I love Sarah Gailey’s fiction, but for some reason I saved their first published novellas for last. I enjoyed the twist on the magic school trope (Magic for Liars), the magical girl group YA book (When We Were Magic), I loved the shit out of the sci-fi clone story (The Echo Wife) and I liked their creepy haunted house novel (Just Like Home). After having read all of those books, I finally went back and listened to the free Audible audiobooks of Gailey’s two alternate history novellas, and boy, was it fun!
My thoughts on the second book will, by necessity, include some spoilers for the first. So proceed at your own risk.
RIVER OF TEETH
by Sarah Gailey
Published: Tordotcom, 2017
Ebook: 178 pages
Audiobook: 4 hours
Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
Series: River of Teeth #1
My rating: 7.25/10
Opening line: Winslow Remington Houndstooth was not a hero.
TASTE OF MARROW
by Sarah Gailey
Published: Tordotcom, 2017
Ebook: 192 pages
Audiobook: 4 hours, 15 minutes
Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
Series: River of Teeth #2
My rating: 7/10
Opening line: Ysabel would not stop crying.
RIVER OF TEETH
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.
This novella has all the ingredients for a super cool romp thorugh an alternate America and the narration by Peter Berkrot comes as an added bonus. All you need to do to know if you’ll like this book is read the first couple of pages. The tone of voice, the fact that in this America, hippos have been imported and now run wild in the Mississippi, as well as being a stand-in for horses, plus the kind of rude, kind of mercenary protagonist will tell you all you need to know. I was immediately in love.
In a matter of a handful of pages, Sarah Gailey builds a whole world with its own customs and norms, and so much atmosphere that you feel like you’re there in the bayou. Winslow Houndstooth has a job to do and he will need to gather up some old friends and frenemies if he wants it done right. Not only could the payment for this job set them all up for life, but it will also grant him a chance at revenge.
So this story combines the “one last job” trope with “getting the crew back together” with a dash of revenge tale, but what makes it more than the sum of those parts is (a) the characters and (b) the crazy set-up of this world. Houndstooth, as well as all the other members of his crew, rides a hippo. This comes with certain pros, but also cons, which we get to experience alongside them as they make their way down to the artificial lake filled with feral hippos. And gamblers.
I just adored this idea of hippoes having once gotten out of hand and breeding in the wild, thus creating a very real, and very large, danger to the public; and also of some clever entrepreneur having snatched up the rights to this place or that at the exact right moment to build up a gambling empire like never seen before.
The crew is pretty damn diverse, which added to the coolness of this story. Houndstooth clearly has a thing for his non-binary friend Hero, Regina Archambault is not only French but also fat, and Adelia Reyes is a hell of a shot while also being super pregnant. Narrator Berkrot reads the two female characters each with an accent (vaguely French and Latinx) which some people may find off-putting. I didn’t mind it nearly as much as I generally mind male narrators reading female voices by making them high-pitched and breathy, but that’s taste for you. I thought he did a great job and the accents did help keep the characters apart.
As for the plot, well… things go well until they don’t. There’s death and betrayal, surpring twists, some good, some less so. I don’t want to say more because this is a short book and it doesn’t take long to find everying out for yourselves.
It did show me that I am an absolute and unabashed Sarah Gailey fangirl and they were already a damn skilled writer back in 2017. The only thing I didn’t like about this book is that it was too short, I wanted more of everything. More hippos, more backstories, more exploration of this super cool world, more character moments. So it’s not really a criticism but also, it is. My hopes at this point are that I will get all of that in the second book.
MY RATING: 7.25/10 – Very good
TASTE OF MARROW
A few months ago, Winslow Houndstooth put together the damnedest crew of outlaws, assassins, cons, and saboteurs on either side of the Harriet for a history-changing caper. Together they conspired to blow the damn that choked the Mississippi and funnel the hordes of feral hippos contained within downriver, to finally give America back its greatest waterway.
Songs are sung of their exploits, many with a haunting refrain: “And not a soul escaped alive.”
In the aftermath of the Harriet catastrophe, that crew has scattered to the winds. Some hunt the missing lovers they refuse to believe have died. Others band together to protect a precious infant and a peaceful future. All of them struggle with who they’ve become after a long life of theft, murder, deception, and general disinterest in the strictures of the law.
Aaaaand we’re back! Our brave crew of hoppers has been split up with no idea where the others are or even if they’re still alive. This weighs most heavily on our two lovebirds, Winslow Houndstooth and Hero, who both assume the other is dead, but neither is willing to accept it. Houndstooth is with Archie, who is doing her very best to keep his obsession with searching for Hero in check.
Meanwhile, Hero does not let themself believe Houndstooth is dead but rather than search for him, they are using Amelia’s newborn Ysabel as a distraction. And cute as she may be, that baby definitely is distracting.
There’s not a lot I can say about this second book that I haven’t said about the first one. The vibes are still spot-on, even if this novella is lacking the one-last-job plot that made the first so exciting. It does, however, start with an infant being stolen, so there’s plenty of tension if that sort of thing gets to you. I am certain I wouldn’t have reacted as viscerally to this plot point before I had a kid myself, but being a mother myself (that still sounds so weird :)) I was gutted when I read this tiny baby was taken away from her mom. Not only did it hit me on an emotional level but I was also thinking of very practical problems, such as the sudden stop to breastfeeding. That’s not great for either the kid or the mom, you know. And the fact that Sarah Gailey not only acknowledged that but worked it into the plot makes me want to applaud them!
A lot of people on Goodreads seem offended by the amount of yearning between Houndstooth and Hero, but I didn’t find it excessive or annoying at all. Maybe it’s because Peter Berkrot narrates the story so well and gives the characters just enough personality to make my feel more sympathetic towards them, even when they do stupid things for stupid reasons.
There are also plenty of complaints about the “lack of hippos”, to which I say: read to the end, you lazy people! There are hippos and they are just as I like them – far, far away from me, in this case between the pages of a book. The feral ones are appropriately scary, the protagonists’ hippos are endearing as ever (if also super dangerous killing machines).
The only complaint I have about this book is that things got a little convoluted and confusing towards the end. This may be partly my fault for not paying enough attention to the audiobook but there came a point when I was no longer sure exactly what was going on where with whom and why. This period was over quickly, however, and I could lean back and enjoy the ending properly. I do see why some people may not like this book as much as the previous one, but I still found it a fine and fun novella based on a crazy premise that totally works.
And now, dear readers, all I can do is eagerly wait for Sarah Gailey’s next book. Whatever they come up with next, I am ready.
MY RATING: 6.75/10 – Very good
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