River of Teeth

A Finalist for the 2017 Nebula Award for Best Novella

Sarah Gailey's wildfire debut River of Teeth is a rollicking alternate history adventure that Charlie Jane Anders calls "preposterously fun."

In the early 20th Century, the United States government concocted a plan to import hippopotamuses into the marshlands of Louisiana to be bred and slaughtered as an alternative meat source. This is true.

Other true things about hippos: they are savage, they are fast, and their jaws can snap a man in two.

This was a terrible plan.

Contained within this volume is an 1890s America that might have been: a bayou overrun by feral hippos and mercenary hippo wranglers from around the globe. It is the story of Winslow Houndstooth and his crew. It is the story of their fortunes. It is the story of his revenge.

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Published May 23, 2017

176 pages

Average rating: 6.14

14 RATINGS

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Denise Lauron

May 19, 2024

8/10 stars

This was kind of a fun book. It was like the wild West on hippos.

I had a little trouble suspending belief on some of the things in the book, but the author was upfront about the unbelievability of the book.

It is definitely worth reading and I'd recommend it, for sure. I am looking forward to the other books in the series.

Michele Karsk

Mar 13, 2024

8/10 stars

Wet, whiskey, and unsafe sweet tea.

Johnnyguitar

Mar 29, 2022

6/10 stars

"What are you Alexander Hamiltons great great great grandaughter?" This quote perfectly summarizes my feeling about the book. It was said so out of the blue and had no relevance except for the author to add some interesting character personality. So many things and character traits seem placed randomly. Only to be brought up once and never talked about again. The characters seem all rough drafts or templates that the author made bulleit point outlines of and never really fleshed out. If the book was bigger and more time was spent developing the relationships and backstories maybe it would feel natural. The plot of the caper (operation) was actually decent. I enjoyed the world of hippo hoppers and the scant details we were given.

Schloot

Mar 28, 2022

4/10 stars

I enjoyed parts of this book, the representation of nonbinary persons is something I like to see but did seem like a play to make characters more interesting than they actually are. The time spent fleshing out the hippo's characters was great, and then never referenced in a meaningful way again. This book needed to be about twice as long, or have about half the characters to tell the story it was trying to. 6/10, not interested enough to read the sequel.

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