Series Info/Source: This is the second book in the River of Teeth duology. I borrowed this on audiobook from the library.

Thoughts: I enjoyed parts of this second book in the River of Teeth series. The characters are a fun group and unique and interesting to read about. I enjoy the premise of Hippos running feral on the Mississippi, and enjoyed the tamed hippos as well.

This book starts up shortly after the first one ended. Our original group of characters is scattered across the Mississippi. They are stuck trying to survive feral hippos and other conniving outlaws as they hope to group back together.

I did continue to enjoy the premise and the characters here. However, this book doesn't do a great job of resolving the main point of the story and the pacing was all over the place. This novella spends most of its time bringing the characters back together that were torn apart in the first book. There are a lot of POVs that we read from and it was just too much for this little novella. The beginning seems slow because of this and everything feels pretty unresolved...in fact the original problem they were trying to solve seems even worse by the end!

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was well done. The narration is fun to listen to and the characters voices are well done. I would recommend listening to on audiobook if you enjoy audiobooks.

My Summary (3.5/5): Overall, the above complaints aside, this was a fun romp in a hippo infested wild-west America and it is short, so it isn't a huge time commitment to read. If you enjoyed the first book, I would recommend this. If a strange alternate wild west with hippos sounds intriguing to you, I would say give the series a shot. It's not a huge time commitment and it's fun. ( )

I'm seriously tempted to re-read the first novella in this series after finishing Taste of Marrow. This novella had everything that I hoped River of Teeth would have, a compelling story and characters that I cared for. I had some trouble getting to know and keep apart all the character (and hippos) when I read River of Teeth. But, this time it went fine. So, perhaps it was just me and not the story?

Anyway, this novella is a fast read, a what if story about what would have happened if hippos was imported to the marshlands of Louisiana and the story takes place just a couple of month's after the ending of River of Teeth with Winslow Houndstooth's group split and he's now fearing that Hero is dead and desperately trying to find him/her. Hero (who is traveling with Adelia after she saved his life), on the other hand well, has a problem of his/her (he is mentioned as they during the book which trust me is confusing) own when Adelia's baby is being kidnapped and they have to get her back. And, that leads to new problems. A lot of action during this short novella, just the way I liked it! Btw, you just probably read River of Teeth before reading this one. Much easier to understand what happened and who they all are if one reads the first novella.

Taste of Marrow is great and I'm waiting eagerly for the next installment to be published!

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through Netgalley for an honest review! ( )

The saga continues from River of Teeth with Houndstooth and Archie trying to find their lost loves while Adelia and Hero pursue the kidnappers of baby Ysabel. This novella falls into a more “normal” story pattern with the alternate history as a support detail more than the central focus, as in the earlier novella.

The novelty of referring to Hero as “they/them” has palled. This bizarre use of plural pronouns for a singular person is now annoying. I don’t care if Hero is male or female or if Houndstooth is gay, straight, or bi. Make a statement regarding gender and get on with the story. Continuing with they/them pronouns when referring to one character is no longer new; it’s just a jarring interruption in the flow as I have to stop and determine if it’s Hero or Hero and someone else. ( )

***WHO SUCKED ME IN***
Thomas from SFF180 on Youtube in their SFF180 | Mailbag Monday | May 7, 2018 video published on 7 mei 2018

I'm mad I didn't liked this more than I did.

The plot awesome! The characters are awesome! The setting is awesome!

And it was a bit of a chore to read. I felt the same way about the Seanan McGuire's books. Everything should add up to something I love but somehow that doesn't happen.

I'm so annoyed with myself. ( )

science fiction with nonbinary gendered protagonist and diverse cast.
the first part was better, even with the somewhat unresolved ending. The second book felt like an anticlimax, but was still decently exciting (lots of feral hippos). ( )