Open Throat by Henry Hoke
Publication date: 27 July 2023
⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
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A queer and dangerously hungry mountain lion lives in the drought-devastated land under the Hollywood sign. Lonely and fascinated by humanity’s foibles, the lion spends their days protecting the welfare of a nearby homeless encampment.
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This was a strange little book that you can read in just one bite.
I appreciated the unusual narrator and I thought this had a strong first half. It's an interesting meandering in free-form verse into the thoughts of this mountain lion and their perspective on humans (and oh boy, do we not cover ourselves in glory), and the sections about the homeless camp were very impactful and poignant.
However I thought the second half kind of lost its way. It had a fever dream quality to it that I didn't mind, but I felt the story completely lost a lot of its emotional power, although it did bring it back together for its inevitable ending.
This didn't land for me quite as much as I'd hoped, but I had heard good things and I'm glad I got to read and review this book.
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Open Throat opens with a cracker of a first line and proceeds to spark literary fireworks throughout. Our narrator; a queer, hungry, mountain lion, is fascinated and confused by the humans who increasingly encroach on his territory. The novel, formed of a monologue of the lion’s thoughts, explores and dissects our world.

From the lion’s home beneath the Hollywood sign in “ellay” his observations on humans are simultaneously naïve or humourous and profound. There are so many insightful, poetic phrases that invite the reader to examine the impact humans have had on the natural world. Our cult of narcissism creates a world of noise and light pollution, of droughts, wildfires, man made dangers (cars/freeways) and debauchery.

You might, understandably, think this sounds like extreme nonsense. Perhaps too anthropomorphised … but I’m screaming at you, go read this and ride the wild fever dream!! Devour in one sitting. Honestly it’s the most enjoyable 2 hours I’ve spent with a book this year.

“Open Throat” is a short story about a mountain lion living in LA. It’s such a short story that to say much more would pretty much tell you the whole plot. But it’s told from the lion’s perspective and we see it witnessing humanity and, more often than not, the worst sides of modern life and what it has done to people.

It’s an interesting story and the moral of it is definitely obvious by the end. I can’t say I enjoyed it, possibly because it was very short and the style, I felt, was very abrupt rather than being fluid. If I hadn’t already read “Interviews with an Ape” by Jane Fallon, I would’ve said it was quite a unique way to tell this sort of story. It still felt relatively unique and rare but I’m not sure that’s enough to win me over. However, I’m sure others will enjoy it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

I devoured this book cover to cover in only one sitting. Admittedly, it isn't that long, but it sucked me in, fascinated me, and I really wanted to know where we were going...
It's narrated by, as the blurb describes, a lonely. lovable, queer, mountain lion. He lives in the wasteland under the HOLLYWOOD sign. And we see his life from his perspective. How he describes people, how he eats, drinks, and also how he protects the vulnerable homeless and hates the hikers.
And then, how one days, after a devastating fire, he is forced to move down to the city... where his observations become more and more shocking as he is forced to shelter in an unsafe place and interact more with people...
It's hard to describe this book and the impact it had on me. When I finished, all I wanted to do was start again - it was way past bedtime so I didn't but I will! It's childlike in some of the ways that things were observed and described, but not in the messages it delivered.
It's the story of an outlier who is trying to make its way in society and the perils and pitfalls of doing that. It's also a valid observation of the human condition.
But it is also so much more, and I think what you take from this book will very much depend on who you are. It's also very funny on occasion. Emotional too... And I am so very glad I read it. But I now think I will wait for the Audio version before I revisit... that could be interesting...
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

A queer mountain lion, living under the Hollywood sign, communicating with humans and being part of an oddly dreamlike narrative- all of this within about 100 pages in this small, but truly wild, book.

The book floats by in its own rhythm, with our narrator being said mountain lion, and so we spend the book in the head of a character whose world is such an odd remove from what we know, and where his observations feel like strange prophecies cast down from a mountain.

Although I will admit to not always (or often) understanding what was happening in the book, and at times finding it a bit too slippery, I still enjoyed the very strange ride it took me along.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Open Throat is a magnificent story that deserves every ounce of praise it's receiving. Narrated by a hungry, lonely queer mountain lion, we follow their journey through LA from protecting a homeless encampment to fleeing wildfires.

This book doesn't shy away from huge topics. The climate crisis, the inequalities of LA (and the wider world) and what it means to be human. Our narrator understands the world around them, they long for a way to express their language and a part of them is struggling with the conflict of whether they eat a person or want to become one.

