Reviews

Open Throat by Henry Hoke

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jojodoug55's review against another edition

4.0

Themes: mental health, identity, climate change (a little too obviously presented), homelessness, privilege, companionship, corruption, the absurd, animality, desire, agency, revenge, violence, abuse...

velorutionista's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

erinastin's review against another edition

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5.0

“I feel more like a person than ever because I’m starting
to hate myself”

Thematically affecting and syntactically innovative. I devoured this.

(rest in peace p-22)

lit_laugh_luv's review against another edition

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3.0

While I certainly didn't hate this, it didn't have the same impact on me that a lot of others seem to have had. It's still a 3 stars for me (which is hardly a bad rating), but wasn't a real standout for me. The prose is interesting and the perspective on humanity (notably its cruelty and destructiveness) offers some lasting thought. Urbanization, climate change, and our mistreatment of animals (such as habitat destruction or confinement of animals in zoos) are all examined from the fictional lens of a mountain lion as they struggle to reconcile the purpose behind a lot of human behaviours they witness.

It is definitely a short read, and the use of magical realism makes the book a lot more interesting than just a direct social commentary - but even with that, it didn't fully capture my attention. Despite being marketed heavily as a queer book, the commentary on any queer themes is fairly minimal and so I think my expectations going into this were a bit misaligned with the content. I can't quite figure out where this went wrong - perhaps the length? It may have been better suited as a short story, or as a slightly longer novella to allow for some greater depth and exploration.

Either way, this is still a good book that bodes well for binging in a single sitting and Henry Hoke is no doubt a creative writer. I'll definitely explore other works by him given I think this is a good (albeit not stellar) novella!

"In my whole life I've been seen only by a few people, each time was a failing of my stealth and my mother's lessons"

leserdtke's review

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adventurous emotional reflective

4.0

franoflittlespoons's review against another edition

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challenging funny reflective sad medium-paced

Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

kimmyp's review

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3.5

I thought this was an interesting concept. A view of humanity from the outside and the nature of the animal and how it differs from ours. How we can think we know about the other and how they think and feel, but we can never really know because we speak different languages. But I don’t know that I connected with the presentation of the story. It felt a little stilted, and maybe that was on purpose because it’s from the mountain lions perspective and they don’t think and act like us, but it still wasn’t my favorite. I’m glad he killed that guy at the end.