Today I started Taste of Marrow by Sarah Gailey, the second of the River of Teeth series.
I loved the first novella River of Teeth and recommended it to anyone I thought would enjoy an alt-historical America where gender-bending cowboys rode hippos instead of horses. Well, maybe not cowboys, but definitely hippo riders.
Here’s the blurb from 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.
Here’s the blurb of 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 dam 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.”
These books are definitely part of the ‘cozy weird’ genre I’m loving right now. You can get the two novellas in a single volume titled American Hippo.
Last year I read Upright Women Wanted about queer librarians in what seems like the old west US, but is actually the future. That had a similar cozy feel, but I don’t know if all of Gailey’s work is that way. I kind of suspect not, given the description of The Echo Wife.
(100 Days of Blogging: Post 027 of 100)