This is a fun little novella set in an alternate version of the United States where hippos were brought in to the Mississippi and domesticated.
The characters are a bit weirdly queer for a book set in the 1890s – one of the characters is genderqueer and uses ‘they’, which felt really unreaslistic, but I suppose if it’s an AU and there are hippos, we can assume also it’s a totally different society where racism and sexism aren’t a thing any more, either.
The pacing of this felt very, very weird. It was like it was an entire novel but they just skipped all the boring bits and only told you the highlights. So it was fast, never boring, but there was no time to sit on everything. It just kept MOVING and then it was over. I think it would make a great movie. As a book it was fun, and an easy read, but didn’t give any time or depth to characters, plot, action… anything, really.
Also, I had to read the ending three times to figure out what happened. But maybe that was just me.