I read this thing in nearly one sitting. Our narrator's voice is funny and perceptive, with their misspellings of words (like ellay as opposed to LA) making it all the more humorous. There's a perfect tension between the seriousness of the plot and the observations of our wonderful narrator.

Hoke is a powerhouse and this magnificent story cements that. While the novel itself may be short, this is one that will stick with you for a long time. Queer, haunting, insightful - I think this one is perfect for any reader.

Open Throat will be released July 27th, so get your pre-orders in and prepare yourself for this fantastic original novel that will blast your expectations out of the park.

Thank you to Netgalley, Pan Macmillan and Picador for providing an e-ARC in return for an honest review.

A fantastic little story about a mountain lion living in the Hollywood hills. The unnamed cat spends his days and nights people watching from his little part of the world, reminiscing about his life and occasionally considering eating a passing hiker. It all gets a little silly and surreal in the second half but this really is a wonderful, touching and at times humorous story. Highly recommended.

This book is very different to anything I’ve read before. The concept is fascinating but I’m not quite sure it gripped me as much as I’d hope.
I don’t think I’ve read a book from a animals perspective in a long time, if ever, so the fact that this is from the perspective of a mountain lion, an animal I don’t know much about, intrigued me. But the fact it’s a queer mountain lion is just amazing.
You read his perspective of human life and realise how messed up we are, and how people are so quick to judge things we don’t understand. It makes you realise how damaging we are to the earth that isn’t just ours, but these fascinatingly amazing creatures too.
I was reading it thinking that what he was going through could be, and is, what us humans go through. Droughts causing crops to not grow, or the financial issues the world is having, meaning people are living with hungry stomachs and no support.
The way the lion doesn’t understand everything the humans he comes across are saying or doing, but still can understand enough to sympathise or know what’s going on is amazing. For example, the couple who he watches having sex. In watching them, he sees himself and the ‘kill sharer’ and the relationship they shared. And the fact that this author talks about the sex the couple has as being ‘a natural part of this world’ is beautiful. Any form of love making, with any two persons, is natural, whatever anyone says.
I definitely found this book more gripping when it introduced the characters of little slaughter and the lion together. It makes you think that people can misjudge something, purely out of the way you see or what you have heard about them. Yes, the lion has hate for certain people he comes across but he has loyalty to those who show him kindness and trust.
Overall, I just loved the dystopian feel this book had on a world of today. It’s a reminder that we need to make a changer, not just for us as humans but for all living things. The fires that are starting (or being started) are causing huge damage to the world and living things, the way we treat others a round us. It all needs to change. Whether this is what the author wanted or not, this is what I made of this amazingly strange and different book! Everyone needs to read it.

“every person sitting and walking has hands too and I see all their hands and I know what their hands can do and what their hands would do and the violence waiting behind every motion”
This is an enjoyably bananas novella, written in poetic fragments, about a mountain lion living in the Hollywood Hills. This lion is, naturally enough, consumed by bloodlust, but also curious about the human world around them, and treats us to a free-flowing internal monologue about the same.
I find scattered sentences and free-form internal monologues hard to read, but they work well when read aloud. If you’re like me and prefer your novels to have a bit of structure, read the audiobook! It’s beautifully narrated, too, drawing you into the lion’s world.
We follow the lion - we never learn their name - as they try to survive "Ellay" - say it aloud - despite ever-constant threats from pollution, starvation and human beings. Constantly followed by thirst and hunger, our protagonist nonetheless takes a keen interest in the world around them. Survival is first and foremost on their mind, but we also hear the lion’s thoughts on earthquakes, other lions, the habits and oddness of hikers who pass through, and it also manages to pack in a critique of capitalism, an exploration of loneliness, and a rallying cry against climate change into its 156 pages without ever feeling rushed or overstuffed. That’s a mark of a seriously impressive writer.
I’ve seen this described as a profoundly voice-driven novel, and that’s very much the case - the mountain lion’s observations about the world around them are wry, sometimes scathing and sometimes heart-rending. Obviously, this novel is light enough on plot - the lion leaves their hunting grounds and heads towards the city after a crime is enacted on “their humans”. They befriend a young woman - these sections are some of the strongest in the book, a fever dream of human-animal connection that I found oddly devastating.
The ending is also upsetting, if ambiguously so, and in the novel’s acknowledgements, Hoke mentions that a real-life city-dwelling mountain lion inspired this story. A touching and imaginative piece of writing that reminds the reader just how alike humans and animals can be.

I received a free copy of this arc in exchange for an honest review

A POV tale from a mountain lion, they were not kidding on the cover. This flows like poetry almost exactly like a person telling the story as the lion sees all of us as animals in turn and dreams as we do. Layed out like a journal as it ponders. Short but revealing, personal, and strange.

