This book is an absolute marvel. It takes place within the urban expanse of Los Angeles, where a mountain lion teeters on the edge of starvation. The lion grapples with profound existential dilemmas: Should it succumb to its hunger and consume a human, or should it aspire to transcend its nature and become one?

With its exploration of themes surrounding identity and climate change, the book delves into the depths of intellectual inquiry. It skillfully intertwines these profound concepts into a narrative that captivates and enthralls readers from beginning to end.

"Open Throat" stands as Henry Hoke's fifth book and they all seem to reside in the realm of experimentation, fearlessly pushing the boundaries of storytelling.

This novella (I would estimate it at around 15,000 words) is inspired by the real-life story of the mountain lion/cougar P22 who lived wild in Los Angeles for some 10 years before his death in 2022 and has already been featured in a range of books and films/TV shows

The novella very much tells the story of Los Angeles itself as experienced by the author when he lived there but with a lion first person narrator (later Christened Hectate and [possibly mis]gendered as female by a girl who shelters it), that shares the same experiences of the social and environmental impact of the City: the park based tents of homeless people (the closest the isolated lion has to a form of community) – and the violence they experience, the wildfires, the earthquakes, floods and droughts: even the fantasy land that is Disney.

The lion is haunted by some violent memories of its own past – its violent father who appears to have returned and terrorised the lion and its mother post birth, and its own traumatic crossing of the “long death” (the freeway). And also exploring its own sexuality – observing a secret tryst between two men.thinking over the its interaction with another male lion with whom it shared not just a kill but a strong bond over a number of days.

Now with the book’s setting in Los Angeles I must admit I was pre-disposed to an assumption of superficiality: this after all is the town that brings us the Hollywood simplifications of novels or Disney with its ability to turn dark, ancient and complex folk tales into simplified stories (often featuring over anthropomorphised animals and simpler modern themes) – but I seemed to find it.

The novel gets off to a shaky start – ask a schoolboy to write an imaginary lion monologue and you may well get “I’ve never eaten a person but today I might” although not then immediately followed by an observation of the filming of a BDSM act – neither worked at all for me and a book this insubstantial needed a stronger start.

From then on the novel is told in a lightly experimental form – uncapitalised sentences, no punctuation, free form verse – which while experimental is perhaps a little too conventional in literary fiction to really match the unusual narrator.

And the additional elements added while very well conceived were I felt were not really followed through.

We hear the lion’s thoughts and understanding via its attempts to parse overheard and not always understood human speech – so for example Los Angeles/L.A. is “ellay” and Disney “diznee”, all well and good but then why is hollywood not say hollee wood (particularly when the lion knows the idea of woods and wood in detail).

And while I really liked the idea of the lion understanding scarcity as some of place in which he and some of those he overhears live (which nicely fits with the idea of both lion and humans being subject to the environmental depredations of urban/capitalist American excess) he happily parses everything else “we all have to make an effort to deprogram a scare city mentality as like our central driving force”.

Overall I think as a longer short story as part of a collection – for example one that told the story of Los Angeles through a series of unusual voices, or an alternative novel which featured a range of non-human narrators – I think this would have worked, but as a stand alone book it fell short of my expectations.

Wow, I thought this was really incredible. Really agree with the NYTimes review 100% - this is exactly what I think fiction is best at, via defamiliarization: making us see the world anew, afresh. The part where he tries to eat money is especially inspired: "I try to taste its importance: nothing." I loved the humour and the deadpan voice - reminded me of Tao Lin, The narrator is such a great character - driven by insatiable hunger and desire. The climatic ending sequence is particularly great. I loved the poetic layout (in terms of constant line breaks)and lack of full stops, and I loved the hallucinatory sequence in Disneyland. The fact that it's super short is also a huge bonus. Just a really fucked up and funny read, which is exactly what I want in a book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

"I try to understand people but they make it hard"

"when I'm hungry I think about blood too much"

"I probably wouldn't eat a child"

"my mother taught me to hunt but my father taught me to be hunted"

"I don't trust screens to tell me who I am"

"I feel powerful and also guilty as fuck"

"there's blood all over my body my mother would be so proud"

"I'm only sorry I didn't get to eat all of you"

3.5 rounded up

If you've heard anything about this novel I expect it'll be that it is narrated by a queer mountain lion living in the Hollywood hills. I mean, that's some premise! The narrative voice and execution was fresh and different, and the novel is not like anything else that I've read this year.

