River of Teeth

by Sarah Gailey

[sa090]

Final book that I read for the OWLs Readathon prompts and specifically for Defense Against the Dark Arts.

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Alternate histories are fun, for me personally Rachel Caine’s Great Library Series is one of my absolute favourite series and it’s set in a world where the Library of Alexandria didn’t burn down. Here, I learn something new and then I get to see a what if scenario. I had no idea that the U.S. had an idea to get hippos in the country to compensate for the lack of meat but I’m definitely intrigued by the prospect. That being said, being a novella does pose some limitations to the whole thing. For instance, the book takes a while to start and let me know why I have these people gathering together.

It starts by giving a chapter to each character instead, this works very well to get me to familiarize myself with them initially before we expand on it, but it also means that I’m spending quite a bit of time getting to know characters for a reason I have yet to know. If the characters are compelling enough then sure, thank you for giving me the opportunity to do so, but if they weren’t then I’m left sighing there trying to see where we can skip all this and get to the beef of things. This book, feels like it was somewhat in the middle.

I don’t find the characters all that compelling, however, I was more than willing to stick around to see where we’re going after this. Was it worth it? A little bit, the book takes way too long to actually get me to the point of this gathering and an actual conclusion. That aside, the story is extremely fast paced later on which makes me curious as to what Sarah Gailey can do with a longer book.

Even when I was interested to see what I’m getting myself into, this book was still difficult to REALLY enjoy. Not because it’s badly written or because the plot was boring, no, it’s because it’s the perfect example of a book ruined by the efforts to include diversity. Diversity because it’s needed is one thing, diversity for the sake of diversity is something else entirely. This book falls into the second section, all of the characters are from a different ethnicity, but not one of them made me pause for a second and think that “this book wouldn’t function without them” worst part? The book doesn’t even need them to be this diverse.

When you’re in a very specific place and dealing with a very specific almost real event, it’s more than enough to stick to characters who would have been there for real and focus instead on making it one hell of a story. I like the plot and the idea, but the characters didn’t help me love it.

Final rating: 2/5