I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Open Throat by Henry Hoke Published by MCD on June 6 2023
Genres: Adult, Literary fiction
Pages: 176
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A unique glimpse into the mind of a mountain lion as he navigates the hazards of Los Angeles.
“I’ve never eaten a person but today I might”
Open Throat has such a great concept. The story is told from the perspective of a lone mountain lion who lives in the hills near the Hollywood sign, and we follow the lion as he searches for food and water, protects people in a homeless camp, listens to hikers as they walk by his lair (and learns a lot from their conversations) and is forced to flee into a residential neighborhood, where he meets and befriends a teenaged girl. The story is extremely short—I read it in a matter of hours over the course of an afternoon—and because of this it left me with a vague feeling of dissatisfaction. The author’s inspiration was real life Los Angeles mountain lion P-22, who unfortunately died about six months ago, and I do love that Hoke paid tribute to him. But despite some emotional moments and clever observations about life and society, the story takes a weird turn in the last quarter of the book and went off the rails for me.
There isn’t a plot per se, as this is more or less a “day in the life of a mountain lion.” But here’s what I liked. The lion’s thoughts are written in a poetic, stream of consciousness style, as he reminisces about how he came to “ellay” after being run out of his home by his aggressive father. There’s a poignant part about how he lost a friend to the “long death” (the highway), a constant source of fear for any wild animal living too close to civilization. I loved the way he learns things from all the hikers:
“I know I live below the hollywood sign because the hikers say oh look we’re below the hollywood sign and they say can we get all the way up there and they ask which letter would you jump off”
He doesn’t know the words for everything he sees, but he’s able to describe them so that the reader understands, like when he sees fireworks:
“I hear the sky crackle and fall down around me”
Oddly, he has no desire to kill humans, and he goes out of his way to protect “his people” in the homeless camp, even killing a coyote who tries to attack one of them. It was strangely satisfying to see how Hoke made such a fierce predator into a sympathetic cat with almost human-like qualities.
Eventually, the realistic descriptions of hunting for food and avoiding brush fires devolve into a weird, dreamlike tale, and this is where the story lost me. The lion meets a girl he calls “little slaughter” (for some reason) when he wanders into a residential neighborhood. The girl feeds him and they become friends, I guess? She hides him in the basement and tells him about Disneyland. And then he has a dream about going there with her and riding all the rides, and no one questions the fact that a mountain lion is riding Splash Mountain with a teenage girl. Normally I enjoy magical realism in stories, but here it was so jarring that it had the opposite effect on me. I also thought the ending was way too abrupt, and I didn’t like the way the mountain lion’s story ended.
And I need to throw in a quick rant before I finish this review. Why is it that every writer who sets their story in Los Angeles includes an earthquake? I laugh every single time, because everyone assumes earthquakes are a daily occurrence here and they’re not. I’ve lived in Southern California my entire life and have only experienced a handful of earthquakes in all that time, at least ones worth mentioning. OK, rant over!
So yes, I enjoyed parts of Open Throat, but ultimately the story fizzled out and left me confused. Recommended if you enjoy unusual stories from an animal’s point of view, but don’t expect a riveting plot or a satisfying conclusion.
With thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
“””don’t expect a riveting plot or a satisfying conclusion”””
As intriguing as the concept might be, I can understand your misgivings about this story, and don’t believe it might be a good fit for my tastes….
Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Maddalena@spaceandsorcery recently posted…GODS OF THE WYRDWOOD (Forsaken #1), by R.J. Barker
It was very much *literary fiction* in the sense that the author took liberties with the plot:-)
This sounds really unusual but not sure it’s something I would enjoy either. Hope you’re enjoying your current read a bit more than this 🙂
Pages and Tea recently posted…The Mid-Year Freak Out Book Tag: 2023 Edition
Definitely!
I think the animal lover in me might want to pick this one up but I can see it needing to be “the right time” to pick it up. Great thoughts on this one and thanks for sharing it!
That’s exactly why I picked it up, the animal lover in me was super curious.
I had never heard about that mountain lion!
Emma @ Words And Peace recently posted…Book review: Is the Algorithm Plotting Against Us?
He was a local “celebrity” so I’m not surprised you haven’t heard of him.
Interesting! I can see how this could be really engaging to read, but the weird ending you mention could be a turnoff. Had to laugh about your earthquake comment — I live in Northern CA, and we get questions all the time about “how can you live with all those earthquakes?”.
Ha ha right? Earthquakes are one of those things that people just assume about California.
This book is making me think hmm… sounds good on the one hand but the part where the story lost you would also probably be the same for me. It just seems kinda strange?? I do love that the author’s inspiration was that mountain lion. I think I read about him in an article when he died. So sad!
Stephanie @ Bookfever recently posted…Review: War by Laura Thalassa
It was very sad. I never saw P-22 but he roamed the hills close to where I used to live.
What a quirky book! I hadn’t stumbled across this on anyone else’s blog…not sure it’s for me, but I really enjoyed your review! A day in the life of a mountain lion who lives near human civilization…definitely not a book I expected to see written, ha!
Celeste | A Literary Escape recently posted…ARC Review: Orchid Child by Victoria Costello
It’s not my usual read for sure. I rarely read literary fiction these days.
I just listened to this the other day. The dream part had me like ??? because it didn’t make sense that the mountain lion would know about those things to even dream them. But I really felt for him overall (esp the part about the kill-sharer) and mostly enjoyed it.
Kit @ Metaphors and Moonlight recently posted…Book Review: Three Meant to Be (Branches of Past and Future Book 1) by MN Bennet
That’s exactly what I thought, how would he even be able to dream about something like Disneyland? Hence the fantasy part of the book, I guess:-)
What an unusual premise for a novella but I have to admit this line made me laugh “I’ve never eaten a person but today I might”
Laurie recently posted…Recent Mini-Reviews
I love that line!
This does sounds like a curious but interesting premise. But more importantly, you seriously don’t have earthquakes every day out there?!?! 😉
Ha ha the earthquake thing is so funny to me! I’ve only been in one scary earthquake, and that was the Northridge earthquake of 1994. That was a big one, freeways were damaged, people died, many of my friends had terrible damage to their homes. Luckily those are few and far between!
Oh, and then there was the Ridgecrest quake of 2019, and that’s where my parents live. It was pretty bad, lots of structural damage and so many aftershocks:-(
Hmm, sounds interesting, if not really my type of read in the end. Great review!
Lisa Mandina (Lisa Loves Literature) recently posted…ARC Review: The Shadow Sister by Lily Meade