4.5*
Its a great feeling when you finish reading a book and automatically want to start from the begining and read it again. This was one of those books.
If a mountain lion was rigged up to a device where we could understand its thoughts/feelings and words. This would also be it. Outstanding.
Loved the context, imagery produced, character development. Whole lot.
I would suggest reading as little of the synopsis as possible and going in blind. This is one where your guaranteed to enjoy and enjoy finding out for yourself.
Only reason its not 5* is because i wanted more out of sheer greed due to it being so good. I wanted a little more padding between girl and cat before the end. I will be keeping an eye out for more from this author👍🧡

This was the second book that I’ve read which features an animal as its protagonist, and coincidentally both published by MCD/FSG! Albeit a short book, it still manages to focus on a variety of issues: anthropomorphism, climate change, the homelessness crisis, fear, sexuality and gender, among others. Through its niche lens of a mountain lion, we are forced to reckon with the symbiosis of humans and animals (and the wider environment, even), as well as grappling with our human effects on animals and each other. It’s quite subtly brutal in its portrayal of these things, and is deeply rooted in the trauma of the mountain lion (called ‘Heckit’, though I’m unsure if this is supposed to mimic a real name as the mountain lion learns new words but they are translated on the page as to how they would hear them: hour/owwer etc.). I truly hope this book gains traction because it reflects a multitude of crises that we as humans face, and is infinitely a more haunting portrayal when examined through the eyes of an animal who experiences much of what we do, but with greater fear.

This was a very strange, experimental, and ambitious novel. I think I admired it more than enjoyed it. Very funny in places but as a narrative I found it hard to get drawn in.

I picked this up initially because the premise was just too interesting to pass up. I wouldn't say I didn't enjoy it, but I was more impressed by the idea of the book than the book itself.

I appreciate what this short novel was trying to do but I think it was attempting too much in too brief a time. The musings on humans, inequality and climate were interesting and at times moving but the time spent with Jane wasn’t effective for me and I struggled to suspend my disbelief.

Wild, metamorphic and above-all fun, this novel was a refreshing read. Exploring the ways in which we are othered from ourselves and others, this novel had me engaged from start to finish.

Open Throat by Henry Hoke is an innovative and rather surreal lyrical short novel. Perfect for readers who want to try something experimental.

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect going into Open Throat - I haven't read anything by Hoke before but a novella narrated by a queer mountain lion living in the Hollywood Hills? Sure - that's my sh*t for sure. (Not gonna lie - the cover also sold me on this because I love a good cover! We should judge books by their covers! People put a lot of work into those things).

It's a short book - under 200 pages - and it uses a few of the techniques I know some people find annoying (no punctuation, 'very distinctive voice, minimal plot) but it felt immediately accessible. I didn't have to try or 'work' to enjoy this book. I was hooked from the beginning.

Our mountain lion protagonist spends his days watching the people of LA (or "ellay") going for walks in the hills. They complain about the city, prices, and relationships and sometimes gay guys come out to the caves for a quick hookup. The lion watches and takes it all in, quietly observing and making his judgments of these people.

He has semi-adopted a nearby camp of homeless people who he visits during the night and subtly protects in his own way.

When this camp is set on fire by an ignorant walker, he escapes into the city and things unfold from here until a brilliant, heartwrenching ending that really sat with me for a good while after finishing.

