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A review by hopebrasfield
Open Throat by Henry Hoke
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book wrecked me. You think you're picking up something short and sweet, but no--you've forgotten to add in time for pausing, noting down a nice quote, thinking through what you just read. Essentially: it takes longer to read because of how well it's written.
Memorable quotes below (with especially good ones in bold text):
“I’m the secret member of town. I stay on the edges, and don’t mess with their tents or their tarps or their supplies, but I hear them talk about me. […] I want to thank my people, but I know if they see me it’ll fuck up our relationship.”
“A father to a kitten is an absence. A grown cat to a father is a threat.”
“My mother taught me to hunt, but my father taught me to *be* hunted.”
“I traded old fear for new fear.”
“Was I a threat, or just on my way out?”
“Old is fine. I’m old because I’m not dead.”
“This is too much. The shudder inside becomes unbearable. I can’t eat everything I’m afraid of.”
“The horror of the sky fire stays in my head for days.”
“When you meet a big cat who will share a kill, you can’t let go of him easily.”
“My lungs are full of ugly. I look down and there are no paws. Any sec, I could step off a cliff. I think I’ve always felt this way. The smoke makes it clear.” THE SMOKE MAKES IT CLEAR.
“These are my new people. They don’t know it.”
“If you feel alone in the world, find someone to worship you.”
“I look again at the picture. That can’t be me, it doesn’t have a smell. I don’t trust screens to tell me who I am.”
“I feel more like a person than ever because I’m starting to hate myself.” I FEEL MORE LIKE A PERSON THAN EVER BECAUSE I'M STARTING TO HATE MYSELF.
“Now even if we leave, we’ll still be here.” [after she takes a pic of them at Disney]
“[…] and what I see in their eyes is what they see in mine: threat”
(The punctuation in these is all wrong; I read via the audiobook, but the physical book seems to have been written almost like one long poem.)
Memorable quotes below (with especially good ones in bold text):
“I’m the secret member of town. I stay on the edges, and don’t mess with their tents or their tarps or their supplies, but I hear them talk about me. […] I want to thank my people, but I know if they see me it’ll fuck up our relationship.”
“A father to a kitten is an absence. A grown cat to a father is a threat.”
“My mother taught me to hunt, but my father taught me to *be* hunted.”
“I traded old fear for new fear.”
“Was I a threat, or just on my way out?”
“Old is fine. I’m old because I’m not dead.”
“This is too much. The shudder inside becomes unbearable. I can’t eat everything I’m afraid of.”
“The horror of the sky fire stays in my head for days.”
“When you meet a big cat who will share a kill, you can’t let go of him easily.”
“My lungs are full of ugly. I look down and there are no paws. Any sec, I could step off a cliff. I think I’ve always felt this way. The smoke makes it clear.” THE SMOKE MAKES IT CLEAR.
“These are my new people. They don’t know it.”
“If you feel alone in the world, find someone to worship you.”
“I look again at the picture. That can’t be me, it doesn’t have a smell. I don’t trust screens to tell me who I am.”
“I feel more like a person than ever because I’m starting to hate myself.” I FEEL MORE LIKE A PERSON THAN EVER BECAUSE I'M STARTING TO HATE MYSELF.
“Now even if we leave, we’ll still be here.” [after she takes a pic of them at Disney]
“[…] and what I see in their eyes is what they see in mine: threat”
(The punctuation in these is all wrong; I read via the audiobook, but the physical book seems to have been written almost like one long poem.)