In 2017 Sarah Gailey made their debut with River of Teeth and Taste of Marrow, two action-packed novellas that introduced readers to an alternate America in which hippos rule the colossal swamp that was once the Mississippi River. Now readers have the chance to own both novellas in American Hippo, a single, beautiful volume.

Years ago, in an America that never was, the United States government introduced herds of hippos to the marshlands of Louisiana to be bred and slaughtered as an alternative meat source. This plan failed to take into account some key facts about hippos: they are savage, they are fast, and their jaws can snap a man in two.

By the 1890s, the vast bayou that was once America's greatest waterway belongs to feral hippos, and Winslow Houndstooth has been contracted to take it back. To do so, he will gather a crew of the damnedest cons, outlaws, and assassins to ever ride a hippo. American Hippo is the story of their fortunes, their failures, and his revenge.

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Reader Reviews

Kit (Metaphors and Moonlight)

(4/5)

Nov 24, 2024

4 StarsReview:*I received an ecopy of this book via NetGalley. This has not influenced my review.*You know how some books constantly tell you how awful a character is, and said character constantly broods about how awful they are, but then the character never actually does anything awful?American Hippo is not that book.Within the first chapter, our protagonist, Winslow, slit a man's nostrils and put a knife through his eye without hesitation when the man insulted his hippo and then tried to atta...

Cupcakes & Machetes

(5/5)

I received this copy from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.River of TeethImagine 1800s America, where instead of horses, cowboys and outlaws rode hippos. Oh yes, sweet gentle fiends, hippopotami. The most dangerous creature in Africa is intentionally brought to the United States as an alternative meat source during a meat shortage. But Americans always take things one step further, and now they’re also used as mounts. Of course, someone always has to fuck something up...

Spencer Orey

Two short hippo cowboy novellas. There were hippo cowboys. It was awesome.

Hanna Anderson

Is there anything better than gay cowboys? Because I can’t think of anything

NAT.orious reads ☾

ok, excuse me but how (hoooow) could anybody possibly resist something with a hippo on the cover? Damn right, not at all.

Jack

7.5/10, round up to 4/5 stars.American Hippo is a collection of two novellas and two vignettes telling tales of a...hippo cowboy, Houndstooth and his crew/acquaintances/colleagues. It's more a disparate bunch of people who tenuously know each other through rumour, and yes sometimes old relationships. The first novella starts us out with Houndstooth rounding up his crew for a caper, nay, operation, in which they divest the swamp land of Mississippi of their hippo problem. Which immediately goes t...

Justus

(3/5)

I was a fair way into this before I realized this is the same author as Magic for Liars which I wasn't really taken with. I like this better, though like most reviewers that is more about the crazy it-almost-happened setting.This really happened: in 1910 the US was suffering a meat shortage. The traditional cowboy-era style of range grazing cattle had overgrazed the entire US. A huge new wave of immigration was hitting the US. One crazy Congressman put forth the idea: the US Congress should pony...

Jenny (Reading Envy)

I kept hearing about the first novella in this collection, River of Teeth, last year but just finally got to it in this grouping.The backbone of these two novellas and two short stories ("Winslow's Problem" and "Nine and a Half") is an idea that never happened, but almost happened in the United States - hippopotamus ranching. It was originally proposed to Congress as a solution for meat production and to also cut down on the water hyacinth that was clogging waterways. It sounds crazy, but that's...

Carien

Reread of River of Teeth and first time reading the other stories.Feral hippos, hippo wranglers, and a grand caper... Ehm.. Operation.Totally awesome!

Sarah (gingerb0oks)

Ah, absolutely wonderful! Great characters with distinctive personalities that come alive even in the shorter format of a novella. Violent in places, then funny in others.The hippos! An imaginative, original idea. Cute, but also feral.Bonus points because I liked how comfortably queer it was :)Yee-haw, I had a great time reading this.

lucky little cat

Rampaging feral hippos in the old West & on the Mississippi.Romance. How can you resist? Newborn hipster Fiona at the Cincinnati Zoo, what a cutie Whoakay, I finally got around to reading the alt-history American Hippo duo and it's a hoot. We get💠A smart, fast-moving, engrossing plot involving a team of hippo-wranglin', cowboy-hat-wearin' outlaw heroes who regularly swap dead-accurate ironic wisecracks. And who are justifiably proud of their clever hippo steeds. Adult Fiona rec...

Jim

seems readers get a hootenanny of a good time from these hippo tales or they'd rather they weren't ever written... i am a huge fan of them, and i am not entirely sure why... they're just lots of fun i guess.. yes, there are weak points to the 2 novellas for some, and i won't argue them, but the idea is so fascinating what's to complain about... the writing is fresh and romp-y and smartassed and cheeky and rollicking... there surely needs to be more hippo going on, more how-hippos-got-here histor...

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American Hippo

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More books from Sarah Gailey

Magic for Liars

The Echo Wife

Upright Women Wanted

River of Teeth

When We Were Magic

Just Like Home

Taste of Marrow

Worth Her Weight in Gold

Reader Reviews