Hoke explores sexuality, love, and our attitudes to poverty and those afflicted by it,

I've read a few books which use this non-human, outsider narrative voice but this is a particularly good example and manages to feel fresh and urgent.

"They won't understand people don't have to kill things like I have to kill things."

Open Throat is a stunning, sensational exploration into the very nature of what it means to be human, to be aware and have the concept of self.

Voyeuristic and reflective, our reluctantly aware lion both playfully and thoughtfully explores the world - looking at humans in an empathetic, curious and observant lens. They see the dangers of climate change, of captivity, discrimination and poverty and struggles to reconcile how we can hurt each other so easily, when even they can resist hurting us despite their hunger. They holds a mirror to us, showing how people fear and hate the things they don't or won't understand. As a narrator, they had a clear, curious voice; trying to understand the things that have never been explained to them, seeing contemporary life through fresh eyes.

This is a short read - almost plotless, non-linear storytelling but full of substance. It's stylistically and visually beautiful with an engaging and lyrical style that moves fluidly from one moment to the next like a collection of thoughts or a series of dreams. Deeply moving and evocative, this is an impactful story that had me staring at my own cat, wondering what she'd think of the world if she could tell me.

"this is not about need no this is a want it's a terrible choice but I'm making it just like a person."

Oh my goodness, how unusual and beautiful is this book? From the point of view of a lion, no speech marks, with the speech italicised - making it as if you are inside the lion's brain; and what an interesting brain it is. He listens, he hears, he wants what he hears humans talking about. In terms of taking it deeper, the way that he anthropomorphises himself really reflects the unconscious biases of humanity and the current world we live in.

So unusual, and the journal/stream of consciousness form is EXCEPTIONAL.

It was the synopsis that made me curious about this book. I wasn't disappointed.

Open Throat tells the story of a cougar who lives in the Hollywood Hills. His narrative is an observation of life in LA including the fires, the homelessness, people watching and the constant need to eat.

He moves around a fair bit, mainly to find food but often because he is curious and wants to interact with people.

This is a unique point of view book that you can easily read in one sitting. I spent quite a bit of time wondering how different life would be on Earth if only we could communicate with the animals who were here before humans decided to try to break the planet.

Interesting read. Makes you think. I'm definitely interested in reading more by Henry Hoke.

Open Throat is a short novel in which a queer mountain lion living in the Hollywood hills attempts to understand their own self and the humans around them. The lion roams the hills, not hurting humans, but trying to protect those in a homeless camp and not scare the hikers who don't even see the lion mostly. But wilderness fires are a constant threat and when the lion is driven further into LA, a new friendship will change how the lion interacts with humans forever.

I heard saw this book raved about on a list of top LGBTQ books coming out in 2023, and the strange synopsis made me unsure if it would be great or impenetrable, but it turns out, it would be so good that it made me deeply invested in the perspective of a fictional lion grappling with selfhood and knowledge. So many of the lion's thoughts as they react to what people say and do have such quiet sadness, and the almost stream-of-consciousness style works very well to suggest fluidity and playfulness in a book that is somehow both satirical and heartbreaking, with a strangely real sense of life on the margins, trying to find a place for yourself (even when you are a lion and that place is LA).

Both a commentary on modern society and a fresh way of exploring queerness and self, Open Throat is a book that is notable for the concept, but memorable for the way in which the lion becomes such a real character, and through such witty, poetic writing. A book I'll find myself trying to recommend to people even when the summary sounds weird.

On the face of it, a novel narrated by a queer mountain lion who lives in the Hollywood Hills sounds pretty bizarre, right? Well, it ends up making a perfect sort of sense when you read it. It’s a short, occasionally hallucinogenic, insight into the mind of a cougar as he tries to sate his ravenous hunger in the way that all wild animals must but also as he watches the similarly wild and much less understandable actions of humans. Animals narrators in fiction can end up feeling really forced and weird but this doesn’t at all. I loved it.