In a world where the American Hippo bill passed (look it up, it was real!) and the vast Mississippi became the home of deadly feral hippo, Winslow Houndstooth and a crew of rogues, murderers, and con artists have been contracted to take it back.
This book consists of the novellas River of Teeth and Taste of Marrow and two additional short stories, which all take place in this alternate United States and follow Winslow and his motley crew of hippo riders.
Firstly, I love hippos, I love the idea of riding hippos, and I am terrified about the very real danger of being eaten by a hippo, so this book really worked for me in that regard. Uniquely for a book following a cast of criminals, Gailey allows the characters to actually be quite morally grey and do bad things, which I appreciated. My favorite of the two novellas was River of Teeth, which goes to some pretty harrowing places, but I liked learning more about Adelia in the second novella. I also really enjoyed the two short stories, which explore episodes from Winslow’s and Archie’s past criminal activities.
However, the cast of characters, while all interesting and complicated in their own right, didn’t really come alive for me except in brief moments. I was especially unconvinced by the rather insta-love romance between Winslow and Hero, which is bad because it plays a major role in shaping both their characters and the events of the second novella. While Adelia and Archie were more interesting to me, I just was not sold on the found family aspect of the story.