Unusual to say the least.

Fully agree that a tale from the perspective of a queer mountain lion is not one I thought I’d read but am glad I did.

Human interactions between each other and their world are put under the spotlight and look deliberately strange when presented from the perspective of this lonely, hungry lion that is both fascinated and disgusted by people and their actions.

Really intriguing narrative voice and some interesting thinking points crop up. Worth it.

Did I ever think I needed to read a book from the POV of a queer lion? No.
Am I glad I did? Very much so.

A lot packed into a short novel.
Seeing the human world from an animal perspective really emphasises how strange we must look in our interactions and the things we care about.

Themes of wealth inequality, the environmental impact of humans and belonging are touched upon while the lion flips from hatred of humans and simultaneously trying to understand them.


Thanks NetGalley and Pan MacMillan.

4/5 ⭐️

A novel told from the perspective of a queer lion prowling beneath the Hollywood sign sounds strange and unique. And it is.

So many comparisons are drawn between animals and humans, reducing humans to their basic needs and revealing the animalistic nature that humans try to bury, and personifying the lion’s character and emotional experience. The lions’s voice was thrilling to read. The way that the lion encountered and tried to understand the human world – language and culture and interactions – was fascinating. The human world seemed at times bizarre and at others mundane. It was such a fascinating gaze to see the world through.

The lion was painfully tender-hearted, seeking connection and community and questioning how much of their self they will have to suppress to achieve that. But there was also a lot of anger in the novel directed towards humans and the harm they have caused to the environment and the cruelty they enact. There was a constant struggle within the lion between joining humans and seeking revenge against them.

Within the novel there was so much emotion. The lions’s story paralleled a coming out or leaving home or twenty-something trying to find their community. The prose was striking and captivating and there was something so familiar and universal about the story. Just an extraordinary novel from start to finish.

Dream-like animal voice, surreal but potent.

In 'ellay', a mountain lion hunts and lives near a homeless camp close to the Hollywood sign. He observes mankind and their technology, witnesses a deliberate fire started to destroy his friends' camp, and retreats to the city, where interaction with humans is inevitable.

I enjoyed the narrator's voice and style, without punctuation or form, it felt primal and animal enough to give a sense of his perspective.

The story is incredibly short but complete in itself, with full arcs and is a memorable work.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.

A starving, queer, mountain-lion, living in the Hollywood Hills, reflects on their life as they observe those people that visit the park they call home.

This experimental and lyrical little novella is unlike anything I have ever read before. There wasn't a word in the book that shouldn't have been there.

The prose is gentle and thoughtful. We snatch moments with supporting characters as they drift in and out of the Lions life. Each one guiding our protagonists' reflections further towards a satisfying conclusion.

So much is packed into Open Throat. The book touches on themes of wealth inequality, individualism, generational trauma, love, loneliness, and environmentalism.

My only criticism? I would have loved to read more. Regardless, I'm thankful that this brief, little masterpiece exists.

If you read one thing this summer. Read this.

Open Throat by Henry Hoke is a stunning contemporary queer novel that defies conventions and explores the complexities of identity. Hoke's writing is poetic and visceral, blending elements of nature and human emotions seamlessly. The novel delves deep into themes of desire, queerness, and the longing for freedom. With its unique premise and richly drawn characters, Open Throat is a captivating and thought-provoking read that pushes boundaries and challenges societal norms. Hoke's lyrical prose leaves a lasting impact, making this a standout novel in contemporary queer literature.

Simon from Savidge Reads on YouTube hauled a proof of ‘Open Throat’ recently and said that it was about ‘a queer mountain lion’ - how could I not be immediately intrigued by that? I had to have it. Especially having loved ‘Patricia Wants to Cuddle’ by Samantha Allen last year which is about a lesbian King Kong-size gorilla.

I’m really loving this resurgence of short, weird, challenging novels like this, and it’s especially brilliant to see them focus on the queer community.

‘I’ve never eaten a person but today I might . . .’

In the Hollywood hills, a mountain lion is struggling to survive. Isolated and afraid in a place devastated by drought, the lion’s endless hunger begins to get to him. As the land around him continues to decay, he begins to fantasize about killing the hikers who pass him by day after day.

As it protects the precarious welfare of a nearby homeless encampment from its thicket, it confronts a carousel of temptations and threats, taking us on a tour that spans the city’s cruel inequalities to the toll of climate grief, all while grappling with the complexities of its own gender identity and memories of a vicious, absent father.

