Reviews with content warning for Child death - River of Teeth

This book is a wild ride. I can't believe Tumblr give me a good book rec, for once.

The River of Teeth (aside from Watcher's Puppet History) is a testament that human history is (and always been) a wild road to navigate. Especially if you attempt to actively dig deeper into them. I still can't believe that this book is an alternate history. Who would've thought that hippo farming is something people have considered doing in early 20'the century America?

Overall, River of Teeth is a fun romp to read. Although admittedly, it can be way too violent for my taste sometimes (read the TWs, Folks). The over-the-top nature of the story reminds me of the various great fanfictions that I have been reading these past few years. The author writes freely and you can tell that they genuinely having fun with this story & characters.

I'm not rating the book higher because the ending isn't quite satisfactory for me. I also not particularly rooting for these characters even though I'm having a great time reading about them. These problems can be chalked up to the fact that this is a two-part novella, I think.

I would recommend River if Teeth to readers who are interested in a fictional story of mid 19'th century to early 20'th century America will all its wild & violent glory.

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daniellew03cd3's review against another edition

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adventurous funny tense fast-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

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booksthatburn's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

River of Teeth is a dark and fun revenge caper/operation alternate history with hippo steeds and self-confident queer sexiness. If that doesn't make you want to read it immediately, I'm not sure what else would convince you. Check this one out.

I love heist stories, caper (sorry, "operation") stories, anything where we get the crew together for one very dangerous job. I also love alternate history, twisting the past into something a little bit different, a little more weird (or at least differently so). Unsurprisingly, I loved this book. The premise is weird and wonderful, everyone who wants to be sexy is very sexy, the revenge plot is established without weighing down the story... it hit all the right notes for me and I'll definitely check out the sequel.

I don't think it goes quite as far as to have queerness as a default, but it gets most of the way there in very excellent form. Hero is great, their dynamic with Houndstooth is sexy and fun without distracting from the main plot. There's a lot of little things to appreciate and I don't want to spoil them, this just felt very good to read.

That the seed for this premise comes out of a real historical proposal is pretty great, but even if that weren't the case, this would still be a dark and fantastic story.

It moves fast and has a lot of fun, but it's also a revenge story and it has some pretty bloody scenes. Not everyone is up for that, so please take care of yourselves. It somehow manages to be gruesome, edging up to explicit without quite getting there, all without having a dark tone. If you are up for that, go read this.

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caseythereader's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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