the entire area extraordinarily dangerous.
Our main character, Winslow Houndstooth, has been hired by the US Government to get the ferals out of The Harriet, freeing up the Mississippi as a viable trade route again.
He hires on a crew to help him with this task:
Regina “Archie” Archembault, a professional grifter that he’s worked with before.
Hero, an expert in both poisons and demolitions, though supposedly retired.
Adelia Reyes, a well-known assassin.
Cal Hotchkiss, a hopper (essentially a hippo cowboy) with whom he has a complicated and not-great history.
But Houndstooth has a different motive in mind: revenge against the person he holds responsible for the destruction of his ranch years before.
-
Just about everyone is queer (and whether that's a thing you like in a story or not may impact how enjoyable you find the books.) The MC (Winslow Houndstooth, who has the coolest name ever) is bi; Hero, his love interest, is nonbinary; Archie is revealed later in the book to be genderfluid; Adelia is a lesbian; Cal is the token cishet.
I enjoyed it, because I like the kind of big escapist action/adventure, and getting to have it be about a group that looks a lot more like the people I surround myself with is fun. The author is also nonbinary!
I had a few mild complaints in the book:
There were a few moments in which realism was sacrificed for "rule of cool", and some could have been done without, but that's also part of the genre.
I had trouble with the similarity between some of the names: Archie and Adelia, plus Hero's hippo is named Abigail. Two of the other hippos belonging to the team are Ruby and Rosa. It was just a lot to keep track of.
Some of the character developments/relationships would have been more impactful with a longer book and more time spent on them, but honestly "I just wish it was longer" isn't much of a complaint.
One slightly bigger one: there was a plot thing, which I thought was playing out one way... and it did... but that was supposed to be a twist? Still not the worst, just threw me a bit.
The sequel, Taste of Marrow picks up right after the first book leaves off, and I would say is absolutely worth reading if you enjoy the first book (especially as there are a few threads that are left hanging.) While River of Teeth does have a complete arc, Taste of Marrow concludes the rest of the plot quite well.
River of Teeth was a ton of fun to read! The thing that I keep saying about it is that they was absolute brain candy, and that that is not a complaint!
The writing style was very fast-paced and cinematic, so the whole thing really felt like watching a movie in my head. It has a bit of an action-movie vibe, but with a lot of the typical action/adventure archetypes and tropes skewed into tropes that appeal specifically to me, haha. It reminded me a little bit of reading id-fic: the kind of fic where someone just crams all of their favorite tropes and character types into one work, because why not? It certainly hits on a lot of my faves: characters with grey morality, interesting alternate history setting, ~revenge~, the big bad is a corrupt businessman, and Almost Everyone is Queer. (Heck, there’s even a very specific “there was only one bed” scene.)
-
The basic plot of River of Teeth:
The story is set in an alternate 1890s United States in which hippos were previously imported into the American south to be a farmed meat source. The Mississippi River has been dammed to control the flow of water into The Harriet – a specific area set aside for the hippos from the dam to The Gate, which keeps them from going into the Gulf of Mexico.
Unfortunately, some things went wrong. There was an economic crash (The Hippo Bust of 1859), and since, many hippos have roamed wild on the Harriet. These dangerous ferals will eat just about anything, including people, which has made the entire area extraordinarily dangerous.
Our main character, Winslow Houndstooth, has been hired by the US Government to get the ferals out of The Harriet, freeing up the Mississippi as a viable trade route again.
He hires on a crew to help him with this task:
Regina “Archie” Archembault, a professional grifter that he’s worked with before.
Hero, an expert in both poisons and demolitions, though supposedly retired.
Adelia Reyes, a well-known assassin.
Cal Hotchkiss, a hopper (essentially a hippo cowboy) with whom he has a complicated and not-great history.
But Houndstooth has a different motive in mind: revenge against the person he holds responsible for the destruction of his ranch years before.
-
Just about everyone is queer (and whether that's a thing you like in a story or not may impact how enjoyable you find the books.) The MC (Winslow Houndstooth, who has the coolest name ever) is bi; Hero, his love interest, is nonbinary; Archie is revealed later in the book to be genderfluid; Adelia is a lesbian; Cal is the token cishet.
I enjoyed it, because I like the kind of big escapist action/adventure, and getting to have it be about a group that looks a lot more like the people I surround myself with is fun. The author is also nonbinary!
I had a few mild complaints in the book:
There were a few moments in which realism was sacrificed for "rule of cool", and some could have been done without, but that's also part of the genre.
I had trouble with the similarity between some of the names: Archie and Adelia, plus Hero's hippo is named Abigail. Two of the other hippos belonging to the team are Ruby and Rosa. It was just a lot to keep track of.
Some of the character developments/relationships would have been more impactful with a longer book and more time spent on them, but honestly "I just wish it was longer" isn't much of a complaint.
One slightly bigger one: there was a plot thing, which I thought was playing out one way... and it did... but that was supposed to be a twist? Still not the worst, just threw me a bit.
The sequel, Taste of Marrow picks up right after the first book leaves off, and I would say is absolutely worth reading if you enjoy the first book (especially as there are a few threads that are left hanging.) While River of Teeth does have a complete arc, Taste of Marrow concludes the rest of the plot quite well.