Open Throat is a stinging, moving and intimate look at the impact the climate crisis has on animals and our environment. There are moving and laugh-out-loud moments, but ultimately this poignant narrative voice forces you to reckon with our dying planet.

I never faltered in my beliefs that I was in the head of this mountain lion (or puma or courgar or cat as they also hear themselves be called). The language is wonderful. It’s a stream of consciousness narration of this ageing big cat being consumed by hunger and thirst as he prowls hiss reduced territory in the bush around the Hollywood sign. He overhears and oversee hookups, breakups, betrayals and the casual cruelty of humans, observing life in ‘ellay’ and the ‘scare city’ mentality of the people they encounter, all while fear the ‘long death’ - the highway that borders his territory and has taken countless animal lives.

It’s a quietly sad commentary on the ways that cities and humans are eating up animal habitat and nature; the throwaway decisions made by people that destroy the lives of strangers; loneliness and isolation; the potential misunderstanding of actions that you don’t understand because a person, or a mountain lion, is a dangerous creature, an unknown, and you can’t possibly know that they are trying to save a life in the only way that they know how.

I was enraptured by this narration for most of it, until a scene surrounding Disneyland which really through me off and out of the story. I found myself at a distance from that point on, and yet that didn’t stop the ending being a guttingly sad one.

After reading the author’s acknowledgements and having a little Google, I think he’s based on P-22, a famous mountain lion who lived in Griffiths Park in LA for a decade, becoming a star in his own right. There are even a few scenes and incidences in the novel that reflect P-22’s life. It’s a fascinating story when only truth, and taking it into fiction was a really wonderful move by Hoke and I enjoyed it a lot.

‘Open Throat’ is a sad, strange and eviscerating novella, that makes you take a second look at the natural world and wonder even more just what going’s through the mind of the cat sleeping on the end of the bed.

‘Open Throat’ by Henry Hoke will be released in the UK by Picador on 27 July 2023.

Thank you to NetGalley and Picador for providing a review copy. All thoughts and opinions remain my own.

Written by Sophie

This is such a experimental novel, that’s why it blow my mind. I feel it like a satire but the syntax experimentation in this book was what I love more. The premise and character is about a queer mountain lion living in the Hollywood hills. The narrative was delicious and the novel is not like anything else that I've read recently. That’s why for me is a very interesting book. Big thank you to netgally and Pac Macmillian for the access to this ARC.

Henry Hoke’s novel, Open Throat, about a ‘queer’ mountain lion, is an interesting albeit short read.

I sat down to read the novel while waiting for a short flight (3 hours). I’d finished it by the time we’d landed, and my brain was in a bit of a fizzle about what I’d just read.

Honestly, I don’t see how the ‘queer’ part came into the mountain lions story. He watches two guys go at it and likens what he sees to how cats copulate. Even though the novel portrays the distance between cats and humans, readers still try to give human characteristics to the lion, which seems to be the exact opposite of what the story is about. Suffice to say; I didn’t see the queer nature of the lion, just an inquisitiveness. I hope that labelling it as such wasn’t just a ploy to capitalise on a currently highly politicised subject with an already salivating audience - because at that, it fails.

But as a story about a lion that’s witness to and questioning the mannerisms and quirks of humanity around him, this novel wins. Hoke does a brilliant job of identifying the things that humans say and do that must seem puzzling to non-humans, especially without context, and detailing them in their fundamental action leaves us to try and interpret what it is the lion is seeing.

The writing is simple (well, it is written from the point of view of a lion), but it is clear, clever and almost felt poetic at times. But it is short, and the beginning of the end is racing at you faster than you would expect with a culmination that, whilst you probably shouldn’t enjoy, you’ve likely hoped or at least guessed would happen.

If you open this book without expectation, you’ll thoroughly enjoy this brief sojourn into the mind of a mountain lion, but if you go into it expecting much of anything else, you could end up disappointed. I’d certainly recommend it to people looking for a short but enjoyable read.

When I heard that there was a book coming out told from the perspective of a hungry, gay mountain lion in the hills of LA, I knew I was going to have to read it.

Henry Hoke's novel puts us inside the unnamed mountain lion's head. We see the world from his perspective, experiencing the changes in the environment as he does, trying to make sense of the world through snatches of human conversation.

I was expecting this book to feel a little..silly? But actually I was struck by it moved seamlessly between the profound and the satirical, the tender and the visceral. There is a real momentum and pace to Hoke's writing style, which gives the book both a fluid and unrelenting quality; something that I think helps us suspend our disbelief about our narrator.

The thematic scope of the novel is vast, despite its short length. We cover important social topics, from climate breakdown to immigration, in ways that feel well-considered but also deft of touch.