Novella Review: River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey
Mogsy’s Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Genre: Alternate History
Series: Book 1 of River of Teeth
Publisher: Tor.com (May 23, 2017)
Length: 152 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Fun fact: The hippopotamus is widely considered to be the most dangerous mammal in Africa, responsible for more human fatalities there than any other large animal. Although they don’t look very threatening, they are extremely moody and territorial, often known to attack boats in the water or people on land with little to no provocation. Another fun fact: Back at the turn of the 20th century, U.S. Congress actually considered a bold initiative to import these animals to the bayous of Louisiana, in the hopes of creating these “hippo ranches” to solve the nationwide meat shortage as well as the growing ecological crisis caused by the invasive water hyacinth.
Obviously, this wild scheme never came to pass. But you just have to wonder, what if it had?
Happily, author Sarah Gailey was awesome enough to oblige us in River of Teeth, her alternate history novella envisioning an America that might have been if the “American Hippo Bill” had been passed…along with an added few hitches, of course—like, say, if about a hundred hippos had broken loose somewhere along the way, resulting in an out-of-control feral population making safe travel along the southern waterways nigh impossible. Taking place in the marshlands of Louisiana, the story follows a diverse group of hippo riders who come together to pull off a caper—or rather, I should say, an operation—to help the U.S. government rid the Mississippi River’s Harriet section of its feral hippo problem once and for all.
However, as the leader of the group, former hippo rancher Winslow Houndstooth has other plans. Gathering a team that consists of Regina “Archie” Archambault, a corpulent master thief; Hero Schackleby, a gender-neutral demolitions expert; Adelia Reyes, a very effective (and very pregnant) killer-for-hire; and Cal Hotchkiss, a hard-drinking, cards-cheating gambler who just so happens to be the fastest gun in the west, Houndstooth is prepared to pull a few strings in his contract in order to accomplish his true goal of revenge. Floating somewhere on the Harriet is the riverboat casino where he will find Travers, the ruthless businessman who took everything from him. Houndstooth means to see his enemy pay—that is, if only he and his allies can somehow survive the never-ending barrage of obstacles, including double-crossing backstabbers, huge explosions, and a river full of killer hippos.
Hands down, the best part of this book is its concept, which is worth the price of admission alone. It’s just so damn cool! To me, this is what speculative fiction and especially alternate history is all about: taking an idea inspired by a real event—in this case, Congressman Robert Broussard’s proposal of the hippo ranching bill in 1910 (that fell just short of being passed, alas)—and running with it, creating a wonderful new world full of potential. I simply love picking up books like these, knowing that anything is possible. Not to mention, hippos are a great subject; for one thing, they’re fascinating creatures, and two, many people underestimate just how dangerous they are, but Gailey does both these points justice by highlighting the environmental, cultural and societal impact of these animals every chance she gets in her story.
My major complaint, however, is one that I often have with novellas—River of Teeth was just too short, preventing anything from being fully developed. World building, plot elements, and characters all felt a little sparse, leaving me worked up by the end, yet still feeling strangely unfulfilled. Part of me wishes that the story had provided more background information behind the process of hippo farming, or hey, maybe even a mention from someone on what eating hippo might be like (I’ve heard that hippo steak is delicious, but don’t take my word for it). I was also disappointed in the characters. Save for maybe Archie, whose charm I found irresistible, I felt no real connection to or interest in the rest of the cast. Thing is, while I love diversity in my books, I am less enamored with “diversity for diversity’s sake”, which often leads to characters becoming defined by labels and not who they really are, leaving their personalities themselves paper thin and forgettable—especially in the case of this book, where a good number of them are killed off or taken out of the picture rather quickly in a short period of time. It’s worth keeping in mind too that we have a relatively large cast for a novella, so opportunities to get to know each of them well were already limited.
However, as you can probably tell from the positives I highlighted, River of Teeth was still a book I enjoyed. While it didn’t draw me in as much as I thought it would, at no point did I find the story slow-moving or boring, and I can also see the world and characters becoming more fleshed out as more books are added to the series. Sarah Gailey has written a fun little adventure with lots of potential, and already I am eyeing the sequel Taste of Marrow with great interest.
The BiblioSanctum 
Ooh the first review I’ve seen for this one. The fact that it’s a novella though and the characters (other than Archie) aren’t entirely developed or sympathetic is something that I was kinda afraid of. Still it is such an intriguing premise I’ll still almost certainly read it, and with a sequel coming maybe the characters have more room to breathe. And… hippo mayhem just sounds fun lol.
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I’m not a big reader of short stories or novellas, and I guess this is why – it’s possible but a lot more difficult to develop plot and characters in 100-150 pages, and I can be quite picky! I’m glad this will be a series though, and that another book is already on the horizon – I have hope that it will build on story and characters.
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I’m certainly planning to read this one. I’m all for a bit of hippo mayhem!
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You will definitely get your hippo mayhem!
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I really enjoyed this, although I’m not sure where she’s going to go in the next book. I actually wanted more hippos! I felt at time the hippos were background noise for the human story – which I guess makes some sense.
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I could go for more hippos too! I loved the ones in this book though, Ruby was awesome! 😀
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I’ll admit I was bummed when I saw your rating, but I love novellas so I may not have the same complaints. I completely understand them, though! I’m looking forward to eventually reading this one. You are right about the premise just being so damn cool.
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3 stars is definitely not bad! Of course I would have loved it give it a higher rating, but I just felt we weren’t quite there with the characters and plot – I’m really excited for the sequel though!
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You are not the first reviewer to complain about the… thinness of some charachters, and it’s a pity since the story sounds like a great deal od fun. Still, I believe it would be worth reading, if nothing else for the hippos! 🙂
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To be honest, I just felt there were too many characters and not enough time to really get to know them all. To be fair, this is not the first time I’ve felt this way about a novella with a large cast though! I’m glad it will have a sequel so these characters will have more opportunity to grow.
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Hippos are scary!
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They really are! Don’t go near the water during dusk if there are hippos around! 😀
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I might pick this one on vacation, it sounds like a fun ride and so far I have heard good things about this one so I’m willing to give it a try! 🙂
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It’s a quick read and it’d make a really good vacation book! I hope you’ll enjoy it! 😀
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Huh, I really liked it, and didn’t feel like it was diversity for diversity’s sake. To me it was really refreshing to have an enby character with a romance and everything, in the form of Hero (being enby myself, though I don’t advertise it much).
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Fair enough, I thought Hero was a refreshing character as well, though I really would have liked to see them play more of a major role beyond romantic interest before being *spoiler*’ed way too soon.
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Oh, a short read. Might check this one later.
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Yep! I’m not a big novella/short story reader, but I admit they can be nice when I’m just looking for a quick read to fill the time!
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It’s a shame that this is only a short read – I was quite liking the sound of it but I don’t really go in for the shorter reads and so if you had issues with wanting more then I would undoubtedly do sol
Lynn 😀
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Yeah, this book had a lot of the issues that I usually find with shorter reads. I’m glad there’s a confirmed sequel coming out though, with an ARC and release date already, because that gives me hope that the story and characters will be further developed. There have been a couple of other Tor.com novellas that I rated same for similar reasons, of which I would LOVE to read more, but thus far there’s been no news of future installments.
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Bummer that this wasn’t the book it should have been but I am still SO in. Humans are super cavalier about moving wildlife around, often with unintended and horrible consequences that I think I will appreciate an examination of this writ large – like Hippo large!
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